(NEW!) The Richmond Bar
3203 SE Division St., 208-3075, therichmondbar.com. 4 pm-2 am daily.
The Richmond Bar has honed the refined, unshowy comforts now expected of a Portland bar—a model bar co-owner Nate Tilden helped create at Clyde Common. The Richmond’s drinks skew to the sweetly medicinal, especially in the herbal Sassafras ($10), named after the dominant note in the Root spirit mixed with tequila, mezcal and Cynar; it’s like sarsaparilla with some heat in the nose. The beer list is deep with offerings from Oregon and Europe, the wine is refreshingly far flung, the crowd is a dead-even mix of creative class and service industry, and the food is upscale-casual, from beef tongue pasty ($7) to double-digit burger. The cozy, tasteful little bar does absolutely nothing wrong—except, perhaps, do nothing wrong. MATTHEW KORFHAGE.
Happy hour: 4-6 pm daily. $1 off everything.
