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1. Parts & Service
2940 NE Alberta St., partsandservicepdx.com. 3 pm-11 am Monday-Friday, 11 am-11 pm Saturday-Sunday.
Presumably, what brings someone to Parts & Service is a love of motorcycles, which form both the theme and décor. But one need not know about choppers or hogs to fit in. This is a friendly biker bar. If it’s not the bikes bringing you in, it must be the smoked brisket. The bar’s chef, Sage Houser, used to work the smoker at Portland’s nationally recognized Texas barbecue cart, Matt’s BBQ. That means Parts & Service could be your secret meat connection for the times when Matt’s line stretches for blocks down North Mississippi.
2. Good Luck Charm
203 SE Grand Ave., facebook.com/goodluckcharmpdx. 4 pm-2:30 am Tuesday-Thursday, 4-10 pm Friday-Monday.
Formerly the Elvis Room, formerly East End, Good Luck Charm is the same old bar under new management, with all the same Elvis Room stuff on the walls—including that enormous, mesmerizing painting of a bored-looking, long-hair cat. New menu, new drinks, who dis? Good Luck Charm’s basement has a powerful chill and a secondary, subterranean bar that opens on weekends or “when it gets busy.”
3. Radio Room
1101 NE Alberta St., 503-287-2346, radioroompdx.com. 9 am-11 pm daily.
The Radio Room rooftop is a low-key hot spot for viewing summertime sunsets. If you can’t snag a spot up top, you’ll enjoy the starry night experience on the ground-floor patio, with a few tables around a large fire pit, covered fully with a canvas and tight grid of LED lights, where, on a clear night, you can look for constellations while drinking a classic cocktail or one of the rotating draft beer selections.
4.Holy Goat Social Club
1501 NE Fremont St., 503-282-0956, holygoatpdx.com. 2-10 pm Monday-Saturday.
It’d be inaccurate to describe Holy Goat as a “new” bar. Longtime residents of the Sabin neighborhood will remember the tiny watering hole as Daddy Mojo’s, and though its undergone a change in ownership and name, the rebrand mostly amounts to an aesthetic upgrade rather than a full-scale remodel. Regulars will still find what they’re looking for: a drink menu consisting of stiff takes on old classics, soul music on the stereo, and soul food in the kitchen.
5. Al’s Den
303 SW 12th Ave., mcmenamins.com/crystal-hotel/als-den. 3-11 pm Monday-Friday, noon-midnight Saturday, noon-11 pm Sunday.
This concert venue, in the basement of the McMenamins Crystal Hotel, has been home to intimate comedy and music shows. There’s no programming on the board yet, but they’ll still let you downstairs. You can even bring your kids and make them sit with you until 8 pm—at which time you must send your children elsewhere.