Est. 1957 (current location, est. 1902 a few blocks away)
kellysolympian.com - barfly - yelp - citysearch
Monday, March 15, 2010
#1009 - Kelly's Olympian, Portland - 3/11/2010
Est. 1957 (current location, est. 1902 a few blocks away)
kellysolympian.com - barfly - yelp - citysearch
#1008 - Rock Bottom Brewery, Portland - 3/11/2010
The Portland version of this national chain has something I haven't seen in the Seattle version -- a packed crowd on a weekday night, along with live music. It wasn't exactly my kind of crowd and it certainly wasn't my kind of music, but at least the place was pulsing.
206 SW Morrison St., Portland, OR 97204 - (503) 796-2739
rockbottom.com/portland - ratebeer.com - yelp - barfly
206 SW Morrison St., Portland, OR 97204 - (503) 796-2739
rockbottom.com/portland - ratebeer.com - yelp - barfly
#1007 - Champion Sports Bar, Portland - 3/11/2010
Meh...
Barfly calls this "The only dedicated sports bar in downtown ..." Portland is my favorite bar town on the west coast, but as a dedicated sports bar (a fairly low standard to begin with), this is a FAIL.
On the weekday evening I attended, a home state college team was playing in the conference tournament, and the hometown NBA team was also playing. But you could not hear either game because they preferred dumb top 40s music. That's not a serious sports bar in my book. The food is standard sports bar nachos and burgers type fare, the drinks are the standard sports bar beer and bad cocktails, and the crowd is standard medium quality hotel boring salesmen (the bar is in the downtown Portland Marriott).
marriott.com - yelp - barfly
1401 SW Naito Pkwy., Portland, OR 97201 - (503) 499-6393
Barfly calls this "The only dedicated sports bar in downtown ..." Portland is my favorite bar town on the west coast, but as a dedicated sports bar (a fairly low standard to begin with), this is a FAIL.
On the weekday evening I attended, a home state college team was playing in the conference tournament, and the hometown NBA team was also playing. But you could not hear either game because they preferred dumb top 40s music. That's not a serious sports bar in my book. The food is standard sports bar nachos and burgers type fare, the drinks are the standard sports bar beer and bad cocktails, and the crowd is standard medium quality hotel boring salesmen (the bar is in the downtown Portland Marriott).
marriott.com - yelp - barfly
1401 SW Naito Pkwy., Portland, OR 97201 - (503) 499-6393
#1006 #S623 - Avila, Seattle - 3/10/2010
Judging wine bars as simply bars can be a bit problematic. Since I exclude the restaurant/food portion, you're left basically with the ambiance, service, and a tiny fraction of a taste of the wine they have, when you can now get very good wines at virtually any grocery store. And the decor of wine bars is, of course, highly formulaic -- there are going to be servers dressed in black, modern exposed-concrete and steel surfaces, rolled up towels in a basket in the restroom, a touch of abstract art, votive candles on the tables, and small, halogen lamps hanging over the bar.
So setting aside the eclectic and adventurous dinner and appetizer menus at Avila ("AV'-ill-uh"), I'm basically left with a fairly typical wine bar, but with unusually friendly servers (and none of the attitude I've experienced at Smash, just up the road a bit). That makes this a pretty nice little stop if you feel like a couple glasses of wine (and an even better one if you feel like a bite of some interesting food).
1711 N 45th St., Seattle, WA 98103 - (206) 545-7375
avilaseattle.com - seattletimes - thestranger - yelp
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