Formerly Known as the Elvis Room, Good Luck Charm Is Both New and Nostalgic

Sitting under the stairs in the basement of Good Luck Charm, it’s easy to ignore anything else happening out on the street above. Jobs? Traffic? Waves of 100-degree heat rolling down black asphalt? Forget it. It’s like being in another world entirely.

That sense of hiding away has remained constant through the building’s various guises, and it hasn’t changed with this most recent rebrand—nor, really, has much else.

Formerly the Elvis Room—and, before a 2014 fire, punk show space East End—Good Luck Charm is chock-full of nostalgia for longtime Portlanders. Hearing Ty Segall play overhead might remind you of the countless times he played East End’s basement venue, which was walled off with the Elvis Room renovation. The long hall to the restrooms where people flirted in line and unabashedly made out remains.

Much of the Elvis Room’s kitschy décor is intact for the new incarnation, including an enormous, mesmerizing reproduction of The Resting Cat, a painting by Antoinette Letterman of a bored-looking Himalayan named Cashmere. The open riser treads of the wide staircase lend light and clean lines to the conspiratorial subterranean space, while the Manneken Pis statue beneath the stairs still softly tinkles. What is different are the drinks. The current menu of cocktails are distinctly summery. Final Countdown’s marriage of lime and mezcal with green Chartreuse and Luxardo liqueur tastes like a Hollywood Western showdown at sunset distilled in a glass. For those in search of a drink that gives off the feeling of microgravity, Moon Rocks will take you there: The thyme nectar and lemon are so subtle that only the effervescence of the vodka and carbonation remain. Daiq Attack pairs well with an energetic mood. It consists only of pineapple rum, lime and sugar but it tastes like angry flirting with citrus.

The food menu is likewise solid. There’s the requisite basic bar burger, sauced with “million island” dressing, with upgrades to double or triple patties for an additional price. I’d eat the pulled pork dirty tots again in a heartbeat.

The obvious focus on light, sharable items—like pork rinds served with lime yogurt and even shrimp cocktail—suggests Good Luck Charm is setting up as a place for groups to hang as Portland reopens and that kind of thing becomes possible again. The spacious seating supports that endeavor. The half-circle booths comfortably seat four and, with squishing, many more.

Good Luck Charm is at that lovely opening stage where it’s not that crowded yet. A multitasking barkeep said there were plans for weekend DJs in the works. There’s also a secondary, luminescent downstairs bar, which the staff says is open on weekends or “when it gets busy.” It’s where we’ll be heading—particularly when we need a break from the upstairs world.

DRINK: Good Luck Charm, 203 SE Grand Ave., facebook.com/goodluckcharmpdx. 4 pm-2:30 am Tuesday-Thursday, 4-10 pm Friday-Monday.