Day Trip: Rockfish Grill and Anacortes Brewery – Anacortes, WA
The sign to good beer
If you travel north on I-5 from Seattle towards Canada, there are numerous side trips you can take to find good beer. One of those is to the Rockfish Grill and Anacortes Brewery in Anacortes, Washington.
To get there, take exit 230 (Hwy 20 West) at Burlington and follow the signs towards the San Juan/Vancouver Island Ferry; only 16 miles off of I-5. Go left at the traffic circle and drive into the Historic Old Town. When you are on the edge of town it will be on you left at 320 Commercial Avenue in a long-standing corner storefront.
The building interior has a recently updated, rustic seaside café feel. Don’t get me wrong, it’s comfortable and clean. As you enter, the brewery is on the right, off to the left is the kid friendly dining area and directly in front of you is the classic wood bar. Out back, there is a great patio area.
A couple of weekends ago we decided to take this detour as we drove back to Seattle from the Mt Baker Foothills. We entered the front door, zipped right past the hostess stand, and found a couple stools at the bar. Shortly after sitting down we were greeted by Brian, the bartender, a very courteous and beer knowledgeable bloke. They will soon have a full bar, so he told us that he had been committing to memory hundreds of drink recipes, and his mind was full. He took our drink order; still feeling the season, LushC ordered an Oktoberfest, and I went with a Beer Sampler.
We took a look at the menu and pondered what to eat. I’d say it’s pretty much standard pub fare, with a little more emphasis on seafood, and the addition of stone oven pizzas. LushC zoned right in on the Fish Tacos, and after careful consideration I ordered the Tostado with grilled chicken. The taco plate was a good portion consisting of three large tacos. I didn’t hear any complaints out of LushC. As for the Tostado, it was a large plate of lettuce, cheese, black beans, with two crispy taco shells sneaking out the sides and topped with the chicken. Yum!
Anacortes Brewing Beer Sampler
BEER SAMPLER
Pilsner – light and crisp with a hint of honey.
Oktoberfest – dark amber, malty sweet building to a spicy hop finish. LushC, enjoyed it at first but after half of it found it a bit overwhelming and too sweet.
Amber – smooth blend of malt and hops with a nice citrus nose; very hoppy for an amber and I liked it.
IPA – citrus nose, sweet upfront, finishing with a big citrus hop flavor. It fits in well with other Northwest IPA’s. Just like LushC likes ‘em.
Darkside IPA Amber Malted IPA – sweet and mellow, with a classic flowery hop finish. Not as dark as I thought it would be from the name, but still very good.
Porter – Nice toasted malt and coffee flavor. A little light bodied for a porter, but still enjoyable.
Bourbon Barrel Red – Cloudy red, sour upfront, almost a cabernet flavor (wine bite), then mellows out to the vanilla flavor of the bourbon barrel.
For some reason we don’t make this diversion that often. Now that we’ve done it again, I can see us doing more often.
Cheers,
DraughtE
FTC INFO: Nothing was received for the posting of this article. All items reviewed were purchased by Good Beer Trips.
Good Beer Trips 
The day we went we sat outside on their huge patio. They wouldn’t let us bring our dog in, but they didn’t seem to mind the ADD kid racing around on his razor scooter like a maniac.
Like the new banner by the way. Lookin’ sexy!
That’s lame. You know that children are our future though.