Spare Room

By Jay Horton

A sprawling dive that serves as Cully's unofficial community center, this former bowling alley hosts a range of entertainment, from string-band square dances to Kill Rock Stars showcases to bingo nights for the senior set to the funk stylings of Cool Breeze or Prince tribute band Erotic City. A bar for all seasons, it's particularly poignant during the holidays. The main dance floor is breathtakingly adorned for the winter formal of your dreams—with a slight overreliance on neon blue and clumped fake snow along the narrow lounge area. The holidays are also the one time of the year when the back-bar-adjacent sitting-room installation—couches, lamps, fireplace; imagine the long-abandoned set for an Andy Williams Christmas special—makes any sort of sense. But then, it's always a holiday at the Spare Room, and you're always invited for meatloaf.

Happy hour: 3-6 pm daily. $2 wells, $1.25 draft Bud, $1.50 draft PBR.

Entertainment: Game room, video poker, pool, live-sax karaoke, an unpredictable array of live music.

4830 NE 42nd Ave., 503-287-5800, spareroomrestaurantandlounge.com.

7 am-2:30 am daily.

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