Spotlight On: Great Notion Brewing
“One of our main core values is families.”
In a powerhouse city in the craft beer scene, that’s quite a refreshing statement coming from a brewery owner. Paul Reiter, James Dugan and Andy Miller are the masterminds behind Great Notion Brewing, which opened on January 1st in the Alberta neighborhood in NE Portland. They’re also dads. They each have little ones under the age of ten and wanted to create a space where families could share in the joys of good food, great drinks and – most importantly – each other.
With a dedicated kids play area, bright and colorful décor and a kids menu that would make most adults’ mouths water (mini pretzel bun cheeseburger, mac and cheese with tomatoes and bacon? Sign me up), Great Notion makes the kiddo experience a primary focus of their design. They want your kids there.
The goods for grownups aren’t too shabby, either. Their other core values are quality and creativity, as evidenced by chef Ryan O’Connor’s delectable menu, which includes nods to the owners’ east coast roots like Buffalo Tostones and a Spicy Meatloaf Muffuletta. Paul’s favorite? The Philly Empanada (pictured above), which he describes as “a piece of our hometown” of Philadelphia, home of the cheesesteak: shredded sirloin, onions, serrano peppers and house-made whiz (it’s not an authentic cheesesteak unless there’s cheese whiz!) encased in a crispy shell, served with waffle fries. Oh boy.
Then there’s the beer. New England influence runs deep in their juicy, fruity IPAs brewed with flavors like mango and pineapple, cleverly named Ripe, Juice Box and Juice Jr.; in the works is a series of innovative stouts – maple syrup and coffee! Chocolate coconut! – that will be available in tasting flights. And simply because we’re in Portland, you’ve got to try the Root Beard cream ale.
Also on tap: locally brewed ginger ale, for the kids. Told you they want them there!
Can’t wait to try all the yums? Great Notion is open daily and ready to meet you. Stop in on Saturday, March 5th starting at noon for their Grand Beer Release Party and bring the family, of course!
Great Notion Brewery, 2204 NE Alberta #101, Portland. greatnotionpdx.com
2 thoughts on “Spotlight On: Great Notion Brewing”
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We dined here tonight with my toddler solely based on this review. Unfortunately it didn’t live up to my expectations at all. We arrived at 5:45pm and all but one table were taken. We sat at a tall barrel table with stools and quickly realized this wouldn’t work with a booster seat (backless stools) or a high chair (table was too high). Our server moved us to a shared picnic table at which the booster seat was still pretty tippy. As I looked around the restaurant there was only one table with old church pew benches that would really work for booster seats. It’s nice that they have them, but the seating choices were impractical. The “kids play area” is just a small bookshelf with some worn out toys and a chalkboard without any chalk, this was a letdown compared to some of the other brewery play areas we have been to. The food was just mediocre, more along the lines of bar food than restaurant/ brewery food. The service was also sub par. This seemed like a perfectly fine bar to go to with adults, but I definitely wouldn’t recommend it to anyone with small children.
From Great Notion Brewing: “Annie, we are very sorry that you didn’t have a great experience at Great Notion last week! We became so popular so fast that we definitely have some growing pains right now that we know we need to focus on. We are going to be getting all new furniture inside the restaurant very shortly and will make sure they are young child friendly. We will also be upgrading our kids’ play area as well. All three owners have two young kids so we agree we need to take care of many of the items you mentioned. Thank you very much for this feedback and we hope you give us a second chance this summer!”