Club 21

By Matthew Korfhage

Little Sandy Boulevard ski-lodge-for-witches Club 21 has probably 15 beer signs inside as old as your mother. It was once a Ukrainian church. It was Jake's Crawfish. It was a bar called Shadows owned by the guy from Nick's Coney. And though it's been on the deathwatch for years after developers threw up plans to replace it with apartments, the damn thing's still here and still on a lease. The landlord may have taken away the parking lot, sure, but lately Club 21's free live punk and garage shows are back on, the smoking porch is perilously full, the restrooms still feel like you're peeing in a grouty closet, and comic-book artists still use the place as their drunken day office, as do certain legendary punk drummers. Go ahead, do your worst to blow this little house down: This place is the Keith Richards of dive bars.

Happy hour: 3-7 pm Monday-Friday. $1 off food, well drinks and wine, 50 cents off drafts.

Entertainment: Pinball, video poker, Big Buck Hunter, Blazers, jukebox, occasional live music and comedy and DJs.

2035 NE Glisan St., 503-235-5690. 11:30 am-2:30 am daily.

Willamette Week

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Matthew Korfhage

Matthew Korfhage

Matthew Korfhage has lived in St. Louis, Chicago, Munich and Bordeaux, but comes from Portland, where he makes guides to the city and writes about food, booze and books. He likes the Oxford comma but can't use it in the newspaper.

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