I recently returned from a short sojourn in Olympia, Washington. I was there for a conference, which involved some pretty forgettable hotel food, a lot of coffee and sugar and a surprising amount of time spent in the hotel bar. Luckily, my coworkers and I had time for one dinner on our own.

None of us knew Olympia very well, so we scanned the visitor’s guide that had come with our conference packet. The first place to catch my eye was “Dirty Dave’s Gay 90’s Pizza Parlor” – I mean, how could anyone resist that name? – but what we settled on was the Fish Tale Brewpub. I generally find that brewpubs have something for everyone, and this one was no exception.

I ended up loving the pub. I’ve had the occasional Fish beer, but I had completely forgotten that they had taken over brewing Leavenworth beers as well – I do love the Whistling Pig, it was one of my personal gateway beers. This time I got a Fish Organic IPA, which was a bit more filtered than I usually like but very tasty. I had fish tacos and a salad, and my coworkers tried out the burger, the fish and chips and the smoked salmon quesadilla. All looked very good.

As we left, some guys were crossing the street from the brewery carrying a fresh keg of something – they hollered to us that we were leaving too soon, apparently whatever was in that keg was good stuff. We’ll probably never know. But if I’m in Olympia again, I will certainly stop by here again and have some more Fish.