Bible Club is Maybe the Most Welcoming Speakeasy… Anywhere

There are no passwords or fake-secret knocks.

By Matthew Korfhage
(Henry Crommet)

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6716 SE 16th Ave., 971-279-2198, bibleclubpdx.com. 5-midnight Wednesday-Thursday, 5 pm-1 am Friday-Saturday, 4-11 pm Sunday.

Established: March 11, 2016

At Sellwood "speakeasy" the Bible Club, liquor's legal, the address is available to anyone with a phone and there are no passwords or fake-secret knocks. If anything, bartenders Nathan Elliott and Jessica Braasch are even more welcoming cocktail ambassadors than other mixologists in town. But then, they have to be. In an off-track house bar where everything is a century old except the Square machine—from vintage cash register to vintage dial phone to the giant Bible Club sign that gave the bar its name—more than half the customers are from out of town, here for an old-tyme cocktail-bar experience so dense it makes Epcot seem like underkill. Really, the place looks less like a bar than the home of an octogenarian hoarder, a 3-D Grey Gardens for drunks with twirly mustaches.

(Henry Cromett)
(Henry Cromett)

But from a peaty Scotch-on-Scotch Penicillin ($14) that could disinfect a surgical knife to a $16 Log Road Legger whose rye picks up savory notes from chanterelle syrup and rosemary, the drinks easily outshine the crystal glasses, velvet titty paintings and lace doilies. Not in the mood for fuss? In the summer, there's a much cheaper patio bar out back, with bottle cocktails and eight beer taps. 

Bar story: Bible Club is the lifelong dream of a former San Francisco jewelry maker whose legal name is Ryk Maverick—no relation to Lovecraft's Jon Horrid, apparently.

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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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