Ben N.
Yelp
Don't want to wait hours for that table at a brewery or brewpub in Hood River?
Then by all means, cough up that two dollars in change for the toll to drive across the beautiful Hood River Bridge, the nearly century-old truss bridge that spans the Columbia River here, and climb up to Everybody's Brewing in White Salmon.
We'd just done a hike in the Gorge--not one that would have been very challenging for me prior to July 2020, when I tore an ACL, but probably the most adventurous thing I'd done since the surgery a month after that--and wanted lunch. (And Hood River being nearby, beer, too.) pFriem sure did sound promising--a grocery store clerk in Portland on our first morning there had recommended their stuff, and it was indeed high-level--but the wait there, at 1:15 on a Monday afternoon no less, was almost two hours! (OK, it was Indigenous Peoples Day, but still insane.) Another place downtown was jammed, and when Everybody's popped up on the phone, we figured White Salmon, which we'd never even heard of, wouldn't draw such crowds.
Two dollars, 12 minutes, and one excellent view of Mount Hood later (from the downtown street), we were at Everybody's Brewing, a brewpub that was only one-third full, if that.
So given the overflow crowds across the river, there had to be something wrong with this place, right?
Not hardly--instead, there was something wrong with those overflow crowds, because Everybody's was outstanding.
First off, the beer was certainly no slouch--the Cryo, with a big IBU of 80, was an excellent, robust, citrusy IPA, and the wife had a seasonal pale ale or IPA whose name I can remember but which was also great.
The food might have even been better: A big lamb gyro came with that rare thing, actual flavorful, tender roasted lamb--not some partly-lamb "gyro meat" product standing in for lamb--and fresh toppings. "Mixed greens," which at some restaurants is just a pinch of bland rabbit food, was a fresh, tasty, and decent-sized green salad here. The wife's sweet-potato burrito was way better than expected (I sampled a few bites when she couldn't finish the massive thing); notably, the cilantro lime rice and seasoned black beans really brought the flavor to burrito ingredients that can be forgettable filler in too many burritos. A perfect post-hike lunch.
Way better than expected, given the circumstances.
Only disappointment: Although White Salmon offers breathtaking views of Mount Hood, at Everybody's they are apparently visible only from the top deck, which was apparently closed on this day. The lower deck was nonetheless very pleasant.