Skagit Valley’s Garden Path Fermentation opened its second location on June 17 in Bellingham. The Great Northern Bottle Shop & Lounge is located at 1319 Commercial St. in the former Uisce Irish Pub space.
Makers of beer, wine, cider and mead, Garden Path launched its fermentation project in Burlington in 2018. Owners Amber Watts and Ron Extract moved to the Skagit Valley from Jester King Brewery in Austin, Texas, where Extract was a managing partner and Watts had a job with so many roles she could never quite figure out her title.
“We decided to venture out on our own and relocate to the Pacific Northwest because we wanted to be closer to our ingredients, and we wanted to really be able to make, ideally, 20-mile beer,” Extract said. “Skagit Valley is one of the few places in the world where it’s possible to do that.”
With production continuing at Garden Path’s Burlington location, The Great Northern in Bellingham operates as a tasting room and bottle shop. Inside, the former pub space is intentionally brighter with light-colored walls and refinished floors. A mid-century modern living room lounge, low-top and high-top tables, and the bar offer a variety of seating options. The Great Northern plans to offer outdoor seating soon.
For Extract, inspiration for The Great Northern comes from many years of working in the beer industry as an importer, retailer, distributor and brewer.
“I spent the better part of a decade working for Shelton Brothers importers, which was really a big part of the transformation for me,” Extract said. “I went and visited a lot of really tiny artisan breweries. A lot of the breweries that we now feature on our shelves, I developed relationships with them, and came to understand why they do what they do.”
An entire wall is dedicated to The Great Northern’s carefully curated bottle selection, with regions ranging from the Pacific Northwest to Texas to France. Extract and Watts showcase their decades of industry experience on these shelves.
“After having worked for a big-box store that carried everything, I really like the idea of working for a small shop where you could curate the selection and kind of make it implicit that if it’s on the shelf, you recommend it,” Extract said.
While the Great Northern is a specialty beer shop, Extract wants its offerings to remain approachable.
“I think people hear ‘specialty shop’ and they might think that it’s all going to be esoteric — unless you’re a beer geek who only wants to drink intensely sour beer, it’s not gonna be for you,” he said. “And as far as I’m concerned, we don’t even make sour beer. Our beers are meant to be super-approachable. We make beers for us, but also for our local audience. So we make beer that can be a tasty refresher after a long day farming in the field.”
Extract referred to the beer we were drinking, The Little Horse Around, as an example. This table beer is one of several “nice and easy” (read: approachable) options on the draft beer menu.
The Great Northern features more than 30 taps of beer, cider and wine. They pour Garden Path brews in addition to local (Chuckanut, Otherlands) and international offerings. Beers are sorted into helpful categories on the menu, from “nice and easy” and “dark and malty” to “funky and tart” and of course “spontaneously fermented.” A non-alcoholic cider is available from Hierophant Meadery.
A beer engine allows The Great Northern to serve traditional cask ales. Unlike kegged beer, cask beer is pumped by hand, resulting in a pleasant, low-carbonation drinking experience. It’s hard to find cask ale in Bellingham; the Great Northern may be the only place in town serving Machine House Dark Mild on cask.
The Great Northern doesn’t serve food, but you can bring in eats from anywhere — including neighboring Brandywine Kitchen. Plus, the 21-plus lounge is dog-friendly. The Great Northern is open from noon to 9 p.m. Wednesday through Monday.
Brews and spirits news
• Larrabee Lager Company opens Friday, Aug. 4 at 44151 Meridian St. in Bellingham. The brewery will serve pizza and traditional lagers in a communal-style beer hall and outdoor beer garden. Grand opening weekend hours will be 11 a.m. to 10 p.m., Friday through Sunday.
• Another distillery is coming to Skagit Valley. Last month, CDN business columnist Frank Catalano reported that Oaks Blood Distillery plans to open in Burlington in July. The distillery will be located at 1635 S. Walnut St., with a focus on producing vodka, gin, whiskey and bourbon.
•In an effort to beautify Bellingham “pint by pint,” the Downtown Bellingham Partnership is collaborating with downtown breweries on a beer series called Bkind Brews. Available on draft and in cans, Aslan Brewing’s Bkind Helles was released on Friday, July 7. A portion of Bkind Brews sales are being used to improve the Commercial Street Plaza with a colorful new mural.
Brandon Fralic’s Drink Cascadia column runs the second week of every month. Reach him at drinkcascadia@gmail.com.
