Bradley N.
Yelp
Sometimes life in Missoula can feel like the lyrics to a Sheryl Crow song.
Case in point: drinking beer at noon on a Tuesday at Draught Works Brewery, just me and the bartendress, and a $4 pint of Chain Reaction Fresh Hop Pale Ale. The music echoes in the cavernous interior; I read a few chapters from Pam Houston's latest novel, Contents May Have Shifted, and for 20 minutes or so, time slips away.
The beer gradually recedes. My mind settles down, my pulse slows, and then I realize: this is *not* a normal place, this place they call Missoula. Here, people pick hops from their fields and within 24 hours it's brewing in a downtown beer works (once a dairy barn), which is across the street from an Asian wood furnishings import store, and next to a rock climbing gym (Freestone). And the hops were transported 50 miles from Corvallis *by teams of cyclists* who raced them home. hence the name, "Chain Reaction." Cool, in a weirdly obsessive sort of way.
Here, you can eat empanadas for lunch made with local pork sausage from Whitefish, and one with goat cheese and organic beets, then you can head down the street to snag a fresh pint, and you can still be back at work before your lunch break ends. If you walk real fast.
And nobody will think it is even a little bit odd that a lone stranger steps into an empty bar at 1 minute past 12 pm, asks for a fresh hopped pale ale, and then pulls a book out of his Patagonia shoulder bag before starting to read. (Take that, Cheryl! Maybe your next album should be called "1200 miles to Missoula" ...)
Draught Works, Missoula MT: Keeping it hop - but in a weird way - one pint at a time.