BARS: “The Cave”

From Willamette Week, 6/11/08:
SUBTERRANEAN BLISS: With the hominess of a house show, the covert charm of a speakeasy, a menu filled with delicious-sounding cheap Persian vegetarian specialties and bric-a-brac décor recalling a ’50s beatnik cafe, The Cave (636 SW Jackson St., 274-4294) is an unpretentious blessing to Portland jazz.

BARS: “Yen-Ha”

From Willamette Week’s “DRINK GUIDE 2008″:
Entering Yen Ha is like going to a Saigon speakeasy: Walk through the often-empty storefront dining area, through the back door, and discover the wonders of this dingy-ass, smells-like-shit time warp filled with good people, loads of booze and cheap Vietnamese eats.

BARS: “Scandals”

From Willamette Week’s “DRINK GUIDE 2008″:
The nouveau-styled, airport-loungy Scandals is an all-boys stronghold, where there’s no door to the men’s room and flat-screen televisions regularly show scantily clad, sculpted gentlemen walking down runways.

FOOD: “Pause Kitchen”

From Willamette Week’s “DRINK GUIDE 2008″:
Belly grumbling for tasty grub and good drink? It’s almost worth pulling the emergency alarm on the MAX, so the conductor will screetch to a stop and let you off right in front of Pause. With a picnic table-laden, homey fenced-in backyard patio and a tasteful, TV-less dining room, it’s [...]

BARS: “Imbibe”

From Willamette Week’s “DRINK GUIDE 2008″:
If Imbibe’s “take it in” tagline were applied to any neighboring bar along Southeast Hawthorne, it’d probably refer to inhaling the thick cloud of cigarette smoke. But at Imbibe, the air’s a little cleaner—so we assume they’d like us to soak up the bar’s carefully crafted atmosphere.

BARS: “Ash Street Saloon”

From Willamette Week’s “DRINK GUIDE 2008″:
Any joint that has a Pirates of the Caribbean pinball machine is fine by me. Besides offering a place to destroy the Kraken, the Ash Street is a major fixture of downtown’s decidedly non-Barracuda nightlife, hosting one of the city’s heftiest lineups of local and West Coast live rock seven nights a [...]

BARS: “Night Light Lounge”

From Willamette Week’s “DRINK GUIDE 2008″:
For an affordable, classy lounge that’s true to the heart and soul of the Clinton neighborhood, it’s hard to beat the atmosphere at the Night Light. Inside, candlelit tables and plush, loungy couches are surrounded by an always intriguing rotating art collection.

BARS: “Scandals”

From Willamette Week’s “DRINK GUIDE 2008″:
The nouveau-styled, airport-loungy Scandals is an all-boys stronghold, where there’s no door to the men’s room and flat-screen televisions regularly show scantily clad, sculpted gentlemen walking down runways. If you’re not inside hitting on single hombres, tables in the street-front patio offer a perfect (and rare) vantage point for watching the [...]

BARS: “Embers”

From Willamette Week’s “DRINK GUIDE 2008″:
For a place that’s run by gay owners and serviced by a very gay bar staff, Embers still ends up attracting a pretty mixed clientele. Which means that just about anyone can show up any evening for one of the nightly (and often outrageous, in the best possible sense) drag [...]

BARS: “Crush”

From Willamette Week’s “DRINK GUIDE 2008″:
The best reason to stumble into Crush is for its late-night DJs and dance parties running Tuesdays through Sundays, like “Queer Bait” Thursdays with Splendora & King Fader.