Shop
48 Hours Drinking and Eating in Bellevue, Washington
The Bellevue of the ball.
Photography courtesy of Magic Muncie | Hop Culture
Looking for More Travel Guides?
While everyone knows about Seattle, just across Lake Washington, you’ll find a city that should become your base camp for epic adventures and drinking—Bellevue.
The Hop Culture team took a trip to this up-and-coming town courtesy of the folks at Visit Bellevue. For three days, we dipped into the beautiful natural surroundings, walked through the clean, safe streets, and adventured around waterfalls, lakes, mountains, and, of course, breweries galore.
“Bellevue is the lifestyle center of Seattle right now,” explains Visit Bellevue Executive Director Brad Jones, who described the city as the confluence of technology, sustainability, the outdoors, international food, and beer.
“Bellevue is a yes city,” says Megan Adams, partnerships manager for Visit Bellevue, who took us on a beautiful hike and an impromptu stop to the salmon hatchery. “It’s pro-business but also pro-environment and pro-sustainability.”
She adds, “Outdoor adventures are the great connector in Bellevue. Everyone can access the outdoors.”
All around, Adams says if you live in Bellevue, “you celebrate sweat,” whether that’s through your job at Microsoft, Amazon, or T-Mobile—all with headquarters in Bellevue—through the outdoors kayaking, biking, hiking, running, sound bathing (seriously, it’s a thing, look it up), or, of course, through making beer.
Jones described the beer scene as multi-tiered. “Every kind of neighborhood has a little brewery you can take your dog to,” he says. “You’ll see the three different cultures of it—the larger, medium, and then the neighborhood level.”
Foodwise, you’ll find an international hub of hot pots, dumplings (“the crème de la crème I always take people to is dumplings,” admits Jones), and sushi mixed in with American food, seafood spots, and steakhouses.
“One of my favorite things as far as community building is concerned is hot pots,” explains Adams, noting thirteen hot pot restaurants in Bellevue alone. “Hot pot kind of reminds me of the Asian version of an Italian dinner because we’re gonna be there for at least an hour and a half together, sharing this meal, creating this meal, and exploring different flavors—I love that.”
The international mix of cuisine directly reflects the people who Adams says you’ll see from “all walks of life speaking different languages.”
Adams says she also loves to visit one of the city’s local coffee shops, such as Bellden Cafe (featured below) or Third Culture (also featured below), to “stop, pause, and listen to all the languages.”
These are the subtle ways Bellevue surprised us…and we’ve barely talked about the breweries yet.
Here’s how we spent an incredible two days in Bellevue. You don’t have to follow in our footsteps directly, but these were our favorite places where we dipped, dined, and drank.
Friday: BellHop Around Bellevue
What surprised us most about Bellevue is that it’s an actual city. If you look at a photo from the 1980s, as we did on our walking tour with Jones, you’ll see barren land for as far as the eye can see.
Today, Bellevue has a major downtown full of six-story skyscrapers, lively restaurants, entertainment venues, and drinking places.
While we walked to most of these spots, don’t be afraid to order a BellHop. Pioneered by Visit Bellevue, these free (yes, free!) electric vehicles take you within a six-square-mile circuit in the city.
“It’s one hundred percent free, all-electric, point-to-point, and on-demand,” says Jones. “Take it everywhere and take it anytime.”
Just download the app, request a ride, and you’re good to go!
Hotel Check-In: AC Hotel Downtown Bellevue
208 106th Place North East, Bellevue, WA
Photography courtesy of Visit Bellevue
4:00 PM Check in before you check out Bellevue – Besides being absolutely gorgeous with incredible service, the AC Hotel Bellevue is ideally located. A great base camp for all of your adventures, whether you’re sticking around downtown Bellevue, traveling to Issaquah to visit the salmon hatchery, or cruising on a wine tour through Woodinville, AC Hotel proved to be the perfect place for us to unpack during our adventures.
We can see why Visit Bellevue called this place the “gateway to the Puget Sound.” You’re seriously just minutes from most of Bellevue’s restaurants, parks, waterfront, and nightlife, including our first stop of the night…
Top Tip – The hotel offers free Starbucks coffee in the lobby every morning. We’re not sure if it’s just because we’re staying in the “State of Starbucks,” but this was probably the best free hotel coffee we’ve ever had. Don’t pass it up!
Before Dinner Drinks: Tapster
193 106th Ave NE, Bellevue, WA 98004 | (415) 794-0275
Photography courtesy of Magic Muncie | Hop Culture
5:30 PM Pour it yourself! – Kitty-corner from our hotel, Tapster tells you that “it’s ok to be self-serving.” In fact, it’s plastered in big letters on the pour-it-yourself craft beer bar’s bumblebee-yellow walls.
When we walked in, a crowd congregated on the gorgeous wood high-tops watching the Seahawks game.
Walk a few more paces and find “the wall” full of self-pour taps with every style of beer you could possibly imagine—many featuring local spots.
With a card in hand, you simply tap the screen and start pouring from the draft you want. When you’re done, whether that’s a full glass or a little taster, you’ll get charged per ounce.
Photography courtesy of Magic Muncie | Hop Culture
When we visited, options ranged from a Fortside Post Cologne Kölsch to a Bellingham Cider Company P.O.G. Juice Cider and everything in between.
I immediately went for a DruBru Oktoberfest Lager followed by Elysian’s The Great Pumpkin because ‘tis the season.
Open until at least 10 p.m. every night and 2 a.m. on Friday and Saturday, Tapster constantly buzzed. Since it was right across from our hotel, we passed the taproom every night we came home; it took a lot of self-control not to stop in for one final self-pour nightcap.
Dinner: Tavern Hall
505 Bellevue Square, Bellevue, WA 98004 | (425) 454-7500
Photography courtesy of Visit Bellevue
6:30 PM A beer hall above all…literally – Games + beer + more games. Tavern Hall is the place to be for a Seahawks game. Packed to the gills when we walked in, the second-floor beer hall bustled with many eaters sporting Geno Smith and D.K. Metcalf jerseys.
Tucked into a plush booth in the corner, we had pretty much 360-degree views of T.V.s showing the game all around us—the count comes to thirty in total. So, you’re sure to catch the game no matter where you sit.
If football isn’t on, you can always just play something yourself. With shuffleboard tables and darts, Tavern Hall has entertainment for days.
Pair that with the gastropub’s iconic Chicago-style cracker-thin pizza, and you have the perfect place to meet up with friends, family, or out-of-towners like ourselves.
To start, we settled on sharing a hearth-baked pretzel with four different sauces: housemade ale mustard, white cheddar jalapeño sauce, bacon-onion dip, and—wait for it—salted peanut caramel dip. We had never heard of that before, but it oddly worked.
Mains included superb chicken and waffles, a spicy chicken sando, and avocado toast because who says you can’t have breakfast for dinner? That’s just the kind of wacky vibe you find here.
You’ll always go right starting your night at Tavern Hall.
Entertainment: Lucky Strike and Forum Social House (Topgolf Swing Suite, Par1 Minigolf, and Rockwell Sound Lounge)
700 Bellevue Way, Bellevue, WA 98004
Photography courtesy of Visit Bellevue
8:00 PM Fun, fun, fun – Content and full, we ventured back down Bellevue’s central hospitality district via the Lincoln Square North shopping mall. Inside, you’ll find every entertainment venue possible to keep your night rolling, whether strikes or golf balls.
Lucky Strike Bellevue, just across the street from Tavern Hall, features sixteen bowling lanes, arcade games, billiards/pool, and air hockey.
Venture one floor up to find Forum Social House, which is actually a three-for-one attraction trifecta.
You’ll find Par1 Minigolf, an indoor mini golf course dubbed “Not your grandmother’s minigolf!” There’s also the Topgolf Swing Suite, where you can try on your best Tiger Woods impression. If golf isn’t your thing, Topgolf Swing Suites also offer immersive soccer, football, and baseball experiences.
Lastly, the Rockwell Sound Lounge bumps on the weekends as one of Belleveu’s premier Nightclubs.
Whatever your social aim for the week or weekend, Forum Social House has you covered.
Lucky Strike
Forum Social House
Saturday: Boats, Beans, and Breweries in Bellevue
From powering up with gluten-free waffles to kayaking in the Meydenbauer Bay to drinking at the only brewery in Issaquah (aka “the Quah”), today we’re taking you on quite the adventure around Bellevue. We hope you like beer…and the outdoors!
Breakfast: Bellden Café
10527 Main St, Bellevue, WA 98004 | (425) 698-1597
Photography courtesy of Grace Lee-Weitz | Hop Culture
9:00 AM First, coffee + carbs – When everyone you talk to who lives in Bellevue recommends this place for breakfast…you go. “Little reminder to get the matcha waffle, my absolute favorite!” Adams texts me when I tell her we’re stopping by for a bite.
Jones suggests getting the “incredible” avocado toast.
We settled on the yogurt bowl with berry compote and house-made granola, the Mr. Brioche breakfast sandwich, and split a gluten-free waffle with sweet cream and jam.
But it isn’t just the food here that’s so good.
Considered a community-driven cafe, Bellden’s mission is #TogetherWeAreStronger.
As Jones tells us, Bellden Café Founder Claire Sumadiwirya hires people from marginalized communities and actively invests the proceeds back into the community. “It’s like a family there,” he shares.
“I love that Bellden Café is committed to social justice on a bigger scale,” says Adams. “They hire people with challenges in life and provide support and substantial proceeds to nonprofits; they truly practice what they preach.”
When you walk in, a blackboard on the wall proudly displays the names of partners they work with for a line of charity drinks, where ten percent of the proceeds go to the chosen partner. Along with the cups sold—16,000 when we visited.
Well, 16,001 after we ordered the Maple Leaf Nitro, a cold nitro espresso with spiced maple syrup and smoked sea salt.
Good food, great drinks, and gargantuan cause—a pretty decent way to start your morning in Bellevue.
Stroll Down Main Street
Matcha Magic: 10246 Main St A, Bellevue, WA 98004 | (425) 453-1029
Third Culture Coffee: 80 102nd Ave NE, Bellevue, WA 98004
Coffeeholic House: 10000 Main St STE 103, Bellevue, WA 98004 | (425) 590-9916
Fran’s Chocolates: 10036 Main St, Bellevue, WA 98004 | (425) 453-1698
Photography courtesy of Magic Muncie | Hop Culture
10:30 AM Take a stroll – Take the magic from Bellden and stroll down Bellevue’s Main Street. There, you’ll find a few blocks bursting with hidden treasures.
Adams says one of the best ways to experience Bellevue’s culture is through its coffee shops.
If you need more morning moments, stop into women- and minority-owned Matcha Magic for a mesmerizing matcha-based drink. You can take a picture anywhere in the trendy shop for an instant Instagrammable moment, or you can watch someone prepare the ceremonial matcha the traditional way. As the first plant-forward matcha bar in Old Bellevue, Matcha Magic seems more like the city’s future.
Coffee more your thing? Pick one up at either Third Culture Coffee or Coffeeholic House.
The former is an award-winning shop started by Radhika Kapur to holistically serve coffee with a side of diversity and inclusion. That’s why you’ll find an array of drinks, from Indian Filter Coffee to Spanish Bombon to French Drinking Chocolate. Adams loves Third Culture because it’s “less hustle and bustle and more coffee shop.”
The latter, Coffeeholic House, Seattle’s first Vietnamese coffee shop, has drinks like Vietnamese coffee topped with cheese foam or Purple Haze, an ube latte topped with a layer of ube foam.
Remember to get some sweet samples at Fran’s Chocolates, a Seattle-born local favorite you shouldn’t miss.
Kayak or Stand-up Paddleboard in Meydenbauer Bay
Meydenbauer Bay Park, 2 99th Ave NE, Bellevue, WA 98004 | (425) 300-3027
Photography courtesy of Magic Muncie | Hop Culture
11:30 AM Paddle off the pancakes – Keep walking down Main Street before hanging a left on 100th Ave SE, which will take you down to the gorgeous Meydenbauer Bay Park. Along with a beach, great views, and what appear to be spots to fish (we saw a few casting their lines), you’ll also find the REI Co-op Boathouse at Meydenbauer Bay Park.
Rent a paddle board, canoe, or one-person or two-person kayak and paddle the day away.
On either side of you, get great views of gorgeous houses brushing up against the bay, evergreen trees, and perhaps a hint of the Bellevue skyline.
Photography courtesy of Magic Muncie | Hop Culture
Editor’s Note: Take note before you go. The REI Co-op closes for the winter season, so make sure you check the website first to see if they’re open.
Lunch: Formula Brewing
1875 NW Poplar Way, Issaquah, WA 98027 | (425) 961-0854
Photography courtesy of Magic Muncie | Hop Culture
1:00 PM The recipe for award-winning beer and pizza – The “formula” for success at the Quah’s only brewery is pretty simple: “What makes the ideal party?” says Formula Brewing Founder Danny Bohm. “God damn, that was just a fun party. It wasn’t about drinking a lot or whatever. It was just like, what was so cool about that? And, okay, can you formulate that?”
In what used to be a block of storage units, Formula Brewing has turned nothing into something in the town of around 30,000 people. “It was go bigger or go home,” explains Bohm, noting the brewery opened up two weeks into the pandemic in 2020. “We took the floor and bare walls and just ran with it.”
Bohm, who has a background in tech, moved up to Washington twenty years ago. “As of just a couple of weeks ago, I’m officially retired from tech and all in on pizza and beer,” Bohm says with a big smile. When he first started Formula, Bohm says he wanted to invest in something but wasn’t sure what. “When I saw this space, I realized there’s a gap here,” he explains. “Coming from the tech life, being in a cube all day working away … it was very different from what I saw in Europe [while traveling], how energetic, how fluid, how every age, socioeconomic class, how everyone is just together having a delicious beer that’s been made for centuries while in plazas or squares.”
Bohm wanted to recreate a neighborhood pub or beer hall in the Quah. “It’s timeless, it’s kids, it’s family, it’s pets, it’s lots of music, and it’s beer and good times,” he says, asking himself, “Why is that somehow hard here?”
He adds, “But I felt we could do it better.”
Which is why Formula is all about community.
Over the three hours we spent there, Bohm said hi to many of the regulars, pointing out a couple of guys part of a singing group who come in once every couple of weeks to drink beers before bursting out into random lyrics, the couple who, since Bohm put power into the wall, pops in a couple of times a week to work while drinking, or Doug, a gentleman with gray hair in the corner who comes in every week for an IPA. And while we sat there, Lucky Envelope Co-Founder Barry Chan dropped by to give Bohm and Brown a four-pack of their new release.
“There are all these personalities that you see over time, as well as the passers-by,” shares Bohm. “There’s this simple joy here.”
Formula infuses this essence from the old world into modern-day America. You’ll also find that philosophy in head brewer Jesse Brown’s beers.
“We’re a mixture of old world/new world,” explains Brown, who worked at a cask ale brewery called Little Machine and Chainline Brewing Company before joining Formula three years ago. “When it comes to the classic styles, I like to tip the cap to the old world.”
Meaning most lagers are single decocted, a process that can extend Brown’s brew day to twelve hours. But he doesn’t care because it’s all for the sake of the beer. Often, Brown says he’ll brew in his lucky red coveralls, a gift from the well-known German malt company, Weyermann, anytime a brewery wins an award with their malt in the beer. “It’s like my lucky socks,” he laughs. “It’s a badge of honor and pride, but also a reminder to keep making good lager.”
So, if you’re drinking an American lager, you’ll find American hops, malt, and a mutated American lager yeast strain. But if it’s a German lager, it will have all German malt and hops.
“These beers should just be drunk and enjoyed and not pontificated as deeply as others,” says Brown.
Based on the empty glasses of helles and leichtbier on our table, we’d say we agree. “It’s nice not to realize that your beer is gone until it’s gone,” says Hop Culture Social Media Manager Magic Muncie. “When you look down and it’s gone, you know that was a really good beer.”
On the new-world side, Brown takes pride in the brewery’s newer West Coast-style IPAs, combining a Southern California style—super dry, unafraid of bitterness—with Pacific Northwest flair—softer texture, juicier.
Photography courtesy of Magic Muncie | Hop Culture
Whatever he’s doing seems to be working. His beers have picked up seventeen state, national, and international awards. For instance, the helles, Chasing Trains, which won a silver at the 2023 Great American Beer Festival.
If we measure success by accolades, Brown probably doesn’t need to tweak anything. But that’s just not how Brown’s brain operates. Let Bohm explain: “What does the head brewer do [after winning? He said], let’s change it up. I can do better.”
This led to Chasing Planes, a tweak on the award-winning helles with a blend of two different Weyermann Pilsner malts—extreme pale premium and classic—and a new hop bill of Tradition and Hallertau Mittelfrüh. That beer won silver at the 2024 World Beer Cup.
Now Brown is on to Chasing Automobiles, completing the John Candy film trifecta. Luckily, he had this beer on tap when we visited.
“My mentality is on to the next award-winning beer,” says Brown. “Every beer I make, I want it to be a standout.”
But ask Brown to look up at the board of twelve different beers, and he’ll only praise three. “The helles and the leichtbier are legit,” he shares. “And I think we have a really nice session IPA.”
But the porter I tried? Well, he hates that one. For what it’s worth, I liked it.
Brown just seems to be in this constant pursuit of finding the right formula.
“I don’t chase the dragon,” says Brown, at least when it comes to beer styles, but when I asked him which beer he was most proud of, he immediately responded, “That’s an easy answer: The next one.”
In our case, a fresh-hop West Coast IPA called Folded Early “slaps the base,” according to Brown, who pulled some fresh off the tank for us. “I’ve been obsessed with making award-winning lager, but this is my new obsession: West Coast IPA.”
Also, an incredible double-mashed, step-mashed Baltic porter collab with his friends at Grand Fir in Portland, OR, that he tapped off the tanks for us. “That was a fifteen-hour brew day,” Brown says with a little grin.
Next, Brown says he already plans to make a saison based on a West Coast IPA with some hop character.
For Bohm, the pairing could not be better. “Beer is so robust, elastic, and versatile,” he says, noting Formula has made around 230 beers in the last four years. “It’s absolutely limitless.”
“I have a couple more decades working in this industry,” says Brown. “I want to leave it a better place than where I started.”
We felt at home in Formula. “We are truly a community hub and taproom,” says Brown. “I’m bummed you have to keep going.”
We couldn’t agree more.
If we could have spent all day there, we would have. We may not have been able to, but you certainly can.
Watts Brewing Company
15510 Redmond – Woodinville Rd NE #E110, Woodinville, WA 98072
Photography courtesy of Magic Muncie | Hop Culture
2:30 PM See what all the buzz is about – We’re trying very hard to limit the number of bee and buzz puns when talking about Watts Brewing Company. But it happens that the brewery, named after the Watts family business raising solitary bees for commercial pollination, is quite the buzz in Woodinville.
Known for its award-winning wineries, restaurants, concert venues, and now beers, Woodinville is quite the place to start a brewery, especially one that has its own rich history.
Over fifty years ago, Watts Brewing Company Founder Evan Watts’ grandfather started raising Leafcutter bees in Eastern Oregon. Today, the Watts family is actually the largest supplier of solitary bees in the U.S.
A homebrewer, Evan started making beer on his parent’s property, opening a little side-project nano-brewery in 2016. “That was my business school,” laughs Evan. “I just started brewing on the weekends and in the evening after work and delivering kegs to a few bars around here.”
Evan says that after a couple of years on a small scale, “it was time to put up or shut up.” He quit his day job at a software company in January 2020. Perfect timing, right?
For the next few years, Evan contract brewed, selling cans door to door.
The beautiful, sleek space we sat in while enjoying a flight of beers came on the market a week before Evan’s daughter was due in the middle of June 2023. “I got a handshake deal,” says Evan. “I went home to have a baby; we got the keys September first and had the doors open by the end of the month.”
He adds, “We say we got two babies at once!”
Photography courtesy of Magic Muncie | Hop Culture
It’s been a wild first year for Watts.
“We’ve just been sprinting on brewing,” says Watts Brewer Peter Murphy, who joined the team from Lucky Envelope three months ago.
At the forefront is the queen bee (or might actually be the worker bee)—Leafcutter—the brewery’s flagship kölsch.
Evan wrote the recipe while sitting in a ski lodge in Idaho. “This is the beer I want when I’m having lunch at a ski mountain or right when I get back to the car,” he shared. “This is what I want to crack as I take my boots off.”
A bit lower in ABV, Leafcutter has some pop and complexity while still refreshing. “It’s a great summer beer,” he says. “But it’s got that complexity that’s just like that year-round approachable craft light [beer] around here.”
After testing ten different base malts, Evan settled on Pilsner malt for a “French-bread quality” and added Simcoe hops for that fruitiness. Lastly, a kölsch yeast gives off a white grape note to help bridge the gap and “make it feel at home.”
Overall, Leafcutter embodies Watts’ approach to beers. “When we’re working on a recipe, we start with flavor first and then figure out the style later,” he says. “What ingredients are we excited about? What flavors? Let’s put those together. But the most important thing is that it tastes good. And it should be interesting; you should have layers, so it’s not one-dimensional.”
Evan says they’ve found that three-dimensional beers are ideal. “Your brain bounces around between those points of the triangle,” he explains. “How does this flavor relate to that one? What about relative to this one? And it just magically reflects all of a sudden.”
At Watts, you’ll find beers that start a conversation.
For instance, the Solitary Series, a bunch of unique one-off strong ales and wood-aged specialty projects that Watts puts out a few times a year.
We tried a stout aged on Amburana, a Brazilian hardwood that gives off a cinnamon-nutmeg quality. Evan says that during COVID, he did a bunch of wood-aging trials with different formats and tests; Amburana stood out. “We’re just using a tiny bit here, and it really gives it a nice, almost spiced character.”
This particular version ages for about five weeks on Amburana spirals. “It’s a mixture of Amburana and heavily toasted American oak. However, the Amburana was extracted in three days. It worked super quick because it’s just such an oily, dramatic wood.”
And this was quite a dramatic beer.
As was Waggle Dance, a wet-hop IPA with fresh-picked Amarillo from Virgil Gamache Farms in Toppenish, WA. “They’re the ones who discovered Amarillo hops, so they know it in and out,” says Evan. “It was discovered growing wild on their farm.”
Bright pops of apricot, orange, stone fruit, and sometimes a little grass and mint make this beer stand out. “Sometimes we even get Froot Loops™,” says Evans, who remembers driving the fresh hops back in the truck and getting a little lightheaded from the aroma. “But I didn’t want to open the window because it smelled so good!” Waggle Dance got these fresh-picked Amarillo within six hours. And it’s flying just as fast. “I think this might be our last keg, and we just tapped it,” says Evan.
You can’t go wrong with whatever beer you try from the brain of the Watts Brewing founder.
“Evan’s a very nice dude, very cerebral,” says Brown. “They’re good people.”
And if you order a flight, you’ll find those beers served on custom-made trays that are nesting blocks for bees. Seriously, that’s not a pun or a joke.
Fruit Wine Co.
1950 130th Ave NE Suite 1, Bellevue, WA 98005 | (425) 869-0609
4:00 PM More than wine – A cool, down-to-earth wine shop, Fruit Wine Co. says, “We like to drink wine, eat good food, and listen to epic music.” Sounds like a pretty good time to us.
Based around the all-mighty fruit that makes the wine world go round, Fruit Wine Co. is a merging of two brands—Crunchy Red Fruited, founded by former Canlis Master Sommelier Jackson Rohrbaugh in 2020, and Seattle Wine Co., a Bellevue wine shop started in 2003 by former owners Karen and Nabil Absi.
Today, at Fruit Wine Co., you’ll find an approachable, laid-back view of wine, making sure that you feel comfortable learning about, drinking, and trying new wines.
Even the sign above the store exudes this sort of 7-11 coolness. Fruit Wine Co. invites you in to kick back and relax while you shop for a bottle or two without any of the stuffiness or pretentiousness of some winery tasting rooms (which have a time and place, right?)
So less grapes of wrath and more grapes of grand.
Dinner: Bellevue Brewing Company
12190 NE District Wy, Bellevue, WA 98005 | (425) 497-8686
Photography courtesy of Visit Bellevue
6:00 PM Where everybody knows your beer – Wow, this is the place to be in Bellevue. When we walked in, the brewpub was packed—absolutely packed. We could barely hear ourselves around all the fun happening. We had to go into the brewery’s backroom speakeasy just to chat with head brewer Tony Powell and Johnny Robertson, the son of co-founder John Robertson, who started the brewery with Scott Hansen.
Since 2012, Bellevue Brewing Company has rightfully become a staple watering hole in the community, although it moved to the newest Spring District location two and a half years ago.
Bellevue Brewing Company has become a family affair. Johnny takes up the reins, and Powell, who has known Johnny since he was a teenager, is also considered family.
“It was important for Johnny’s pops to be locally owned and family-owned, and we still are,” shares Powell.
Community is everything here. “Whatever you’re doing, if you have a kid’s soccer game or a business meeting, you can always come in and expect to have a great meal and a great beer and know that you’re going to be taken care of,” says Johnny, who started working in the brewery bussing tables and helping out around the age of twelve. “Pops gave me a drill and a grinder to start building tables,” laughs Johnny. “If I’m going to get all squishy about it, I’ve probably made some of the best friends I’ve ever had here.”
Photography courtesy of Magic Muncie | Hop Culture
And that extends to Bailey Whittaker, whom Johnny considers a stepsister and who joined the business in 2015 after her dad invested in the industry. A regular since 2014, Whittaker’s dad came into Bellevue Brewing Company one day and “never left,” jokes Whittaker. “My dad found this place and thought it was the best [brewery]. … He just would not shut up about it!”
At this point, Powell asks if he can step in, sharing that when Whittaker’s dad first came in, he ordered flight after flight and tried every single beer on the menu. “So he thought I was a genius,” Powell says with a grin.
“You are a genius, Tony,” Whittaker immediately quips.
Powell has been brewing at Bellevue Brewing Company since 2007. While he doesn’t call himself the most creative brewer, he says he stays one hundred percent focused on fermentation and microbiology. “If I pay attention to the correct details, the better your beer will be,” says Powell, who has also been inspired by his travels.
For instance, the Schwarzbier, an homage to Powell’s first trip to Europe and Germany in 2006. “I took knowledge from my travel and made what I consider a great schwarz,” says Powell.
Formula’s Brown gave us one tip when we visited Bellevue Brewing Company: “Drink the schwarz.”
It’s won a couple of gold awards from the Washington Beer Awards. And by our palates, it was damn delicious.
But if that’s not up your alley, you’ll find something for everyone across the brewery’s sixteen taps.
Like Uno Mas, the Mexican lager named after a taco shop Whittaker stumbled upon while in Vegas. It’s the kind of beer where you always want just one more, right?
There’s also a pre-Prohibition lager, a Scotch ale (that Muncie immediately snapped up when it was set down in front of us), a classic West Coast IPA called Goofy Boots, a pale ale inspired by the iconic Sierra Nevada Pale Ale, a rotating wheat series, and so much more.
“This is the problem,” says Whittaker with a smile. “We just have too many good beers.”
And ones that pair perfectly with the menu.
You’ll find some great hits from snacky items like the Buffalo Cauliflower and hummus that “we make in-house every day and is delicious,” says Johnny, to more substantial plates.
We highly recommend the grilled salmon with mango salsa over pesto risotto.
We might call this place the Cheers of Bellevue. Once you step inside, they’ll know your name and your drink order, and, much like Whittaker’s dad, you’ll never want to leave.
Nightcap: Mox Boarding House
13310 Bel-Red Rd, Bellevue, WA 98005 | (425) 326-3050
Photography courtesy of Visit Bellevue
8:00 PM Boards & beers – Don’t think too strategically about this move; just get yourself to Mox Boarding House. Highly recommended by Adams, Mox Boarding House pairs fine food and drinks with board games!
“Oh, that’s worth a visit,” Adams assured us. “It’s the friggin’ bomb. It’s really unique and on-brand for Bellevue.”
We’re talking a free game library filled with everything from Magic: The Gathering and Dungeons & Dragons to Warhammer 40k and more.
“If you go in there with your family, if there’s any game you want to play, they will open up that game,” says Adams. “I love that!”
Bring games, buy them, or choose one from the free space. Pair that with a Classic Poutine or Tavern Mac & Cheese, along with hand-crafted cocktails and zero-proof mocktails, and you have the perfect night ahead.
Sunday: Hiking, Half Pints, and High Spirits
You’ll get some of everything today, so gear up and beer up!
Breakfast: Jocovine Bistro
10237 Main St, Bellevue, WA 98004 | (425) 598-2649
Photography courtesy of Visit Bellevue
9:00 AM Old Bellevue meets new brunch bistro – You’re gonna head back to Old Bellevue Main Street for brunch today. At the newly opened Jocovine from owner Adrian Lopez, you’ll get old-school classics with Mexican twists, a nod to Lopez’s hometown in Mexico—Jocotitlan.
Translating to “among the sour fruit trees,” Jocotitlan is known locally as “Joco.”
At Jocovine, you’ll fill up on dishes like Huevos Rancheros (kept Muncie full for hours!), Smoked Salmon Benedict with salmon lox and tabasco hollandaise, and a Crab Omelet with that coveted Dungeness crab.
You’re about to go on a nice little hike, so don’t hold back. Order a few dishes for the table and share everything. Trust us, it’s worth it!
Hiking the Coal Creek Trail
Coal Creek Parkway, Bellevue, WA 98006 or Find on Google Maps. Access Points: Red Town Trailhead parking area of Cougar Mountain Park, at the junction of Lakemont Boulevard and Newcastle-Coal Creek Road
Photography courtesy of Magic Muncie | Hop Culture
10:30 AM Head outdoors – One of the top things we noticed while in Bellevue? The city loves the outdoors, whether kayaking in Meydenbauer Bay, going for a jog in Bellevue Downtown Park, or hiking one of the many…many trails.
Adams joined us for an hour-and-a-half hike in the Coal Creek Natural Area, which pays homage to the area’s mining roots. The area is accessible just minutes outside of downtown.
“It took me ten minutes to get to this trailhead,” Adams told me as we started off. “And this is the most beautiful.”
Under a leafy green canopy, you’ll trek over slightly elevated terrain (600ft at its highest) that meanders next to small waterfalls and oh-so-many bridges!
My partner loves a photo moment on a bridge, so she would have had a ball here.
The extensive six-mile trail system traverses dense forests, fish and wildlife habitats, rocky landscapes, and wooded paths.
And if you’re lucky, like us, you might even stumble upon a wild blackberry bush.
Photography courtesy of Magic Muncie | Hop Culture
Pro Tip: If you have time, we highly recommend you also make the drive to Issaquah’s Salmon Hatchery, featuring thirty-seven educational exhibits and interactive displays about the incredible salmon migration. We were lucky enough to be there when the salmon actually came to climb the ladder, leading to this incredible snap from Hop Culture Social Media Manager Magic Muncie!
Lunch: Resonate Brewery + Pizzeria
5606 119th Ave SE, Bellevue, WA 98006 | (425) 644-3164
Photography courtesy of Resonate Brewery + Pizzeria
1:00 PM Recharge and replenish at a hidden drinking watering hole in a shopping center – Is there anything better than filling up on pizza and beer after a long hike? Don’t think so. Pull up to an unassuming strip mall next to a batting cage center, insurance agency, hair salon, and gas station, and you’ll find the best place to refuel—Resonate Brewery + Pizzeria.
Started by life and business partners Mike Ritzer and Lyanne Ma, the beer and pizza shop does exactly what it says.
When it comes to the pies, Ritzer and Ma put the dough through a seventy-two-hour fermentation cycle for a crust that’s slightly chewy and pillowy. According to our server, Christine, the two biggest sellers are Triple Trouble and High Voltage. But her personal favorite is the Morning Glory, which comes with olive oil, prosciutto, fresh mozzarella, arugula, Parm-Reggiano, peco-romano, and sunny-side-up eggs. We can attest this one is extremely good.
Photography courtesy of Magic Muncie | Hop Culture
On the beer side, Ritzer puts his skills from the Brewing Technology Program at the Siebel Institute in Chicago and the Beer Judge Certification Program to good use. Garnering over fifty awards across numerous styles, Resonate’s beer will stay with you for a long time…like an echo.
“I remember driving into the strip mall like, oh, this is different, but then I was really impressed by the beers,” says Formula’s Brown. “I have only good things to say about Resonate’s beers!”
Our favorites included Lithium, a German altbier that picked up a silver at the World Beer Cup in 2022. “It’s our most award-winning beer,” shares Resonate Assistant Brewer Tricia Karsky, who sat down in our booth to chat with us briefly.
Also, Polka Face, an Oktoberfest that Karsky says she’s most proud of. “I really love how Polka Face turned out.”
But Karsky says while they’ll always have their go-tos—a kölsch and at least two IPAs—the rest is open. “We get a lot of opportunity to sort of play,” says Karsky, who designed and wrote her first-ever recipe this year, a hazy pale called Haywire.
The only through line in every beer? “All our beers are named after songs or a kind of pun,” Karsky says, smiling.
Cue the song Jagged Little Pill (the name of the brewery’s West Coast pilsner is Jagged Little Pils) coming over the speakers.
Resonate is just the place where you want to stop on your way home and spend a few hours chowing down and drinking up.
“We often have people dropping their cars off at Chevron and coming over because they have time for at least a beer while they wait for their oil change,” says Karsky. “And we’ve got the batting cages next door, so all the parents waiting for [their kids] to be done [stop in].”
Wildwood Spirits
19116 Beardslee Blvd Ste 102, Bothell, WA 98011 | (425) 286-1002
Photography courtesy of Magic Muncie | Hop Culture
2:30 PM Switch to standout spirits – Where science meets art and art solves thirst—that’s the motto at this boutique, apothecary-inspired grain-to-glass distillery. Tucked into a shopping complex in Bothell, Wildwood Spirits borrows from co-owner and distiller Erik Liedholm’s Michigan ties; he grew up on the eponymous street in East Lansing.
Phrases like “farm-to-table” and “vineyard-to-bottle” drove Liedholm to create his line of “farm-to-distillery” spirits. As much as possible, Liedholm uses Washington State ingredients in his products.
For instance, Kur, a London-dry-style gin made with an heirloom Washington variety of red winter wheat along with Seville oranges, Douglas Fir, and Braeburn apples from Liedholm’s backyard.
Or our personal favorite, Solgud (“sun god” in Swedish), an orange liqueur made with the zest of lots and lots of Seville oranges and fennel seed, aged for three months in used bourbon barrels.
And for all you sober drinkers, there’s even an NA gin called Ginnocence!
If you’re looking for something besides beer, Wildwood Spirits is a must-stop for getting the essence and flavor of spirits in Bellevue.
Happy Hour: Ascend Prime Steak & Sushi
10400 NE 4th St Ste 3100, Bellevue, WA 98004 | (425) 625-2080
Photography courtesy of Visit Bellevue
4:30 PM The best view in Bellevue – The best-kept secret move in Bellevue: Take the elevator up to the top floor for some of the top cocktails and views.
According to Jones, at Ascend, you’ll find stunning views of the Olympic Mountains, Cascade Mountains, and surrounding lakes, especially if you go around happy hour (3 p.m.-6 p.m. Monday-Friday; 4 p.m.-6 p.m. Saturday and Sunday) when the sun starts to set.
“It’s the number one happy hour spot in the city starting at like 3 p.m.,” shares Jones. “The views are insane.”
While the restaurant is pretty pricey, Jones says going there for a happy hour makes some dishes, such as the Wagyu Beef Cheek Bao Sliders, a little more affordable.
Dinner: Takai by Kashiba
180 Bellevue Way NE, Bellevue, WA 98004 | (425) 502-7259
Photography courtesy of Visit Bellevue
6:30 PM Splurge on sushi – When I put Jones on the spot, asking him about some of his favorite places to eat out in Bellevue, he first said, “I’m going to get him killed,” but then admitted if he had to splurge it would be on Takai by Kashiba.
“It’s the most insane sushi restaurant you’ve ever seen,” he gushed.
Served like a chef’s table, with only about twenty seats in the whole place, Takai by Kashiba features thirty-six-course sushi dinners with two seatings a night.
This all-out experience will take you a couple of hours, so we figure you’d love to stumble back to the hotel up the street afterward.
Of course, you could always stop by Tapster again for one more beer before going home. We’ll leave that up to you.
About The Author
Grace Lee-Weitz
Currently Drinking:
Fort Point Beer Co. KSA
Grace is the Senior Content Editor for Hop Culture and Untappd. She also organizes and produces the largest weeklong women, femme-identifying, and non-binary folx in craft beer festival in the country, Beers With(out) Beards, and the first-ever festival celebrating the colorful, vibrant voices in the queer community in craft beer, Queer Beer. An avid craft beer nerd Grace always found a way to work with beer. After graduating with a journalism degree from Northwestern University, she attended culinary school before working in restaurant management. She moonlighted as a brand ambassador at 3 Sheeps Brewing Co. on the weekends before moving into the beer industry full-time as an account coordinator at 5 Rabbit Cerveceria. Grace holds her Masters degree in the Food Studies program at NYU.
