La Moule

By Matthew Korfhage

La Moule—a sister bar to French bistro St. Jack—is a love letter to the hyphenate French, a dim, drunky, sultry spot devoted to mussels and frites. Drinkers should walk through the well-lit front to the cozy '70s disco-blue back, which evolves from restaurant to bar somewhere around 10 pm, just in time for a late-night menu with cheaper bivalves. The most prominent decor feature is the gaudily deco wallpaper that looks like mussel shells split open to form a series of hearts—a valentine made of bivalves. Soccer-ball-sized bowls of mussels ($15-$17, $8 happy hour) are prettier in their shells than any tawdry Venus, the meat within so plump it's almost spherical. Tommy Klus' cocktails are mostly $8 to $10—about the same price as the Belgian import beers on tap—from a balanced gin-Aperol Sunday Morning ($9) that's like a Negroni made with cherries to a fine $9 Old Fashioned made with Heaven Hill 6-year bourbon. After showing up to dig deep into a bowl, you'll leave deep in the cups.

HAPPY HOUR: 5-6 pm and 10 pm-midnight daily. Full happy-hour menu including $10-$12 mussel frites, $5 rose, $2 Bavik pils half-pints, and $7 Heaven Hill Old Fashioned.

2500 SE Clinton St., 971-339-2822, lamoulepdx.com. 5 pm-midnight 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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