The Eastside - Beer Wasteland?

With all of the people that live/work on the Eastside, it is really surprising to not find more beer spots to explore. Granted, we probably haven't found everything worth visiting, but it just seems there is plenty of room for more good beer on the Eastside.

Below is a summary of what you can enjoy on the other side of the lake.

Breweries:
Rock Bottom Bellevue is about the only place if you want to hit a brewery for a beer neer Bellevue. This Rock Bottom location manages to make some special beers, but you have to catch them at the right time. Their Hop Bomb IPA won a silver medal at this year's Great American Beer Fest, which is a pretty big deal. But, it is still a Rock Bottom and the majority of their beers on tap are pretty standard fare. Well made, but standard.

Mac & Jack's is located in Redmond, but they don't have a tasting room and we're not sure that they will even fill growlers;they do fill growlers .

Keep your eye out for what could be the savior to those of us that want to grab a beer after work on the Eastside: Black Raven Brewing. Beaux Bowman, formerly of RAM in the U-Village and the now defunct Far West Brewing in Redmond, is working on opening a production brewery with a taproom on the Eastside. His operation is fully funded, and they are patiently working to sign a lease on a location they've found in Redmond. More details on this venture to come.

Bars:
The Taphouse Grill in downtown Bellevue is easily "the place to go" for good beer on the Eastside. Like its newer Seattle sibling, it boasts about 160 beers on tap. While many of the beers are nothing special, you can always find several offerings well worth drinking. For someone from out of town, it is a great place to try a wide variety of NW microbrews. We're not a huge fan of the upscale, corporate feel, but it's not like there are many other choices. Beers are too expensive. They've been out of probably 3 of the 10 beers we've ordered when there. Definitely not a place to seek out, but if you're looking to grab a beer in Bellevue, this is as good of a place as you are going to find.

We're sure there are plenty of places to grab solid NW brews on the Eastside(Celtic Bayou in Redmond, for one), but there just aren't any other true beer bars that we know of.

Bottle Shops:
We visited the new Malt & Vine bottle shop in downtown Redmond this week, and it's great. They have a large selection of local NW beer, US craft beer and a great import selection. At first glance, we'd say their offering is about as good as Bottleworks. They even had 22 oz. bottles of Northern Lights Winter Ale from Spokane, which you can't get anywhere else near Seattle. Their prices are definitely reasonable. They do beer tastings every Friday.
We've also heard that Fine Wines, Ltd in Redmond carries a decent beer selection, but we have not visited.

Pete's Wine and the Whole Foods in Bellevue both have good beer selections and are definitely worth checking out if you need to pick something up. The beer guy at Whole Foods has been very helpful in the past, and Pete's was kind enough to put some Deschute's Abyss on hold for us last year.

So, that's all we've got. Let us know if we missed anything...we'd love to check it out. If anyone wants to loan us some $$, we could add to the list by opening up a kick-ass beer bar.

***Note that we kind of ignored Issaquah and Woodinville, which include Redhook and Rogue Issaquah, as part of the Eastside. We were really just concerned with places easy to drive to after we leave the office in Bellevue.