Tastebuds (and Mind) Blown with a Peanut Butter Bacon Burger from Side A Brewing in La Grande, OR

Tastebuds (and Mind) Blown with a Peanut Butter Bacon Burger from Side A Brewing in La Grande, OR

By Kat Thomas, Edible Skinny

On the long long long road trip from Portland to Vegas (16 hours of solo driving...), I ended up stopping in the eastern Oregon town of La Grande.  A bit about La Grande… The population of the town hovers around 13,000 humans.  And it’s in a simply GORG area of Oregon; the town’s name comes from an early French settler, Charles Dause, who often used the phrase "La Grande" to describe the area's beauty.  

Once I realized the closest Chipotle was 120 miles away (my Go-To fast casual place), I decided to check out the restaurant in town with the best Yelp reviews (a similar move resulted in the best tacos of my life in Las Cruces, NM)!

And so I moseyed into Side A Brewing in La Grande, OR... And it was so Fucking AMAZING!!!

Side A Brewing is a Brewery located in the heart of downtown La Grande, Oregon  Set inside the iconic Historic La Grande Firehouse featuring the Eastern Oregon Fire Museum; Side A provides an atmosphere of industrial space within a piece of La Grande history.  While there, you can enjoy your dinner and beer and brush up on the history of the building, as well as the firefighters and various fires fought throughout the area.  Oh, and of course, there’s an old school firetruck!!!

But onto the food!   All I can say was I was more than surprised!!!  Side A Brewing menu was SUPER DUPER imaginative!  And also full of craft details.  The restaurant stresses locally sourced products from Eastern Oregon brands such as 6 Ranch Corriente beef, Hines Meat Co., Jen's Garden, Kneads Bakery, and Sweet Wife.

Now being in Oregon, I had to start out with a cider.  Ace Pineapple Cider was Side A’s cider flavor at the moment.  BTWs, Pineapple seems to be the cider flavor of 2019 as I had Two Towns Ciderhouse Pineapple Flavored Cider in Eugene, OR three days earlier… ;-)

It was then on to the main course where I experienced a Peanut Butter Bacon Burger.  You read that right a Peanut Butter Bacon Burger!!!

Let’s start with the meat!  6 Ranch provides Side A Brewing with locally sourced, grass-fed Corriente beef from Enterprise, OR.  Corriente beef is flavorful, lean, and nutritious.  This cattle was brought over to the Americas in 1493 from Spain and is still the closest thing to wild cattle today.  By bunching together and using minimal water while traveling across various terrain they are able to have a very light impact on the land.  The result is beef that’s out of this world.  And then top it was Spicy Peanut Butter, Bacon, Dill Pickles, Lettuce, Mayo, and a Potato Bun.  The taste was a symphony of savory flavors the likes that you’ve (probably) never tasted before.  

I got this Class A Burger with a side of Dirty Fries.  These were french fries on the next level!!!!  Made of fresh herbs, cherry peppers, Parmesan, and smoked aioli they too were AB FAB!  Truthfully I when the plate arrived I was sucked into the Dirty Fry universe for at least 8 minutes before sliding over to the main course burger!  ;-)

And because I needed more calories, I finished off the meal with a decadent slice of Triple Layer Cake from Sweet Wife Bakery.  (SWB is a from scratch bakery located in the heart of downtown Baker City Oregon.)  This hedonistic baked good was composed of two layers of Chocolate Cake with a layer of Cheesecake between.  It was then completed with a drizzling of Homemade caramel sauce made with the brewery’s Old Trav Altbier.  Can we say Yummm (with 3 Ms)!!!

So if you ever find yourself on a 16 hour solo drive from Portland to Vegas, you know the perfect place to stop for something AMAZINGLY different.  Here’s to life being delicious, all your moments being postcard worthy, and Team Dirty Fries!!!

Kat Thomas is the Editor in Chief of Edible Skinny, a site dedicated to making your life postcard worthy. She is also the CEO of the creative media company This Way Adventures. You can find more about both brands at http://www.thiswayadventures.com