Hash S.
Yelp
How do you spend Memorial Day weekend in Hood River and White Salmon and not visit a brewery? Easily: Come here instead.
Listen, I love Everybody's Brewing (best view in the Gorge), Full Sail (though the new "Mexican" lager gives me pause), Pfriem (yeah, because a region with no beer lines desperately needs a place with a half-hour wait), and Double Mountain (great West Coast IPAs, a fine attempt at NJ pizza, and no fear of kicking out feral children). But on a holiday weekend, all of the above are absolute death.
I'd been to Crush before and kind of love its secluded spot near Insitu. I've gone by, sampled some ciders, had a sandwich from the deli next door and wondered aloud why people try to make East Coast food without the right ingredients. But Crush knows how to meet every drinker where they're at.
Don't like the dozen or so house ciders? Here are a few from Avid, Carlton, and elsewhere. Don't like the samples you tried on their own? They'll blend a few for you and even layer some frozen cider on top. Don't like the look of their menu or the deli? The Mexican pop-up has adobada sopes that have no peers for miles.
The owners are helpful, but within reason. They'll try to get you to taste a bit of everything, throw in a free sample if they feel you're missing something that agrees with your palate, and make suggestions based on what you liked and didn't like.
My family and I have enjoyed coming here for the last year or so, and we took the leap and became members of the cidery this time around. My wife bought a growler (actually a large, branded Nalgene bottle), my local family will be picking up a handful of bottles every quarter (and getting free tastings), and I'll be tasting something new each time I come back every few months or so.
It's hard for a cidery or cider shop to meet folks where they're at in a beer town, but Crush makes the effort to do just that. Even if you strike out on every cider in the place, they'll hand you a Weissbier or IPA and point you up the hill to Full Sail or Double Mountain. They want customers to be happy enough to become regulars, and they have our business for as long as they want it.