Good Beer at the Rose Garden

Thanks to some holiday good luck, I had the chance to see last night's Blazer game from the sixth row of the Rose Garden. We were sitting just behind the Raptor's bench, which had the benefit of putting us on the Blazers' side of the court during the second half, when Brandon Roy put on a helluva show (14 of 19 overall, 8 of 11 in the second half). You can see the angle we had from the picture at right--and also Brandon draining a long jumper.

Of course, I had a beer. As you know, concesssions are a special kind of crazy, especially at stadiums where tickets cost you a day's pay. Eight bucks is too much to shell out for a crappy beer, so it's a fine thing we live in Beervana. Two breweries enjoy hegemony of the taps--Widmer and Pyramid/Mactarnahan's. I sidled up to the Pyramid kiosk first and was rewarded with a gander at Snow Cap, which I promptly bought. Eight bucks for a Snow Cap?--you could do worse. Incidentally, I didn't have my measuring cup on hand, but the cup seemed pretty big. Could easily have been an honest pint.

The tap selection is at left.

As a comment on culture, I can say this: in the sweet seats, Widmer Hef was king. Except for the few women drinking wine and the two guys I saw with bottles of Bud Light, everyone had Wid Hef, lemon wedge and all. I don't recall that kind of uniformity in my usual cheap seats, scraping the rafters above. This observation submitted without comment.