When you think about it, Portland really is a beverage city. It’s known for exacting coffee roasters and award-winning breweries, and its major role in the craft movements of both. The city itself is positioned between two world-class wine regions, and several distilleries pull water from the Bull Run Watershed to create gins, whiskies, and even aquavit. So of course, Portland’s cocktail scene is no exception: The city’s bars often balance the approachable with the inventive — incorporating house syrups, shrubs, and bitters; barrel-aging and fat-washing; infusing and clarifying drinks that can be simple and austere or fun and elaborate. Find our guide to the city’s cocktail bars below; for more recent additions to the city’s scene, this map may help.
The Best Portland Cocktail Bars
Where to find Portland’s classic cocktails
The Best Portland Cocktail Bars
Where to find Portland’s classic cocktails
When you think about it, Portland really is a beverage city. It’s known for exacting coffee roasters and award-winning breweries, and its major role in the craft movements of both. The city itself is positioned between two world-class wine regions, and several distilleries pull water from the Bull Run Watershed to create gins, whiskies, and even aquavit. So of course, Portland’s cocktail scene is no exception: The city’s bars often balance the approachable with the inventive — incorporating house syrups, shrubs, and bitters; barrel-aging and fat-washing; infusing and clarifying drinks that can be simple and austere or fun and elaborate. Find our guide to the city’s cocktail bars below; for more recent additions to the city’s scene, this map may help.
Grandma’s Secret
Portland is a city that loves its hidden gems — off-the-beaten-track spots without clear signage, places that indicate an intimate knowledge of the city and its concealed wonders. So of course, this speakeasy-style, subterranean cocktail bar, marked only by a blue light, is a nod to the bars and underground clubs of Ho Chi Minh City during the French colonization of Vietnam. The drinks are sophisticated nods to the source material: The G.S., for instance, is a strong but smooth sipper pairing Indonesian arrack with pinot noir-finished whiskey, the floral notes of a French aperitif complemented by pandan and Vietnamese coffee. Snacks pull from the Vietnamese culinary canon, with items like banh mi sliders and salad rolls.
Multnomah Whiskey Library
In the early days of this Southwest Alder whiskey club, it was one of the city’s most exclusive bars, with non-members clamoring to spend the $25 on a “hall pass” for a reservation. Over the years, the bar has opened itself up to the public more and more, for events like derby parties and lantern festivals. The Library and its more casual, easier walk-in of a bar, the Green Room, remain destinations for whiskey nerds and cocktail aficionados, where bartenders clarify drinks and transform classics into a slushy. It’s not all gimmicks, though: These drinks are creative, balanced, and smart, without losing their sense of deliciousness.
Pink Rabbit
From the same team behind Fools and Horses and Dirty Pretty, Pink Rabbit is an ‘80s-tinged cocktail bar with outstanding, creative cocktails. Try the recent Internet Famous, which blends vodka with guava and oolong tea, shaken up with egg whites, or any of the other perfectly named cocktails here. Two shooters and two slushies are also on deck if you’re looking for something a little outside of the norm, or pay close attention to the asterisked drinks on the menu for a shooter version of that cocktail. The food menu is equally playful with pink pickle-topped deviled eggs, gorgonzola fondue fries, and ahi nachos.
Teardrop Lounge
It would be hard to overstate Teardrop’s influence on the city’s cocktail scene. It was, in many ways, Portland’s first craft cocktail bar, ushering in the drinking culture Portland is now known for. The expansive menu is split into descriptive categories (like “bright and crisp,” “supple and herbal,” or “deep and dark”) all of which are made with meticulous care and high-quality ingredients by knowledgeable veteran bartenders. Seasonal drinks are often a strong move here: In the summer, that may mean one of the city’s finest piña coladas, while in the fall, late harvest-noted cocktails like Boogie Street blend Asian pear butter and blood orange with Evan Williams 1783 bourbon and Novo Fogo cachaça. Year-round, large-format punches incorporate hard-to-find spirits and liqueurs like Greek Skinos Mastiha.
Bar Comala
Just off the Park Blocks in Northwest Portland, Comala not only offers a staggering selection of rare, distinctive mezcals, served in an alley of a bar evocative of 1800s Mexico; the menu itself tells stories of Mexico’s colonization and contemporary culture, incorporating Spanish, Italian, and Caribbean spirits as well as distinctive house infusions. The bar’s take on a martini, bolstered with espadín mezcal, folds in a nice toasty earthiness with sesame-infused vodka and cumin bitters; it’s unlike any martini in town.
Pacific Standard
Located within the Kex hotel in Portland, Pacific Standard owns its identity as a hotel bar unapologetically, adding a level of service and sophistication to its fundamentally adaptable format. The bar is home to Jeffrey Morgenthaler, long considered one of the city’s most famous bartenders, particularly during his time at the now-closed hotel bar Clyde Common. Morgenthaler and partner Benjamin Amberg approach cocktail classics obsessively, so each drink is deliberately executed. The gimlet uses Tanqueray gin and blood orange cordial, while the Rosé Negroni mixes gin with bianco bitters, rosé vermouth, and some sea salt. Pacific Standard also offers both zero-proof and low-proof cocktails. This is a vacationer’s day-drinking bar, which means visitors will find a strong bloody mary and plenty of coffee cocktails.
Sousòl
The lively-vibed, sultrily-lit subterranean bar from Top Chef darling and James Beard Award winner Gregory Gourdet is far more than a waiting room for the perpetually booked Kann upstairs; Sousòl is a destination in its own right, serving drinks and snacks leaning heavily on ingredients and flavors from the Caribbean with creative additions. The Heron Vet Milk Punch pairs rum agricole and pear spirit with melon and salted plum. For sustenance, seek out Trinidadian doubles of the sausage corn dog, though the menu may shift with the seasons. And pro tip: It is infinitely easier to get a reservation here.
Rum Club
The name gives away the focus of this craft cocktail bar led by owner Mike Shea. A favorite of bartenders, Rum Club serves a laid-back menu of drinks like a twist on the classic daiquiri made with absinthe and rum, the Doors and Corners with rum and tepache syrup, and the Bowline with rum, apple, and lime. For non-rum options, sip on the El Barto, which is made with tequila and Salers Gentiane, plus guava, lemon, honey, and black pepper. Rum Club also offers a solid list of zero-proof cocktails like the Dance Yrself Clean with pineapple and lime and the Hibiscus Crush with hibiscus and lemon.
Scotch Lodge
This subterranean cocktail bar is home to an A-Team of bartenders, who bend, twist, and expand what we expect of whisky. Pulling from a truly jaw-dropping list of spirits, bartenders milk-wash vodka with coconut milk before combining it with orange liqueur, cranberry, and pomegranate, or take smoky scotch and pair it with mezcal and lapsang souchong sweet vermouth in the Loch Stock. The food menu is full of stunners, as well, be it a pumpernickel-rolled fried brie with verjus syrup or a bowl of pasta with seaweed butter and candied duck. Scotch Lodge takes a few walk-ins, but it’s best to get a reservation.
Hey Love
With a dining room decked out in live plants and festooned with vintage lanterns, Hey Love evokes the atmosphere of 1970s fern bars. Its drinks are executed with modern style and techniques but harken back to a similar era, never taking drinking too seriously. For instance, the refreshingly sweet-tart slushies have been on the menu since opening, and the pro move is still to go with the Utah, Gimme Two!, two slushies blended together into a beautiful dichromatic swirl. Other drinks follow the same party vibes — mango oolong mai tais, spicy margaritas, cucumber vodka sodas on draft, and the Oaxacan Sunrise, a passion fruit margarita topped with a strawberry slushy, served in cactus (naturally). However, fans of more spirit-forward drinks may prefer the bar’s take on a classic Old Fashioned, made with Hey Love’s own single barrel of Maker’s Mark.
Deadshot
While many bars go for the tried-and-true classics with a twist approach to cocktails, the modernist lounge Deadshot is unafraid to get weird. It challenges drinkers with unorthodox ingredients like in the Who Is Jack Nance?, a whiskey drink with sesame, citrus, mustard, sherry, and egg yolk that has been on the menu since the bar was a Monday night-only affair. None of it feels arbitrary, though, but rather thoughtful, exploratory, and intentional. Those looking for something a little more traditional, though, will likely love the crystal daiquiri, a clarified version of the iconic drink that is crisp, clean, and bright.
The Bible Club
Bible Club founder Ryk Maverick once described this Sellwood neighborhood bar as “a pre-Prohibition-era museum that you can drink in,” and that remains true: The walls, shelves, and corners of the bar are stocked with conversation-starting antiques and tchotchkes, ideal for first dates. Many of the drinks here fit the theme, like the bar’s strong Penicillin. However, many of the others are exciting and distinct to the bar, like the Sweet Sayonaras, with gin, passionfruit shrub, and sake.
Hale Pele
Hale Pele has received national attention as one of the best tiki bars in the country, from the overwrought decor to its takes on all of the tiki essentials, like mai tais, hurricanes, and zombies. One thing that can’t be found at Hale Pele are the artificial-tasting, overly juiced tiki drinks of the ’90s and early 2000s — here, everything is made with high-end rums, syrups, and juices. And outside of Huber’s, with its flaming Spanish coffees, Hale Pele sports the most pyrotechnics in town, with all kinds of flaming garnishes.
Angel Face
There is no cocktail menu at Angel Face, the sexy lounge nestled next to Navarre on Northeast 28th. Instead, bartenders create original drinks after quick conversations with visitors, using flavor notes and general liquor preferences as a jumping-off point. The current staff at Angel Face is up to the challenge, offering several smart martini riffs and spirit-forward sippers on recent visits. Angel Face is absolute date night fodder, particularly before dinner at one of the neighborhood’s many strong options.
Expatriate
Dark and moody, usually with some kind of classic rock or new wave record playing, Expatriate drips with style. Its cocktails match those vibes, generally deep and bold with high-proof spirits mixed with aromatic bitters and vermouths. It’s always been at the forefront of Portland’s cocktail scene, and many seasoned bartenders have put in time stirring, shaking, and swizzling its innovative drinks. Those in the mood for some fun bar snacks would be hard-pressed to find a more playful and satisfying menu, as its thick cheeseburger, lemongrass-beef nachos with wonton “chips,” and James Beard onion sandwiches have wowed diners since its opening.
Bellwether Bar
Easily the Tabor neighborhood’s best-kept secret, the food at Bellwether is almost good enough to overshadow the drinks — almost. The bar consistently churns out cocktails following a Coco Chanel-style minimalism: No drink on the menu includes more than five ingredients, and most are closer to three or four. But every drink pulls off a shocking level of depth despite the short ingredient list, such as a tequila number with cardamaro, plus lemon, strawberry, and black pepper. It’d be sacrilegious to dine elsewhere, however.
Arbor Hall
What used to be Vintage Cocktail Lounge is now Arbor Hall, Montavilla’s neighborhood bar for the spirit geek. The library of a back bar is stocked with around 400 individual bottles, transformed into cocktails that show off quite a bit of technique — clarified margaritas appear alongside a cucumber-shiso Collins perked up with lime acid. Bartenders here are far from pretentious, however; classic cocktails get just as much attention here, and the happy hour still includes cocktails with single-digit prices.
