Bar Guide 2014: Paymaster Lounge

By Rebecca Jacobson

Stories worth knowing. Reporting worth supporting. Willamette Week's biggest fundraiser of the year is underway. Help fund independent reporting that is free for everyone.

Give today. Keep the stories coming.

Support WW.

Paymaster Lounge
1020 NW 17th Ave., 943-2780. 2 pm-2:30 am daily.
You'd be forgiven for being unable to keep the name of this bar straight. After an Austin, Texas, bar called Moonshine sent a cease-and-desist, Moonshine became Balls the Cat's Moonshine Kitchen and Lounge, and then finally Paymaster, named after the building's previous check-writing business. (Balls the Cat lives on, on the chalkboard.) Whatever its name, this is a welcome bastion of life in an awkward spot between the Pearl and Trendy-Third, crammed with vintage Pabst and Colt signs, a Heineken windmill and a Rainier poster with a viking conquering a devil-eared Sasquatch. Find your way past the excellent crop of pinball machines (Metallica, Star Wars, The Sopranos) and the wondrous vending machine (pregnancy tests, VHS tapes of The Big Chill) to reach the giant covered patio. REBECCA JACOBSON.

Happy hour: 2-6 pm daily. $4 drafts, $3 wells, $1.50 Hamm's.
Entertainment: Pinball, vending machine, patio, tons of vintage signs and posters.

WWeek 2015

Rebecca Jacobson

Rebecca Jacobson

Rebecca Jacobson is a writer from Portland (OK, she was born in Seattle but has been in Oregon since the day after she turned 10) who's also lived in Berlin, Malawi and Rhode Island. While on staff at Willamette Week, she covered theater, film, bikes, drug dealers-turned-barbers and little-known scraps of local history.

Willamette Week reports the stories worth knowing, from City Hall to the people and places shaping Portland.

Help keep the stories coming by supporting WW on Give!Guide.

Support WW.