The Cheerful Tortoise The Cheerful Tortoise in downtown Portland is nestled within a patch of high-rise dorms warehousing scads of Portland State University students. It is a bona-fide dive bar, but firmly under the subheading of college dive bar. Slinging beer and food since 1951, the space is a rabbit ...
Scooter McQuade’s Pass by the spacious covered outdoor area and enter into the dark, long and skinny dive bar that is Scooter McQuade’s (aka “Scooter’s”). In business since 1989, it looks much older than that. In an antique sort of way, not a rode-hard-and-put-away-wet kind of way. The mirror-backed bar ...
Our First Ever Meet Up Was Awesome! On Sunday August 27, 2023, at 11:30 AM we had our out first ever Portland Dive Bars Meet Up at the Sandy Hut and we had a blast! It was so much fun to raise a glass & enjoy great food with all ...
Slim’s Restaurant & Lounge – 2023 Update Slim’s Restaurant & Lounge was one of our very first dive bar articles from the pre-pandemic days (read our original review from 2019 here – https://www.portlanddivebars.com/slims-restaurant-and-lounge/) Reportedly first established in 1911, it felt right to revisit this iconic spot for an update and ...
Marie’s We weren’t planning to stop at Marie’s, but the deliciously dark interior sucked us right in on our way to Slim’s. Little did we know, that was just the beginning because this crazy place is actually three bars in one! Walk into Marie’s and you find a somewhat standard, ...
The Wishing Well Restaurant and Nightclub My age is showing, but I kept hearing the lyrics from that 80s song as we walked into the ‘nightclub’ area of The Wishing Well Chinese Restaurant and Nightclub… “A wishing well to kiss and tell”. I don’t know how much kissin’ and tellin’ ...
Blue Bird Tavern We hit this spot at the tail end of an extensive research day in St John’s. Every and I mean EVERY bartender in the area knew the Blue Bird Tavern and either looked at us askance or made comments to the effect of “good luck with that” ...
Your Inn Tavern Look beyond the unfortunate name of the Your Inn Tavern (say the first two words fast and think of waterfalls) and what you will find is an historic Portland dive bar. Open since 1923, this is a charming little spot on a sleepy street in the St ...
The Perch Bar & Grill The Perch Bar & Grill is a neighborhood institution and has been in operation since the 1940s as near as anyone can tell. And our bartender/cook/waitress Lori has been here for 28 years, so she should know the history better than damn near anyone. Apparently, ...
Island Cafe How bougie did I feel pulling up to Island Cafe aboard a boat owned by some dear friends and fellow dive bar enthusiasts? Pretty damn bougie! But, Island Café rapidly brought me down several notches. Despite the enviable waterfront location smack dab in the middle of the Columbia ...
Park City Pub First off, I wanna lobby to bring back the former name of this establishment because it is so incredibly awesome: “Sir Loin’s”! Why would anyone ever change that name? I’m still chuckling to myself. That being said, I think the present, blander name fits the current incarnation. ...
Sloan’s Tavern – In Memoriam “Sloan’s Tavern Is Closing” – https://bridgetownbites.com/2022/05/19/sloans-tavern-is-closing-portland-oregon/ We’ve been itching to get to this place and so glad we finally did! Especially since word on the street is they are closing for good at the end of this year (2022). And that’s a damn shame. This ...