Try All Of These New Bars Coming Soon to Portland
2016 has already seen a few bars and restaurants open in Portland — café and vermouth bar Americano; Paydirt, a whiskey bar with a phone booth to order champagne; and Bible Club, the authentic speakeasy spot in Sellwood, to name a few. The city sees no signs of slowing, and as we head into the summer season there are a few places opening on the horizon. Here are our most anticipated bar openings of summer 2016. Let us know which ones you’re looking forward to most on our Facebook or Twitter.
Century Bar
The newest addition to the Lightning Bar Collective, Century Bar has been in production for months now, originally set to open in January but repeatedly delayed. The bar is finally opening June 10th, at least softly. This year’s Negroni Social on June 6th will serve as a preview party of sorts for the new spot. Century Bar lacks no ambition, as it will be Portland’s first mega sports bar though with the telltale class and elegance of a Lightning Collective bar. The space will have three bars in multiple rooms, including a rooftop patio and private event spaces, that latter of which are already available for booking. It generally won’t look like a sports bar, with a notable lack of screens and sports paraphernalia, but when a game is on, five screens will descend from the ceiling, and up to 200 guests can watch from the bar’s stadium seating and throughout. Furthermore, the food will have a distinctly sports bar approach: think hot-dogs and vegan tacos rather than plated dishes. During off seasons, the bar will play classic and cult films on the screens. (930 SE Sandy Blvd.)
Solo Club
Besaw’s is one of Portland’s oldest, if not the oldest, restaurants. Open for over a century, it was temporarily shuttered last year, due to landlords refusing to renew its lease. Luckily, it re-opened in early 2016 around the corner from its original location. Now, it’s being joined by a sister bar, Solo Club (the name Besaw’s temporarily went by during prohibition). Like Americano, Solo Club will serve as a café during the day, offering counter service and baked goods, and more of a cocktail bar in the afternoon and evening until 1 AM. Also like Americano, the drink menu will focus on more unconventional ingredients: in this case, Amari, bittersweet aperitifs and digestifs. The bar is set to open in June. (2110 NW Raleigh St.)
Mars Wine Bar & Kitchen
Opening the first weekend of June in the Alameda District is Mars Wine Bar & Kitchen, a wine bar dedicated to “classic and eclectic wines”, including many old-world wines as well as wines from underrepresented countries, such as Croatia and Lebanon. Unlike other wine bars in Portland, the selection of Oregon wines will be slim. The bar will eventually have wines on tap, some Oregon beers on draught and in bottle, a select supply of whiskeys, and a private dining hall that sits 30. Food will be casual, wine friendly fare—nothing too fancy. (2333 NE Fremont St.)
Double Mountain Taproom
This one has been kept mostly quiet, though in the fall of 2015, Double Mountain, the wildly popular Hood River brewery, confirmed that it would be opening a taproom in SE Portland. Double Mountain is considered by many to be one of Oregon’s finest breweries, offering products such as the Vaporizer Pale Ale, a Kölsch, an Indian Red Ale, and the Hop Lava IPA, among others. Soon, sometime in June or July, the brewery will be bringing all of its beers, along with occasional guest beers, and the wood fired oven cuisine the Hood River brewery is known for to Portland. The brewery recently confirmed to Eater Portland that it would be taking over the vacated space that the short lived Kilt Pub was in on SE Woodstock. (4336 SE Woodstock Blvd.)
Photo via Flickr user mcorkuska