“What can I get nice people today?” This is Muhamed Mujcic-Mufko, owner of 4-4-2, a new Bosnian soccer bar he’s opened up in his old Taste of Europe market space on Southeast Hawthorne Boulevard. Mujcic-Mufko is a white-haired, cheery-eyed, consummate host—he looks a bit like a shorter, Bosnian Ted Danson—who is both genuine and genuinely shticky in his comforts. In his charismatic, heavily accented idiom, everyone is “nice,” the food is the “best in town” and each couple consists of a “young lady” and a “lucky guy.” Of course, 4-4-2 is also Portland’s lone soccer bar, and three dedicated flat-screens adorn the walls alongside the flags of favored teams, from FC Bayern to the Timbers’ green and yellow; the bar’s stock clientele is mostly drawn from the ranks of the American Soccer Fan, which is to say: foreigners, hippies and ex-expatriates. Some of us, however, come in simply for the hospitality and the bar food. My favorite is the peka sandwich ($8.75), which sports wafer-sliced meat so smoked and cured as to be beef’s own thundering answer to bacon. Dear Lord. MATTHEW KORFHAGE.
What to drink: Draft beer served in true half-liter mugs.
Happy hour: $3.75 draft pints, $4 well drinks 3-7 pm Monday-Thursday.
Entertainment: Soccer.