Favorite
Hawthorne boulevard, where affluent hipster bohemians and the elder hippie gentry sip coffee al fresco while benignly observing turistas shopping for spendy knickknacks, is a fitting microcosm of Portland’s culture. Indeed, it’s a strip heavy with java stops and stylishly ragamuffin boutiques, but folks in need of a stiff drink are usually left bereft. Sure, BridgePort Brewing and the Bagdad Read more...
Favorite
If you’re not quite ready to run the table, odds are you’ll dig the mellow scene at Back Stage Bar, where clusters of cue-wielding Hawthorne hipsters are all in good, groovy moods. Read more...
Favorite
Beer dilettantes and fern-bar regulars will likely not be enchanted by the stark industrial interior, which resembles an auto-parts warehouse with a bar sprouting up from its center. But a constantly rotating cast of 19 taps ensures that there’s always a spanking new IPA from some remote artisan brewery in the hinterlands of Pennsylvania to get acquainted with. Read more...
Favorite
Lined with colorful maps and nautical charts, the walls of the North 45 Pub reminds us that any story sounds cooler if it happens in a foreign country. But out on the flagstone patio, the picnic tables and simple strings of incandescent bulbs tell you how good it is to feel right at home. If you come in to spin Read more...
Favorite
Why is the bar in this multileveled, shiplike behemoth full of grinning office drones at 2 p.m. on a Friday? Looks like the three-martini lunch has been replaced by the two-pint afternoon bailout. No wonder America can no longer compete in the worldwide market. But we have to admit, it’s pretty amusing to order a Sea Dog Blue Paw Wild Read more...
Favorite
A dollop of spit clings to the old man’s grin as he hands you a note. He’d tried to convey the awesomeness of your rendition of “Burning Love” with words, but his toothlessness muffled everything in gummy gibberish. You squint down at his chicken scratch: “No Obama! Damn! What soup!” You assume it’s English. You also assume it’s a compliment. Read more...
Favorite
It’s not so much a bar crawl as it is a bar sprawl: A handful of pubs—the Frodo-sized, 10-seat Little Red Shed is our favorite—strewn about 38 hilly acres of gardens, golf courses and vineyards, most with a seamless view of the Columbia River Gorge. Best of all, after you realize you’ve had a little too much to drive home Read more...
Favorite
Look, we dig rubbery hot wings and timid domestic lager as much as the next overworked flunky, but what we’re really searching for in a happy hour is something out of the ordinary: Evidence that the proprietor is going that extra mile to treat us to a truly satisfying après-work moment. At McCormick & Schmick’s Harborside Pilsner Room, the cheeseburger Read more...
Favorite
Loud, (formerly) smoky, and as boisterous as any local found in Swindon or Tunbridge Wells, the Horse Brass serves as a home away from home for English ex-pats in need of a pint, some soccer speculation and a few rounds of darts—not to mention bangers, pasties and the dreaded Scotch egg. But the Horse Brass is actually much more than Read more...