Slow Bar Attracts Every Off-Duty Bartender on the Eastside

The Slowburger is as much a rite of passage as it is a meal.

(Hilary Sander)
By Lauren Yoshiko

533 SE Grand Ave., 503-230-7767, slowbar.net. 11:30 am-2:30 am daily. Happy hour 3-6 pm Monday-Friday, midnight-2:30 am Sunday-Thursday: $6 non-Slowburger burger, $6 ceviche.

Established: July 2004

Make a cursory scan of the tall booths and packed bar at this Industrial Southeast watering hole and you'll spot every off-duty bartender on the eastside. Few places can pull off $3 Rainier, a metal-based soundtrack, Duchesse de Bourgogne on tap ($6.50), boozy slushies ($7) and above-average cocktails quite like Slow Bar. It use its own single-barrel Woodford Reserve bourbon for the house Manhattan ($10), and Portland Potato Vodka for the Northern Lemonade ($8). Large frosted windows catch shadows of smokers mingling with those from adjacent bars outside, but everyone ends up here when they get hungry. The reason for this is the Slowburger, a leaning tower of onion rings, Gruyere, butter lettuce, pickle relish and aioli atop a half-pound of Allen Brothers Angus beef with fries ($13) that's as much a rite of passage as it is a meal.

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Lauren Yoshiko

Lauren Yoshiko

Lauren has contributed to the Willamette Week's weed column since 2013, initially going by "Mary Romano" until marijuana became legal in Oregon. She also writes about movies, plays and restaurants for the Art and Culture section.

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