The topic of bar culture is one close to my heart – reinforced by my Beerchasing hobby started shortly after retirement ten years ago. This is the third post about the elements of “bar culture” excerpted and expanded from my article for Bridgeliner – a wonderful on-line newsletter in Portland, Oregon.
Cassie Rudd, the Editor, asked me five related questions. The first was addressed in the post entitled “A Petri Dish – Bar Culture Part I” and the second in a less elegantly titled post – “Bar Culture – Part II.”
In the narrative below, you will see responses to the final three questions including the last which describes the three Portland watering holes which I think best embody the elements of bar culture described in the article.
Now get out there with your friends and help those bars and breweries to continue their important role in the economy and community!
What direction do you see Portland’s pub and tavern culture heading and what are some of the pros and cons?
I’m very optimistic that Portlanders will again head to bars and restaurants to mingle with friends now that vaccination rates make such gatherings safe. The same is true for watering holes throughout the US and globally for that matter.
And the character or culture will quickly be restored if operational constraints aren’t too strict – like not allowing seating at the bar – an important part of the ambiance in every bar.
It’s important to support these establishments after the severe economic constraints they have faced in the last eighteen months. And the financial hardship is not new.
Even twelve years ago, author Mike Seely in his book, Seattle’s Best Dive Bars, stated his concern that the dive bars in his city were swiftly disappearing and might be an endangered species.
A wonderful book
The Portland Mercury also did an article on March 9, 2016, entitled “The Portland Dive Bar Preservation Society,” stating, in part:
“Portland’s lost a bunch of dive bars recently. A few were absolute shitholes that deserved to disappear, but most were victims of circumstance and change.
A number of other bars have changed ownership and been fancied up to suit the modern market. Dive bars, if not endangered, are at the very least under threat.”
The pandemic and lockdowns have not been kind to some of my favorite bars reviewed since I started my blog. Gone but not forgotten are Sidecar 11, Bailey’s Taproom Crackerjacks Pub, The Tanker and the Tugboat Brewery. (Click on the links to see the reviews.)
Bailey’s Taproom 
The Tanker 
Crackerjack’s Pub 
Former Portland Mayor Sam Adams Beerchasing at the Tugboat Brewery
With the forced closures and the riots in Portland, the concern now transcends just dive bars. Any small, independent watering hole faces economic challenges.
It’s up to Portlanders to support these establishments unless they want to see more sterile, boring and insipid establishments devoid of personality such as the Yard House (see my 2016 review entitled “The Yard House – Does it Measure Up?”) in downtown Portland. It’s owned by the same corporation that owns the Olive Gardens.
The Yard House – where you are met by a hostess who seats you in the bar and they contract with a commissioned artist who does all of their artwork nationally – does not measure up in my opinion.
Sterile…. 
Commissioned Art?
What do you think will always stay consistent with Portland’s pub and tavern culture?
This answer may alienate those who think Portland’s own culture is unique, but I will respond with the same answer whether describing a bar in Portland, the Oregon Coast, Montana, New England or Amsterdam.
Besides my own experience, the evidence is derived from resources I’ve used in my blog from Matt Love’s “Oregon Tavern Age,” to author Joan Melcher’s two books, “Montana Watering Holes”, to Dr. Tom Noel’s wonderful and appropriately titled book, “Colorado – A Liquid History and Tavern Guide to the Highest State.”
I’ve talked by phone with each of these writers and in the last month even started an e-mail dialogue with a fellow blogger – Rich Carbonara – who lives in Munich, Germany and publishes a blog entitled “The Beer Wanderers.” (Rumor has it that we have at least one interest in common – validated when I purchased his excellent book Beer Hiking in Bavaria.)
As long as we don’t capitulate to the corporate chains who want to open their aseptic, suave drinking venues, the ancient tradition of a gathering place where one can raise a mug with friends will continue without much evolution. That’s a good thing!
All the authors above, I’m sure agree, as I do, with English poet and essayist, Samuel Johnson’s assertion:
“There is nothing which has yet been contrived by man, by which so much happiness is produced as by a good tavern.” *2
Obviously, I can’t speak for him, but I also concur with the twelfth century poet who stated:
“When the hour is nigh me,
Let me in a tavern die
With a tankard by me!” *3
What is one of Portland’s quintessential pubs you feel is emblematic of that culture?
This is a hard question to answer because there are so many good bars. When a bar is good, it’s fantastic. And even when it’s bad, it’s still pretty good! However, I will suggest three rather than one – all on the Portland’s east side.
Gil’s Speakeasy whose owners self-describe as “The nicest assholes in town,” have a wonderful dark, spacious bar with no sign on the exterior and great cheap daily specials ranging from $3 chili dogs to $1 sloppy Joes.
They even have a coin-operated breathalyzer – an option if you’re not sure. It states, “Blow before you go. Profits to local charities.”
It is the epitome of a good neighborhood dive bar from the exterior, to the ambiance once you walk in. The owners are, in fact, “nice” but definitely not assholes! The food, music, games, barstools, backbar and furnishings demonstrate the bar culture I’ve described.
Don’t overlook Mad Hanna – a wonderful bar community – has transformed itself during the pandemic into a general store (“part indie boutique, craft fair and whimsically curated market”).
Besides, there aren’t too many saloons where you can chow down a $4.50 peanut butter and jelly sandwich while guzzling your $2 Happy Hour PBR.
But the bar or pub that epitomizes the culture discussed above is The Standard. This dive opened in 2007 at NE 22nd and Broadway and was perfectly described by Mathew Korfhage in the “Willamette Week 2018 Bar Guide”:
““But the thing that made me treat this bar as an extension of my living room for seven years, what makes it different from every other bar with cheap drinks and a pool table and a covered patio in winter, is the simple decency of the place.
The Standard is one of Portland’s last true neighborhood bars, a ramshackle version of Penny Lane decorated in shattered CDs and corrugated metal……More than any other bar I know in Portland, it is a sodden vision of an ideal society.”
While I’ve named three of my favorite bars in Portland with great character, one can do the same, to a greater or lesser extent, in every community in the US and every other nation.
Perhaps if we had friendly discussion and debate over a cheap Happy Hour brew, we could iron out the polarization characterizing such dialogue during the pandemic.
Cheers and Amen!
And thanks again to Cassie and Bridgeliner for making it possible for me to contribute the articles.
Photo Credits
*1. Public Domain – File:Dollar.PNG – Wikimedia Commons
2. Public Domain – Wikimedia Commons (Samuel Johnson by Joshua Reynolds – Samuel Johnson – Wikipedia) National Gallery
*3. Image courtesy of Pam Williams
Thebeerchaser 
