Nightcap
You’ve just emerged from the theater/movie/dinner/pottery class/Overpartier’s Anonymous meeting. The night is young and you’re feeling frisky. A nightcap is definitely in order. Here’s a list of groovy little spots that serve fine food and fine mead until at least midnight.
Bar Mingo
Strolling NW 21st Avenue on a warm summer evening, it’s easy to spot Bar Mingo. Bright orange chairs surround the sidewalk tables, and every single one of them is full of people chatting, toasting, gossiping, playing footsie, lamenting their mother’s nosiness (that would be me), and of course, sipping wine and eating cheese, among other things. Bar Mingo has an excellent wine list, and the cheese plate with wildflower honey and fig salami is $8, or can be paired with two other antipasti small plates for $21 for all three. From 4-6pm, the red and white wine of the day is $5 a glass, which will fill you so full of happy hour spirit, you’ll soon be calling your Mom from your orange chair to tell her how much you love her, nosiness and all.
- Location: 811 NW 21st Ave, Portland Map it!
- Phone Number: 503.445.4646
- Hours: Open every night from 4-12pm * Happy Hour daily from 4-6pm
Beaker & Flask
Equally satisfying as both a bar and restaurant, Beaker & Flask is a go-to Portland destination no matter what your mood, craving, or company–meet your girls (or guys) for drinks and gossip, join your parents for a nice dinner, or down a solitary after-work drink at the bar…and since they stay up late pickling octopus and polishing their peerless liquor selection, it’s an excellent spot for a nightcap too. Sit at the bar and observe spellbound as one of the whiz kid barkeeps effortlessly mixes you up a powerful 12 Gauge Cocktail (Rye whiskey, orange, Rammazzoti, sweet vermouth), or sip Night and Fog cocktails (Cynar, Oloroso sherry, ginger beer, bitters) out of vintage stemware in one of the U-shaped banquettes that follow the curve of the circular front room, a vantage point which affords you beautiful views of the twinkling West Portland skyline or a blinding sheet of rain, weather depending. The drinks and views are matched only by Executive Chef Ben Bettinger’s unstuffy but sophisticated menu, you’ll rethink your perceptions of “bar food” after you try his smoked trout deviled eggs and rich pork rillette “tots.”
- Location: 720 SE Sandy Blvd. Portland Map it!
- Phone Number: 503.235.8180
- Hours: Mon-Wed 4pm-midnight, Thu-Fri 4pm-1am, Sat 5pm-1am, closed Sunday * late night happy hour food specials from 10pm-close
Biwa
Low lights that disguise even the most bloodshot of eyes, the buzz of animated conversation that disguises your slurred speech, the restorative bowls of ramen and the sour wake-up call of kimchi–if only every evening could end at sleek, tasty, friendly little Biwa, the lower Southeast’s sunken late-night izakaya gem. Oh wait, now that Biwa is open until midnight daily, you can end every evening there! As an added perk, happy hour goes on all night at the bar, and from 9-10pm it’s restaurant wide, with discounted skewers, ramen, beer, sake and other afterhours deliciousness.
- Location: 215 SE 9th Ave. Portland Map it!
- Phone Number: 503.239.8830
- Hours: Daily 5pm-12am * Happy Hour Sun-Thu 5-10pm, Fri-Sat 5-11pm
Driftwood Room
I love the Driftwood Room for many reasons, namely that it is two blocks from my apartment so I can stumble home with ease, it has an early and late-night Champagne Cocktail Happy Hour with $4 champagne cocktails and exceptional deals on delicious nibbles like gorgonzola cheesecake and crab cakes, and it is very dark so I always look good. But one cannot live on champagne cocktails and crab cakes alone, so one must order the Mint Julep Ice Cream Sandwich with Chocolate Bourbon sauce. And then one must cry a little, because it is so good, and then one must concede that even with the superlow lighting, that hot filmmaker across the room can probably see the dribbles of chocolate on their chin, so one will not be starring in his next project, so to speak. So sad. More bourbon sauce!
- Location: 729 SW 15th Ave. Portland Map it!
- Phone Number: 503.219.2094
- Hours: Sun–Thu 2pm-11:30pm, Fri-Sat 2pm-12:30am * Happy Hour daily 3-6pm & 9pm-close
El Gaucho
You’ve been set loose from the Bach, Beethoven and Bernstein Oregon Symphony performance at the Schnitzer Concert Hall, you’re still high on culture, and you’re seeking an appropriately dignified venue to end a very civilized evening. Head down Broadway to El Gaucho–open until midnight Monday – Thursday and 1am on Friday and Saturday. After 10pm, enjoy happy hour deals like $5 glasses of wine, an $8 cheese plate, or $2.50 oyster shooters. If all that musical savoir-faire has left you ravenous, try the steak frites or the beef short rib with Norigold mashed potatoes, a late-night steal at $12.
- Location: 319 SW Broadway, Portland Map it!
- Phone Number: 503.227.8794
- Hours: Mon-Thu 5-7pm & 10pm-12am, Fri-Sat 5-7pm & 10pm-1am, Sun 5-11pm
Gilt Club
If you’re in the mood for a touch of late-night decadence, the sexy Gilt Club seduces you with its sanguine decor, sleek bar, and ever-popular outdoor tables lining NW Broadway until 2am every night but Sunday. Toast the stroke of midnight with Moscow Mules, Manhattans and Appletinis, then order provisions like warm focaccia bread with arbequina olives and creamy burrata cheese with pine nuts, tomato jam and crostinis, because there is still plenty of evening ahead of you, and you shall need sustenance.
- Location: 306 NW Broadway, Portland Map it!
- Phone Number: 503.222.4458
- Hours: 5pm-2am Mon-Sat
Le Happy
Le Happy just might be the perfect place to end a promising date. Open until 1 am during the week, and 2:30 am on the weekends, this darling little NW creperie has everything you need to stage your final seduction scene–flickery candelight, a silvery disco ball throwing glimmery spots of light on the rich red walls, little wood tables perfect for holding hands across, a couple of glasses of Nocello and an order of flaming Crepes Suzette for a dash of danger to quicken the pulses; it can only go well for you after all this. Hope you remembered to slip le rubbers into your handbag.
- Location: 1011 NW 16th Ave, Portland Map it!
- Phone Number: 503.226.1258
- Hours: Mon-Thu 5pm-1am, Fri 5pm-2:30am, Sat 6pm-2:30am * Happy Hour Mon-Sat 5-7pm
Noble Rot
An out-of-sight flight at midnight…that is what you’ll get at Noble Rot, Portland finest wine bar-with-a-view. Open until 11 pm during the week and 1 am on weekend evenings, Noble Rot has a lovely corner patio overlooking Portland, Mt. Hood and beyond, and if the weather keeps you indoors, the views from the plush leather booths aren’t too shabby either. The bar menu will keep you supplied with
SE Hawthorne & SE 12th
Nobody in Portland does late-night dining quite like the food cart cluster at SE Hawthorne & SE 12th, where an asphalt covered vacant lot hosts popular carts like Whiffies Fried Pies–savory and sweet moon-shaped pies filled with everything from pulled pork to peanut butter and chocolate, Potato Champion–heaping cones of piping hot thick cut fries and a variety of dipping sauces both exotic and mundane, Yarp–noodles dishes including their signature spaghetti with tantalizing roasted red pepper sauce and meatballs, Perierra Creperie, Q BBQ, Bubba Bernie’s southern cooking, and El Brasero Mexican Food. While most food carts around town hit their stride during the noon hour, the Hawthorne cluster gets interesting around 8pm, when most carts open, and keeps the party going until around 3 am. Now that’s an afterhours party.
Veritable Quandary
It’s one of those dreamy womb-warm summer evenings in Portland, and even though you should be heading to bed because you have to go to work early tomorrow, you eschew that in favor of doing something fun, like sitting on Veritable Quandary’s beautiful flora and fauna-lined garden patio sipping Hendrick’s G&T’s and sharing an order of duck confit spring rolls off VQ’s bar menu, which is served daily until midnight. Conversely, if the weather is proving frigid and precipitous, sit in the cozy old-fashioned saloon drinking hot toddies and eating bacon-wrapped dates and discussing the merits of the Jerome Robbins ballet piece you just saw, bashing the boss who made you work until 8:45pm tonight and is making you come in tomorrow morning at 7am, or just sitting and eavesdropping on the regulars who cling to the barstools like merry-making limpets.
Victory Bar
Open until midnight on Sundays and 1am every other night, snug slow-paced Victory Bar on SE Division is the perfect place to wind down after a long day or night. Named one of the 100 Best Places to Drink Beer in America by Imbibe magazine, the beer list is eye-popping, the cocktails are peerless, and the Scotch selection would captivate even Sean Connery. Forget warm milk and cookies before bed and snack on Victory’s cheese plate, spaetzle, and hushpuppies, or, if you’re a heavy pre-slumber grubber, go for the hearty venison burger. Craving dessert? The pot de creme with green chartreuse ensures wonderfully strange dreams, or if you’ve been suffering from insomnia, cure it with the Chimney Sweep–housemade vanilla ice cream drenched in Islay single malt scotch.
- Location: 3652 SE Division St. Portland Map it!
- Phone Number: 503.236.8755
- Hours: Nightly 5pm-1am, Sun 5pm-midnight
