Slow Bar

By Aaron Mesh

533 SE Grand Ave., 230-7767, slowbar.net. Lunch, dinner and late-night daily.

This is an unlikely home for Portland's most celebrated pub burger. A proud survivor of an earlier iteration of Portland glam, Slow Bar is a den of nightlifers reading the newspaper in the dim red lighting that I associate with places like Amsterdam and Prince's powder room. But none of that decadence can compare to the Slowburger ($11)—a Beacon Rock-sized column of ground chuck, Gruyere and onion rings that tastes like the Oxford English Dictionary needed more definitive examples of the concepts "fat" and "melt." There's actually a surprisingly extensive menu to explore here (the hush puppies and honey butter in the Southern Fry are worth a go), but we all know you came for the burger, so no point getting bashful now. Practice self-care and order it with salad.

Check out Willamette Week's 2016 Cheap Eats guide here.

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