Going Out No. 25: Monster Smash and Belmont Station
Portland's place to be(er).
Welcome! This is the Going Out edition of Riley’s Recs, where I review a restaurant, bar, or activity here in Portland. Every Sunday, I also share Staying In recipe recommendations for your week. Don’t forget to check out pdxrecs.com for even more recommendations and follow RR on Instagram at @rileysrecs. Enjoy!
Meal: Dinner
Price for one including tip: $24
To eat: OG Smash Burger and Fries
To drink: Breakside’s My Homie IPA
Dog/Kid Friendly: Yes
Sometimes, you just need a burger and a beer. And there’s no better place for that than Belmont Station—Portland’s oldest bottle shop and taproom.
You’ll find Belmont Station not on Belmont, but on the corner of SE 45th and Stark. Originally located next to the Horse Brass Pub on Belmont Street, the shop kept its name when it relocated in 2007. The new space brought more fridges and an adjoining “Biercafé”—a term that might feel a little dated until you remember that Belmont Station has been around for 28 years and weathered every high and low of craft beer’s evolution. From the days when dads brewed in garages to the explosion of “microbreweries” to the corporatization of 10 Barrel.
It’s easy to forget that there was a time when restaurants didn’t have five IPAs on tap—let alone a sour, a stout, or a blonde. But places like Belmont Station (and John’s Marketplace in Multnomah Village!) were there from the start—stirring the wort, if you know what I mean—helping build craft beer’s popularity one pour at a time.
Here’s how it works at Belmont Station. You have two choices:
Buy a can or a four-pack from the shop and have it opened in the taproom.
Order something from the 35 or so rotating taps.
It always feels slightly wrong to drink a $3 beer from the fridge when the draft options cost $8—but it’s totally allowed.
The tough part is choosing from the 1400 or so beers in stock. To help, fridges are organized into categories like Hoppy, Imports, Single Cans, Lagers, New Releases, etc. I tend to pick a fresh hop if it’s the season, anything from Ruse Brewing, or whatever’s labeled a staff favorite.
Everything in stock has been rotated and properly stored under UV-filtered light for max freshness. And most beers have been canned within the past few weeks. This is important because hops fade quickly (in about 30 to 60 days for more hop-forward beers like IPAs). For context, grocery store beers are generally months old by the time they hit the shelf. If you want to check, you can find the canned date on the bottom of most cans.
One of my favorite parts of Belmont Station has nothing to do with beer. It’s the food cart in the back that’s slinging some of the best smashburgers in town. Which is saying something, because there are a lot of places to get a smashburger in Portland.
People love to say that all smashburgers taste the same. But they don’t. Some are too burnt. Some don’t have the right bun.
But not at Monster Smash. Here, patties are caramelized and crispy and topped with the classics: American cheese and pickles. Everything is layered between a soft brioche bun that deflates at first touch.
Sure, there’s a salad and a chicken sandwich on the menu. But I always get the same thing: the OG smashburger and a small order of fries. If you’re a Monster Smash veteran, you know that the advent of fry sizes was a long-awaited move. Fries used to only come in one size: enormous. It could feed a family of five (and it probably did many times).
Heads up: Monster Smash’s hours can be unpredictable. They often sell out by 7:30 p.m., close early on Sundays, and waits can stretch to 45 minutes. Expect to be a beer deep before your food’s ready.
You can eat just about anywhere—except the bottle shop. There’s seating on Stark Street, inside the taproom, and at picnic tables behind the cart, both indoor and out.
Both smashburgers and taprooms are at risk of oversaturation. Once “the hot new thing,” the novelty seems to have worn off. Craft beer production in the United States is on a three-year decline, falling by 4% in 2024. Iconic Portland brewpubs like Widmer, Bridgeport, and Lompoc have closed their doors. And while there are no official Smashburger reports (that I know of), restaurants are increasingly removing them from their menus.
But head to Belmont Station on any weeknight, and you’ll see a steady stream of people heading in and out of the bottle shop or lining up at Monster Smash. They’ll have their dogs or kids in tow, maybe a cribbage set or cards. Like their slogan says, Belmont Station is the place to be(er).
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I really enjoyed talking to the owner of the Belmont Station too, super nice person.