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Part cocktail and vinyl listening lounge, part casual-chic Vietnamese restaurant, After Ours blesses Sullivan’s Gulch with its “Viet vibes” (as the restaurant’s Instagram page puts it) from brunch to late-night dinner. Owners Richard Le (Matta, Mémoire Cà Phê), Kim Dam (Cà Phê) and Mikey Nguyen (Index PDX) joined forces on a nostalgia-driven yet contemporary neighborhood bar on par with neighboring hipster watering holes like Hale Pele and Swift Lounge. Local DJs like KMHD jazz radio host Rev Shines curate tunes played as crisply as After Ours’ menu offerings, in a tasteful space that rounds out a full-sensory experience.
Though it opened in August to fanfare, three visits to After Ours felt slightly underattended, as though wider Portland is still catching on to the Hollywood-adjacent gem. A Thursday evening visit around happy hour started well-lit enough to take in After Ours’ open design and décor—modern, fresh and inviting. First dates are stressful enough without navigating a crowded maze of a bar, which won’t be a problem for anyone trying to impress someone off Tinder. Lighting was strong enough to read menus by until around 6 pm, when it dropped to ambient levels. An extensive record collection near the DJ booth is visible from a green velour chair in the corner, cozy, comfortably plush and lit by a matching green and gold mini table lamp.
Along with burgers, tacos, sandwiches and brunch items, After Ours’ “Daily Food” menu is stuffed with noodle and rice dishes loaded with fried proteins. The chicken wings ($17) and calamari ($17) are served with seksy sauce—a house recipe that can be likened to a basil-forward chimichurri, a variation of traditional Vietnamese sauces—while the oyster mushroom sandwich with furikake fries ($16) comes with a spicy ketchup and an unspecified aioli that tastes like seksy sauce mixed with mayonnaise. Although decent, neither the wings nor calamari are anything to write home about, but the oyster mushroom sandwich is the standout. Slathered with a tamari caramel sauce and coleslaw centered on a sesame seed bun, the mushroom’s lightly flavored batter harmonizes best with the richly sauced toppings rather than undressed on the meats.
Signature cocktails like the Sai Gon Old Fashioned with black tea and the AO, a Hennessy-based sweet sipper with yuzu (each $16) represent opposite sides of the spirit spectrum and are both delightful in presentation and flavor. The bartender shared that Hennessy is a Vietnamese favorite and is offered for $5 a shot on Thursdays. The first visit satisfied dinner cravings but left us wondering how different a late-night visit could be.
Returning at 10:30 on a Saturday night, After Ours was popping, though not crowded, with a line outside. Security patted down male-presenting patrons, while my vinyl-loving gal pal and I got in with a simple show of ID. After Ours’ music is as big a draw as its menu, so an audiophile’s perspective was needed. Motown, rap, hip-hop and Beyoncé flood the air, creating an upbeat atmosphere. The crowd is diverse in age and race—it’s a melting pot of beautiful people. Sadly, there is no dancing, but one bar-top guest bopped enthusiastically to the melodies. It’s standing-room only at first, so we hovered briefly until a table opened up. An employee cleaned it quickly and remained attentive throughout the visit.
Brunch the next morning unexpectedly starts at 11 am instead of the advertised 10, so we returned after grabbing a sports bar mimosa. Brunch in Portland is serious business, with plenty of spots getting filled up fast, yet After Ours’ brunch this Sunday morning was criminally underattended, with employees outnumbering diners during our visit. Their loss! The service is quick and attentive—not hard considering the capacity, or lack thereof—but it is a pleasant way to start a lazy weekend. Lighting was stronger at this hour, so there was no struggling to read the menu. The guava mimosa ($8) was too sweet for my taste, but what followed made me forget that and indeed every other doubt formed during previous visits.
“Breakfast Noods,” a complex garlicky and spicy noodle medley adorned with a sunny egg ($15), made me question American culture’s choice to not begin every morning with noodles—we’re doing it wrong, people! Hearty and delectable, the “noods” were some of the best I have ever sampled. How could such a novel plate be one-upped? Bahn bot chien ($12), that’s how.
The Vietnamese fried rice cakes enfolded in a fluffy egg white omelet topped with daikon and a side of a three-in-one soy sauce, black vinegar and chili oil sauce, large enough to share, made me question what other wonders in life I have been missing out on during my three-plus decades of life. Had I truly brunched properly before this dish?
The breakfast at After Ours is magically transformative, the Viet vibes immaculate. If enough people knew, there would be a line out the door. No need to keep this secret: The brunch blew me away and knocked my socks off. After Ours might be trying to be too many things at once, but brunch is easily its strongest draw. Stop in for a dinner date, vibe to late-night vinyl, but do yourself a favor and support the breakfast so it doesn’t disappear during this trying time for restaurants to flourish.
EAT: After Ours, 2226 NE Broadway, instagram.com/afterours.pdx. 10 am–11 pm Sunday–Wednesday, 10 am–1 am Thursday, 10 am–2 am Friday and Saturday.
