Portland, ME

We all were slow-moving after a day-long celebration where 40 or so of Aunt Dayle’s relatives observed her 80th birthday. BTW, Dayle is. My wife’s aunt. We met at Gritty’s for an early lunch before a Portland, Maine Duck Tour.

I shared a Gritty Cask Best Bitter; finding it to be a sweet, mildly hopped cask with a hint of toast. – a great cask! The waitress warned me that this is a cask beer and different from a regular beer. I told her I loved casks but, of course, when she put it in front of me, I “complained” to her about my warm, flat beer. She smiled, saying she got that complaint almost everyday from people not familiar with casks.

My Shepard’s Pie went well with the caramel sweet Gritty Best Brown Ale. Our amazing waitress served more than 30 of us in less than an hour; getting us to the Duck Tour on time.
If you are in Portland, Gritty’s has good food and very good beer.

The Duck Tour is a great way to get to know this charming city. As we learned in a hour-long, Maine-accented tour; Portland has burned to the ground 4 times; the tallest building is 16 stories; harbor is pronounced “hah bah”; and the Duck Tour is the only Duck boat in Portland.

Cheers!
Warren