contents
PUB
CRAWLS
BREWPUBS
BREW
CLUB PROFILE
BRITISH,
IRISH
CHI-CHI
COCKTAILS
THE
SCIENCE OF DRINKING
GAY
BARS
KARAOKE
OLD
MEN
OUTDOORS
SPORTS
BARS
THE
YOUNG AND THE RESTLESS
WINE
WINE
WORDS
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To live in this city you must, of course, know how to
entertain yourself indoors. While it helps if you like to
read, watch movies, shop in malls and have sex, these activities
will get you only through November or so. What to do then
when the indoor sports run dry well before the weather does?
A similar question, no doubt, motivated the inventors of
billiard games, darts and shuffleboard. In any case, Portlanders
should get down on their pale knees and say a little prayer
of thanks to whomever is the mother of these inventions.
For where would we be without a mid-January match of hopped-up
eight ball? Or in February without a chance to push shuffleboard's
puck across the salty sheet of the table? Playing solitaire
at home, that's where.
And, just as sports bars encourage folks to huddle around
the events on the little screen, game bars give patrons
something to do together.
The materials and manners involved with bar games--from
pool's sturdy tables to the dart player's frozen arm pointing
toward the flung needle--seem to be proliferating in drinking
spots around town. No longer is it enough to be inside with
friends, drinking. Now we want to have fun doing it.
BELMONT'S INN
You'll think you've gotten terribly lost and somehow
ended up in the East Village soon after passing beyond the
tinted windows here. And, just as in bars in Alphabet City,
you'll dig the beaten, wood booths, the cheeky touches--the
grill of a pink Edsel crashes through one wall--the strong
drinks, and the Violent Femmes on the juke. Six pool tables
offer players of all abilities a chance to rack 'em. Situated
along a phlegmatic stretch of Belmont, it's likely the games
here never get too heated, but a crowd of indoorsmen do
gather at Belmont's nightly. The inn's greyhound--a refreshing
alternative to beer--is as tart and fresh as a bubble-gum-popping
rocker in vinyl trousers.
3357 SE BELMONT ST., 232-1998.
OPEN DAILY. BEER, WINE AND LIQUOR.
RIALTO
Despite appearances suggesting the contrary, Rialto
is not just for the billiards junkie. Though the cavernous
interior offers plenty of action for pool players--16 tables
cover two floors--Rialto also offers an extensive, varied
menu, one of the best jukeboxes in town and a staff at once
clever and incredibly friendly. On a recent night, a birthday
party co-existed merrily with sharks of all levels, as tunes
by The Replacements, Charles Mingus and Tom Waits filled
the hangar-sized pool palace with a genuine sense of noirishness.
The bar is in capable hands here, whether the 'keep is pulling
a Full Sail Amber, Red Hook ESB or Black Butte Porter or
recommending a cocktail for those eternally in search of
something "fruity and delicious." Rialto's Slippery Banana
is among the fruitiest and most delicious drinks this reviewer
has hitherto sipped.
529 SW 4TH AVE., 228-7605.
OPEN DAILY. BEER, WINE AND LIQUOR.
WATERTROUGH SALOON
Growing up, chances are you had a friend who lived in
a house with a rec room. As adolescents you would hang out
there at night after the parents went to sleep, spilling
bong water and watching Hot Dog for the hundredth
time. If you no longer know the guy with the rec room, or
never did, the Watertrough is for you. Dank, hazy and cheap--there
are few places around as wonderfully low-pro as this. The
juke seems to eternally sputter out one long Dylan song,
while Saloonists sip on half-pints of Redhook ESB and shoot
dirty pool. The shuffleboard table here is only about as
long as Dustin Hoffman, so it takes some time or drinks
to locate the right amount of finesse.
4815 SE HAWTHORNE BLVD., 234-4970.
OPEN DAILY. BEER AND WINE.
YUKON TAVERN
The nice thing about Yukon's shuffleboard table is that,
after you slide your puck, you have time to down a couple
of Full Sails or Black Buttes and get back to the table
before it reaches the other side. The thing is that long.
Time plays further tricks while you're sitting at this friendly
Sellwood tavern's modest bar--the red stools, red pool tables
and red, shaggy carpet land you back in the Cold War, circa
1976. Several touches here will give you a sense of pride
in your country: a bumper-pool table, free pool every Sunday,
and the quaint "Bartender on Duty" sign in view from your
stool. My bartender, Jackie, was so friendly and helpful
he must be a professor emeritus in bartender procedure.
5819 SE MILWAUKIE ST., 235-6352.
OPEN DAILY. BEER AND WINE.
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