Hash S.
Yelp
It's fine, but Dannie C.'s review hit home.
My family and I have been coming here for about seven years. My father in law and I are regular customers at Mainbrew and always loved (and still love) sampling off of their kegs while picking up supplies for our own beers.
When ABV opened, it was novel for Hillsboro. Walls of take-away beer fridges, big elk-and-beef burgers, chili verde everything. It was a lovely addition, and it was just nice to have something here that wasn't McMenamins.
But times changed and the town changed. McNally's opened downtown. Wildwood and Prime popped up further east, Mazama opened right near Orenco tap, Three Mugs opened its own brewery right by Vertigo. Suddenly there were options, and a lot of them were $1 to $2 less per pour than ABV.
Other things changed as well. New Seasons, Whole Foods and even Albertsons/Safeway began curating their beer selections. Schmizza, of all places, began devoting more attention toward the beers and ciders on its taps. Then, during the pandemic, Portland breweries began delivering directly to Hillsboro.
Now? Even Helvetia Farm and Blooming Junction have amazing beer selection. Downtown has a cart pod right outside Noble Hop. Prime debuted a primarily Asian menu. And, in the coup de grace, both Cedar Hills and Old Town Beaverton began drawing Portland breweries west.
What did ABV do? It dug more firmly into the geek niche: More rarez and haze, higher-priced pours, more East Coast cans... and a somewhat lackadaisical approach to anything on the menu that isn't a Wagyu burger. As the other beer locations broadened, ABV aimed squarely for the bros.
It's disappointing, costly, and proving less and less of a reason to cross 26. As a bottle shop, it's still top-notch. But as a complete experience? There's better out there for the price it's charging. I'll keep coming to Mainbrew because I love it, and I'll still pop into the bottle shop when people come in from out of town and want a broad range of Oregon beers. But I don't see ABV's restaurant and taproom as an essential part of the experience anymore, and the pandemic didn't have much to do with that shift.