Boundary Bay Brewery in Bellingham, Washington celebrates the arrival of Friday all summer long with a fish fry in their beer garden every Friday from 4 to 8pm. They beer-batter and then fry fresh locally caught rockfish in a giant fryer, and serve it up with an order of fresh french fries and freshly made tarter sauce, with an optional beer, and if you want, a side of cole slaw. The fish is light and flaky, the fries are hot and fresh, and the beer, well Boundary Bay brews are just about as good as it gets, in my opinion. The fried rockfish (two good-sized pieces) and an order of fries is a mere $8.00; you can substitute onion rings for a $1.50. Rockfish is locally plentiful; it's a white-fleshed saltwater fish that occurs in Washington waters in a variety of species. The beer batter and the freshness of the fish are a fabulous combination. For those of you who are not beer fans, I note that Boundary Bay makes their own very tasty root beer. I further note, that there's a happy hour barbecue on Thursdays during the summer, featuring $5.00 burgers (beef, salmon, or veggie) with a dollar off all brews, from 4 to 6. Thursday nights are also when Boundary usually cracks one of their special and very limited barrels of cask ale.

I mentioned, in passing, that the fish fry and the Thursday happy hour barbecues are in Boundary Bay's beer garden. This really is a lovely place; there are tables, a stage, and collection of plants carefully selected for beauty, and for their ability to attract butterflies and hummingbirds—and along the back, on the street-side, a carefully tended collection of hops growing on strings, as hops have been planted have since the middle ages. One of the signs of summer, is that Boundary Bay is serving in the beer garden.

I am very much a fan of Boundary Bay; not only for the reliably good food (do not miss the smoked salmon chowder) but for their beer. The Scotch Ale, the IPA, and the Oatmeal Stout can't be beat, and the once-a-week cask ales are a rare treat in a day when macro beers are the standard. Last year, Boundary Bay produced 5,738 barrels of beer, at 31 gallons each, making them the largest beer-brewing brewpub in the U. S., a record they've now held for three years running.