Crackerjacks Is the Kind of Cozy, Tchotchke’d Neighborhood Pub That’s Become Increasingly Rare in New Portland

Try the Raging Bitch.

(Thomas Teal)

2788 NW Thurman St., 503-222-9069, crackerjackspub.com. 11 am-midnight Sunday-Thursday, 11 am-1 am Friday-Saturday. Happy hour 3-6 pm Monday-Friday: $3 domestic pints, $4 rotating craft pints, $4 wells, $5 wines and $1 rotating Jell-O shots.

Established: 2001

Since Lizzy Spanbauer, Sean Brazie and Jason Vaden took over Crackerjacks on St. Patrick's Day in 2016, it's been revitalized into the kind of cozy, tchotchke'd neighborhood pub that's increasingly rare in New Portland. Lined with wood paneling and vintage Blitz-Weinhard ephemera, this beer-and-shot bar is set apart by two well-executed embellishments. The first is the bar pizza, which, like all good bar pizza, is very large and tastes like it was baked in a domestic oven (order the Sriracha Pork Hawaiian, $19). The second is the 20-deep list of deluxe Jell-O shots ($3 apiece, 4 for $10 or 14 for $35), most of which are decked out with some combination of sparkling sugar, Pop Rocks, fruit and whipped cream. Try the Raging Bitch, which features raspberry vodka Jell-O adorned with raspberry whipped cream and an actual raspberry on top.

(Thomas Teal)

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