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Portland’s drinking roots date back to timber times at the turn of the 19th century, when it was a major hub for extractive resource industries from throughout the Pacific Northwest.
In more recent years, its resources have turned cultural: Portland’s music, coffee, and food-cart scenes have been widely exported in the 21st century, and the restaurants continue to win national awards (and feature frequently in BA’s annual Best New Restaurants list) and draw ambitious young chefs from around the world.
But Portland remains a drinking town first and foremost, its 21st-century denizens not too different from the thirsty loggers who grew this town a hundred or so odd years ago. We want to drink, and drink well, preferably in each other’s company, and in rooms that aren’t too brightly lit, so as to obscure our rough edges.
Here you’ll find a collection of eight intriguing bars, all opened to visitors and locals alike within the last calendar year.
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2615 SE Clinton St.
@favoriteneighbors
Electro-Cumbia beats on the high-end hi-fi, soft red lighting, a dreamlike atmosphere: Daydream is an alluring little hideout on SE Clinton, where there’s always a live DJ and the drinks skewer trendily low ABV. There’s 15 or so natural-leaning wines by the glass each night, lowballs made with local amari and citrus, sake and soda combinations, and a tight draft beer selection. Everyone looks good inside this place, and you will too.
You should try: The bar’s Rye & Spelt ale, a collaboration with local Duality Brewing made with Albariño grapes.
Sometimes what you want is just a bar. Side Eye is exactly that: a dim, dark neo-dive with good music and stiff drinks. The bar sports a half-dozen booths and snuggly banquettes at the front window, while the backbar is all class, with impressive deco light fixtures and a dozen coveted bar seats watching the action. There are serious drinks happening here, like a Rob Roy built with toasted cashew, cacao and Kummel, a kind of herbal caraway liqueur. Unfussy options are no less delicious, like the “Royale With Cheese” burger and olive oil martini, both appropriately uncomplicated. The cumulative effect is something halfway between a proper dive with a touch of upscale show—you could drop this bar in LA’s Silver Lake or Brooklyn’s Fort Greene, no sweat.
You should try: The bar’s highball menu is built around house-carbonated toasted coconut soda on tap, paired with your choice of spirit (I like mine with blended scotch).
3326 SE Belmont St.
@barloonportland
Bar Loon looms big on the revitalized nightlife sprawling up and down Belmont Avenue in the heart of SE Portland. It’s way too easy to stop into Bar Loon for a snack. Try the fried artichokes and the head-on grilled Old Bay prawns paired alongside local brews from Away Days and Upright Brewing. The interior sprawls, an effect that feels doubled thanks to the bar’s judicious use of mirrors and flickering candlelight.
You should try: Order one of the bar’s Littles, like a miniature vesper or a half-sized dirty martini, the perfect amount of cocktail. Or dive right in with the Eternal Life, a compelling savory tropical drink that somehow successfully combines mint-and-tomato-infused gin with coconut and lime.
Conceptual, intelligent cocktails with a flourish of modern art? We aren’t in London, darling, we’re at Malpractice. Here a soundtrack featuring Thom Yorke’s solo stuff bleeps and bloops, fuchsia lighting makes everyone glow, and the half dozen oysters dressed up with roasted bay leaf oil are downright sexy. This is Portland’s best bar for a really good second date, the sort of place you go once things start to get interesting. A little pocket bar of six tables and four bar seats, Malpractice balances its minimalist aesthetic with outlandish, maximalist glassware and cocktails that are unapologetically playful. My Most Infamous Nude features Chartreuse, a hogo-forward Jamaican rum blend, and falernum, served in an oversized ceramic banana. Malpractice may come off as too cool, but when the drinks arrive, the whole thing becomes memorably weird, gleeful, and even a touch goofy.
You should try: The bar’s dirty martini is built on Paranubes aguardiente, which takes the drink in a briny direction with dry vermouth, bay leaf oil, and seawater.
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308 SE Morrison St.
@cultclassicspdx
What do Gattaca, Hellraiser III, Hackers, and From Dusk Till Dawn have in common? You’ll find a VHS tape of each proudly displayed behind the bar at Cult Classics, a video bar opened in February 2025 boasting more than 600 titles in its impressive library. This is a transportive bar that feels like a ’90s video rental shop, with bubble glass columns and flamingo pink neon lighting. Food is kept hilariously simple—think “laser tag fun center” cuisine—but there’s a nice micro-draft beer list featuring breweries like Barley Brown’s and Stokes, plus beer-and-shot specials and affordable drinks. On Sunday nights they turn the volume up, screening classic films at full volume. On a recent visit, a rapt audience took in the 1990 Arnold Schwarzenegger epic Total Recall.
You should try: The Hard Ticket to Hawaii cocktail almost sounds like a dare: Hpnotiq, Tito’s vodka, peach schnapps, pineapple juice, and soda. Would I have drunk something almost exactly like this in high school before going to Blockbuster? And would that have been ill-advised, in retrospect? I’ll never tell.
3010 NW Nicolai St.
@jerrystavern
A charming Wisconsin backroads tavern that somehow got lost in SE Portland, Jerry’s is at the head of a new class of Portland bars taking dive bar culture seriously. The interior of Jerry’s is stuffed with Midwest sports memorabilia, much of it sourced from owner Jerry Benedetto’s own childhood bedroom. The bar program is also deeply Midwestern: They sell more Miller High Life than any bar in the state, the Bloody Mary is an architectural masterpiece of toppings and skewers (expect summer sausage, smoked cheese, olives, celery, and a lime wedge—sometimes a whole pickle, or even a tiny burger), and shots of Malört flow like water. Jerry’s serves the best fried buffalo wings in town, plus crispy-puffy little cheese curds to dunk in ranch. If there’s a bar in Portland where people are least likely to rot on their phones, it’s Jerry’s.
You should try: If you’re a Malört noob, this is a great place to take that precious first shot of the stuff. My go-to at Jerry’s, however, is a crisp, refreshing pint of Point Special Lager, an easy-drinking beer brewed in Stevens Point, Wisconsin. And if there’s Pudding Shots on the specials board, do one of those too.
Fancy Bay is an over-the-top clubhouse for serious wine drinkers, the sort of place with more than 10 Champagnes by the glass, not to mention bottles of Burgundy, Barolo and awesome German Riesling that’ll make your heart flutter. The focus here is on so-called classic wines. This is not a natty clubhouse, though verily you’ll find many wines on the list at Fancy Baby that meet any reasonable definition of natural from a winemaking perspective (and really, the whole uptight natural or classic binary thing is kind of played out at this point anyway). It is also a convivial and comfortable lounge, with amply sized booths and comfy little two-tops and live DJs on weekends.
You should try: A very knowledgeable bartender can help you choose something lovely by the glass. Pair it with house-made potato chips and Gribiche dip with edible flowers and pickled chiles.
5513 NE 30th Ave.
@pleasure.mountain
Opened in January 2025, there’s so much to like at this brand-new bar dedicated to India’s beverage culture. The interior features Bollywood posters and a sign requesting “no phones” in Hindi above the bar. The menu is vast and multifaceted, with a focus on house infusions and washes. You’ll find buttery ghee-washed rum, floral jasmine-washed gin, and multiple lassi riffs. Each guest is served a little dish of spiced lotus nuts as a drinking snack, while the menu features chura vada pav, pani puri, and a Goan chicken curry omelet. The Baarish is a truly outstanding NA cocktail that drinks like ambrosial liquid incense, made with pineapple, tonic, and sandalwood syrup. You’ll also find Indian microbreweries like Kati Patang and Maka Di, plus single malt whiskey from Indian distilleries. The bar wears its influences on its sleeve, crediting certain drinks as being adapted from Wink Bar in Mumbai or Death & Company in New York. The end result is a polyphonic spree of subcontinental flavors.
You should try: A Bloody Mary made with guava instead of tomato, or the Lady Kenji’s Lover with coconut-washed scotch, masala syrup, date purée, cream, and Amaro Ramazzotti.