Skip to main content
A Roadside Attraction still feels like a getaway from natural reality 20 years after it opened July 22, 2006, thanks in part to a tree grove covered in a cocoon of rose, jasmine, Concord grape and other vines dampening traffic on Southeast 12th Avenue.
A magic ingredient to the bar’s charm? Bud Clark.
The late Portland mayor’s family cabinet is just one of the global curios guests drink in with wine, beer and no-frills cocktail standards. A Roadside Attraction, or Roadside to its regulars, is decorated with art and memorabilia from around the world, including paintings, Japanese masks, and antique safari trophies. The outdoor courtyard, centered on conversational fire pits and surrounded by private alcoves, is decorated with paper lanterns and a Chinese dragon head on a Puerto Rican surfboard. License plates that span states and decades cover the patio’s dividing walls. Canadian and Mexican flags adorn a planter of ferns.
“Within two weeks of opening, we had people telling us that this reminds them of Phuket, Thailand, and then people saying it reminds them of Australia,” says Alf Evers, one of Roadside’s co-owners.
No major celebrations are planned for A Roadside Attraction’s 20th anniversary next month. It will largely be business as usual. But keeping things casual and doing things its own way—like running as a cash-only business—has contributed to the watering hole’s longevity, and built up its diverse clientele, which spans ages, cultures, sexual orientations and life experiences.
“It’s like a vortex of people coming together, and it’s just working really well,” says Peggy Barr, one of Roadside’s co-owners and Evers’ wife. “The compliments we get are almost embarrassing.”
According to Evers, Barr and Jen Dean, the third partner and bar manager (she started as a server three months after the bar opened), Roadside’s eclectic sensibilities are inspired by Clark and the tavern he founded, Goose Hollow Inn, which turns 60 next year. Barr, a lifelong Portlander, met Evers at the Goose Hollow when she worked there. She grew up in the restaurant industry, and her children’s father co-founded the classic Southwest Portland restaurant Charter House.
“I couldn’t find anywhere else I wanted to go, and I realized that we were going to have to create our own place if we wanted to go somewhere besides Goose Hollow,” Barr says.
When Roadside first opened, the Buckman neighborhood was sleepier and less commercially developed. The acres where the Goat Blocks apartments now stand still had goats in the blocks. They could keep the patio open during the pandemic, flipping to a “beach bar” layout, as Evers calls it. And aside from that and the occasional art refreshes, little has had to change in two decades.
Within weeks of its opening, Willamette Week declared Roadside among the city’s best bars, a distinction upheld year after year. During that time, Evers couldn’t figure out how to set up the bar’s card reader, so he gave up and never tried again. Roadside has racked up countless international hospitality headlines across two decades, but the attention hasn’t gone to anyone’s head.
“For years we were in Best Outdoor Bars in America in Travel + Leisure,” Barr says. “The other bars were, like, multimillion-dollar places in New York, L.A., San Francisco or New Orleans. And then there was our place—the photos kind of look like Sanford and Son."
The group has kept things simple by design. There’s no television and no gambling in the bar. No dancing or live music. Blended cocktails are even banned because it’s hard to hold a conversation over the din of a blender. “That’s not a religious thing,” Barr says. “I just don’t need it.”
More than a set of rules—or a religion—an extraordinarily nuanced sensibility guides things. That and some old-fashioned hospitality. “No matter who they are, where they’re from, rich, poor or in between,” Barr says, “we treat everyone like a prince or princess, because you never know, they just might be one.”
Barr gets final say on Roadside’s collection. Though Evers, a professional tunnel borer, is a passionate collector as well. One of the place’s best pieces is an original painting by famed Puerto Rican painter Ivan Moura. Wearing a white suit and red cumberbund, the artist appears among a group of la bamba dancers in the tableau. Another painting in the back of the bar depicts the apocalypse.
Customers similarly come from all corners. “It’s such a combination of who-knows-where-or-what, but it all works and comes together,” Barr says. “If you just look up and around, we could be anywhere. Are we in a jungle? Where are we?”
DRINK: A Roadside Attraction, 1000 SE 12th Ave., instagram.com/roadsidepdx. 3 pm–1 am daily.
