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Once upon a time, there was a Northwest Vaughn Street barbecue joint called Slabtown Ribs. It was perhaps the most decorated rib shop in Portland—literally, with every ribbon and plaque on the wall. Next door, there was a watery-bean-and-chimichanga spot called Acapulco's Gold, better known for stiff margaritas than Mexican food.
Now, the two restaurants have merged, and there is only The Gold (2610 NW Vaughn St., 503-220-0283). Times were tight, and instead of running both shops, owner Tim King combined the two in December into a Tex-Mex bar that serves barbecue Wednesday to Friday.
The interior of the former Slabtown Ribs looks like an entire apartment took a dump inside a bar. The food at the Gold, next door, is not good—although somehow it's charming that it's not good. The brisket is leaner than Depression times, and weirdly dry smoked chicken comes stuffed in a weirdly wet chimichanga whose beans tasted like the insole of a shoe.
But the Gold's bar side is nonetheless a supreme Mexican dive—a mauve-and-blue hallway of a bar where $5 happy-hour margaritas come loaded with so much liquor they're translucent, and where you receive not one but two options in bulk margaritas. Either you get a full pitcher for $21, a quantity of liquor that amounts to a miracle, or you can get intimate in a bar already made romantic by deco paintings of Mexican bare butts. In a classy twist on the punch bowl—there are at least three different ones available for $19 each—you can get your margarita for two in a giant piece of stemware that looks like a martini glass made for Jusuf Nurkic. At 11 am, two 20-something women were already getting toasted on one.
Meanwhile, a sheriff's deputy strolled in armed for unholy war, looking dissatisfied, and the whole place went silent. Turned out he was merely confused about the new layout. "Tim!" he yelled to the back of the house. "What's happening?" Spend an hour here, and you won't know either.