Space Room Lounge I immediately loved the quirky space age décor in Space Room Lounge. Black walls with apparently hand-painted murals, sexy curved black booths, spaceship shaped light fixtures. Just delightful. Must be the influence of all of the cheesy space movies and tv shows I watched in my youth. ...
Anchor Bar Well, it is a dive bar, I’ll say that much. Not exceptional, but Anchor Bar is more than serviceable. Should you find yourself nearing the wilds of Vancouver and in need of a good stiff drink or a quick bite to eat, you can comfortably do so at ...
The Candlelight Restaurant and Lounge Business in the front, party in the back! Yep, it’s the mullet of dive bars. The Candlelight Restaurant and Lounge looks like your garden variety seedy Chinese restaurant at first, but this one has a dive bar attached. It’s pretty clean inside, which was ...
Starday Tavern Name another bar where the house dog greets you at the door. Well, this is Portland, so maybe there are others, but none that I have encountered. Genghis is a ball of friendly canine delight that sets the tone in this classic dive bar. Starday Tavern has great ...
Holman’s Bar & Grill The question was hanging over us and we needed to settle it – is Holman’s Bar & Grill (AKA “Holman’s Restaurant”) a dive or just a divey restaurant? Well… let’s just say it swings both ways. Two thirds of it is a regular diner-y restaurant and ...
Sandy Hut This place is retro heaven, it is the hut of huts. We ventured in to Sandy Hut on a Sunday morning for breakfast, undeterred by the pile of puke on the sidewalk outside the front door. Somebody had a fun Saturday night. We were greeted by stellar mid-century ...
The Alibi Tiki Lounge Iconic Portland destination Dive Bar. When you look up “Dive Bar” in the dictionary, a picture of The Alibi Tiki Lounge should appear. It has it all! So dark you can’t tell if it is night or day once you disappear inside (and there’s a reasonable ...
Slim’s Restaurant & Lounge Slim’s Restaurant & Lounge is very much a Portland style dive bar – Slim’s has excellent food and tap list in a pleasingly divey setting. Dark and smelly with a sticky floor, don’t-stay-too-long barstools and an awesome menu with solid beer and whiskey selections. Fun old ...
Dots Cafe Dots Cafe has a delightfully divey vibe. Pleasingly dark space with fun light fixtures, retro flocked wallpaper and numerous dusty old cheesy velvet paintings on the walls. We sat in the best seat in the house – a booth beneath velvet Elvis, of course. Dots is for sure ...
The Two Point Inn AKA The Two Point Inn Tavern We were headed to the Twilight Room and couldn’t resist ducking into this cute lil’ dive bar! Two Point Inn (AKA The Two Point Inn Tavern) is tiny with just one long line of 10-12 barstools, but they still managed ...
Mad Hanna From the outside, Mad Hanna is in a non-descript and a touch scary building in a random neighborhood, but behind the door lies an oasis! I never thought a dive bar could be pretty, but this one kinda is, oddly. Cozy, dark with fun and quirky décor; everything ...
The Lay Low Tavern It was a balmy summer night when we first wandered into the Lay Low. And so glad we did! This place has it all – dark, right size, great music playing, friendly and efficient bartender with a heavy hand. The memory of years of cigarette smoking ...
