Renner’s Grill Is the Epitome of a Dive Bar With None of the Pretensions

Fleetwood Mac is somehow always playing and the food is greasy in the best way possible.

(Henry Cromett)
By Shannon Armour

7819 SW Capitol Highway, 503-246-9097. 7 am-2:30 am daily. $1 off draft, wine and wells. Happy hour 3-6 pm and midnight-2:30 am: $2.50 wells and drafts.

Established: 1939

Drinking at a bar in the suburbanlike hollow of Southwest Portland normally means wandering to the nearest strip-mall shithouse—unless you're lucky enough to live near Renner's. This little hole-in-the-wall tucked among the century-old buildings of Multnomah Village is the epitome of a dive bar, minus any of the pretension about being a dive bar you'd get closer to the center of the city. It's dark, it's a little gritty, it takes forever to get a drink, Fleetwood Mac is somehow always playing and the food is greasy in the best way possible.

(Henry Cromett)
(Henry Cromett)

A burger called the Juicy Lucy—a Minnesota-style special stuffed with cheese and then topped with more cheese—is a must-try even if it takes year off your life. The drafts are far better than you'd expect at an 80-year-old dive (Ballast Point Sculpin, Boneyard RPM, Barley Brown's stout), and they cost an actual dollar on Mondays. On Tuesdays from 9 pm to midnight, the wells are a dollar instead of the drafts, and as every night, they're the strongest you'll get west of the river. And, like every good suburban dive, Renner's has $1 Jell-O shots. Everybody loves dollar Jell-O shots.

Bar story: Back in 2003, Renner's hosted an oyster-shooter competition, and one of the regulars that entered managed to break the Guinness world record by tossing 76 oysters down his gullet in three minutes. The feat took place pre-camera phone so it wasn't caught on video, nor was it recognized by Guinness.

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