Is This Love?

By BEN WATERHOUSE

"Is it 'COO-pon' or 'CUE-pon'? 'CAR-mel' or 'CARE-a-mel'?" asks Larissa, the convivial bartender at Amor Lounge (6219 SE Foster Road, 774-7161, amorloungepdx.com). "I asked, and it's kind of taken over the bar." An easy feat: Besides a few old-timers watching the Lakers crush Utah over cheap pints of Deschutes, the only other customers in the room were a quartet of cheery young women debating pronunciation over lemon drops. While the former Lebanese restaurant fails absolutely to live up to the implied romance of its name or the airbrushed toasting hands on the back wall, Amor is not without personality: Tuesday is hookah night, and it has to be the only bar in town that serves labneh and onion rings. It sure is friendly: Patrons are invited to "take possession" of the bar by signing their names to a wall dedicated to the purpose.

WWeek 2015

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