First Look: Bullard’s Sister Bar Abigail Hall

1

Abby’s Burger, with two dry-aged beef patties, “fancy sauce,” iceberg lettuce, American cheese, and shoestring fries

2

Abby’s Burger, with two dry-aged beef patties, “fancy sauce,” iceberg lettuce, American cheese, and shoestring fries

3

The 35-seat bar and lounge cozies up to a historically accurate green-tiled (and non-functional) fireplace. Note: the room was not 100% assembled when this photo was taken.

4

The 35-seat bar and lounge cozies up to a historically accurate green-tiled (and non-functional) fireplace. Note: the room was not 100% assembled when this photo was taken.

5

The setup for a group martini or Manhattan with enough olive brine to make the thing really, really dirty.

6

The setup for a group martini or Manhattan with enough olive brine to make the thing really, really dirty.

7

Beautiful, minute details, clockwise from top: floral wallpaper painted by Michael Paulus of Angel Face fame; the original penny-tile floors; the actual molding from Cornelius Hotel’s 1911 Ladies Reception Hall

8

Beautiful, minute details, clockwise from top: floral wallpaper painted by Michael Paulus of Angel Face fame; the original penny-tile floors; the actual molding from Cornelius Hotel’s 1911 Ladies Reception Hall

9

Buttermilk fried chicken fingers with jalapeno ranch and hot honey mustard

10

Buttermilk fried chicken fingers with jalapeno ranch and hot honey mustard

11

Abigail Hall mastermind Jennifer Quist imagines the bar becoming equal parts downtown hangout, industry gathering place, and Bullard waiting room.

12

Abigail Hall mastermind Jennifer Quist imagines the bar becoming equal parts downtown hangout, industry gathering place, and Bullard waiting room.

13

Left: L’Aventura, with Reyka vodka, Dolin Blanc, Amaro Montenegro, and Astoria’s Amaro Tea with some very good Chex Mix. Right: Abigail Hall’s seatless, column-flanked bar.

14

Left: L’Aventura, with Reyka vodka, Dolin Blanc, Amaro Montenegro, and Astoria’s Amaro Tea with some very good Chex Mix. Right: Abigail Hall’s seatless, column-flanked bar.

‹PREVNEXT›

It’s been more than two years since the news dropped that Top Chef finalist Doug Adams would man his own restaurant, Bullard, inside Woodlark hotel. On Saturday, December 15, the hotel and restaurant will officially open. Also set to open? Abigail Hall, a beautiful bar from hospitality pro Jennifer Quist (Multnomah Whiskey Library), veteran bar man Daniel Osborne (Teardrop Lounge), and Doug Adams.

Together, the trio built a stately, floral, 35-seat room with a few trashy-fun cocktails, and a small, accessible food menu. 

Quist took inspiration from famed Oregon suffragist Abigail Scott Duniway for the bar. It’s the same space that housed the Ladies Reception Hall, a regular meeting place for suffragists, back in the early 1900s when it was the Cornelius Hotel. “The history of this hotel is really important to me,” says Quist. “Being able to recreate this in this bar space has been really fun.” With help from an actual historian, the team rebuilt the reception hall down to the exact paint color and tiling. (Bonus: the floral wallpaper was painted by Michael Paulus of Angel Face fame.) For history buffs, this room holds many, many Easter eggs. 

Doug Adams’ nine-item menu feels more like the 1950s than the early 1900s, with farm vegetable crudité dipped in green goddess ranch, shrimp cocktails with fresh horseradish, and Waldorf salad with walnuts, apples, blue cheese, and chicories. Yes, there is fried chicken, a signature of Adams’s—this time in chicken finger form with jalapeno ranch and hot honey mustard.  

Osborne, meanwhile, offers plenty of tame sippers, from beer and wine to $8 spritzes and customizable group martinis and manhattans. But the cocktail menu holds a few surprises. Alongside pretty-looking quaffs like Born on the Bayeux with calvados, sherry, and salted honey, there’s the Marcy: a divey $6 bundle of “Freezer Tequila,” Miller High Life, and “a dirty joke.” There’s also something called a vodka-Red Bull gimlet with vodka, lime, and “Red Bull reduction.” 

Will Abigail Hall become a regular downtown happy hour haunt, or just a waiting room for its big brother, Bullard? Whatever the case, it sure is good to look at. 

Abigail Hall opens Saturday, December 15, inside Woodlark (813 SW Alder St). Open every day 3 p.m.–close.