Whirlwind Bar Hop
I went bar hopping with my roommate. We went into 7 (actually 8! see edit at the bottom) different bars. I only had 2 drinks and we were back home by 11:15. It was great.
We started the night at Wieden + Kennedy which is not a bar, but a big ad agency where they were having an exhibition of handmade bikes. There were quite a few that were quite nice, but I must admit that as a bike novice, most of them just looked like, um, bikes. However they were apparently built by hand by individuals. The larger than life sized photos of those individuals were displayed in black and white behind the bikes. There were little cards next to each bike that had a photograph of a hand--ostensibly one of the hands that hand built the accompanying bike--on them. I took one of each. I'm thinking of cutting out the hands and doing something with either the hands or the cuts outs... does that make sense? Probably not, but whatever.
So next stop was Cassidy's where we met up with G. who was Joette's blind date that night. His big surprise for the night: ME! I don't think he expected her to have a friend with her. I felt a little awkward, but mostly I just enjoyed the halibut corn dogs and mushroom bruschetta that Joette and I shared. I also had my first beer of the evening, and Indian Red Ale that was tasty. Joette and her "date" had zero chemistry, maybe because I was there, but Joette said that she was glad that I had been there and also promised she'd never do that again. I told her thank you.
At some point in the midst of stilted conversation I announced that I was going to depart shortly to play pinball. This was my way of giving Joette and "out" in case she wanted some alone time with G. But she piped right up that she'd be up for some pinball, so next stop was Ground Kontrol. We walked over there, but they were charging a cover--no thanks. So we went to Backspace. They only had one sad looking pinball machine though, but we took a look at the exhibition of "Obama Art" on display. Some of it was ok.
We walked down a couple places to Someday where they were having something "fashiony" (apparently it's "Fashion Week" in Portland, and no that's not a joke), but there was a long line and after standing in it for a bit we noticed there was a cover--again, no thanks.
We went over to Valentine's which is a divey little place, but cute in its own right. Joette said that the bathroom was worth seeing, so I opened the door and totally walked in on some dude peeing. I waited forever for him to finish so I could see this amazing bathroom. It was painted pretty cool.
We walked into Voodoo donuts and for the first time I went in and did not get a donut. How is this possible, you ask? Well, I was full. I must admit that I was intrigued by the "Miami Vice Berry" donut. It was blue raspberry flavored. Half of it had baby blue icing, dusted with blue raspberry sugar and the other half had bright pink icing and sprinkles.
We went into Tube for a bit too. I was told it is not "The Tube," just "Tube". My mistake. It was pretty neat but I'm not sure I'd want to hang out there. There were pictures of bunnies with red eyes on the walls. We ran into someone Joette knows, though I didn't catch his name. We didn't stay long at all.
We went over to Veluer's which stays open til 4am and serves food all night! It looked like good food too, plus they have liquers infused with stuff like pineapple, peach and oregon wild berry. Yum. I did not try one of those drinks, but I would like to go back there sometime.
We popped into Shanghai Tunnel which had a small upstairs, but most of the bar was downstairs. We finally got to play a game of pinball, but I didn't like it that much. It was a Batman game, and it cost me 75 cents and only gave me 2 balls. So lame.
On our way back we walked by the Ash Street Saloon, but they were also charging a cover, so again--no thanks!
We then walked back towards where we live and popped into Tugboat. I really liked this bar the best. They had a live jazz band. I'm not all that into jazz music, but this band didn't bother me too much, and it made for some nice atmosphere. Here I ordered my second and last drink of the night, a cider, so we could hang out there for a while. We sat there, talked and listened to the band til they stopped playing. Then we decided to walk back home, and made it back to our place by 11:15pm.
Kind of a whirlwind tour of some of the bars downtown, but it was a lot of fun.
edit: I forgot one! We also popped into Saucebox which is an awesome name for a bar. They had a really cool mirrored hallway; I'd like one in my house.
We started the night at Wieden + Kennedy which is not a bar, but a big ad agency where they were having an exhibition of handmade bikes. There were quite a few that were quite nice, but I must admit that as a bike novice, most of them just looked like, um, bikes. However they were apparently built by hand by individuals. The larger than life sized photos of those individuals were displayed in black and white behind the bikes. There were little cards next to each bike that had a photograph of a hand--ostensibly one of the hands that hand built the accompanying bike--on them. I took one of each. I'm thinking of cutting out the hands and doing something with either the hands or the cuts outs... does that make sense? Probably not, but whatever.
So next stop was Cassidy's where we met up with G. who was Joette's blind date that night. His big surprise for the night: ME! I don't think he expected her to have a friend with her. I felt a little awkward, but mostly I just enjoyed the halibut corn dogs and mushroom bruschetta that Joette and I shared. I also had my first beer of the evening, and Indian Red Ale that was tasty. Joette and her "date" had zero chemistry, maybe because I was there, but Joette said that she was glad that I had been there and also promised she'd never do that again. I told her thank you.
At some point in the midst of stilted conversation I announced that I was going to depart shortly to play pinball. This was my way of giving Joette and "out" in case she wanted some alone time with G. But she piped right up that she'd be up for some pinball, so next stop was Ground Kontrol. We walked over there, but they were charging a cover--no thanks. So we went to Backspace. They only had one sad looking pinball machine though, but we took a look at the exhibition of "Obama Art" on display. Some of it was ok.
We walked down a couple places to Someday where they were having something "fashiony" (apparently it's "Fashion Week" in Portland, and no that's not a joke), but there was a long line and after standing in it for a bit we noticed there was a cover--again, no thanks.
We went over to Valentine's which is a divey little place, but cute in its own right. Joette said that the bathroom was worth seeing, so I opened the door and totally walked in on some dude peeing. I waited forever for him to finish so I could see this amazing bathroom. It was painted pretty cool.
We walked into Voodoo donuts and for the first time I went in and did not get a donut. How is this possible, you ask? Well, I was full. I must admit that I was intrigued by the "Miami Vice Berry" donut. It was blue raspberry flavored. Half of it had baby blue icing, dusted with blue raspberry sugar and the other half had bright pink icing and sprinkles.
We went into Tube for a bit too. I was told it is not "The Tube," just "Tube". My mistake. It was pretty neat but I'm not sure I'd want to hang out there. There were pictures of bunnies with red eyes on the walls. We ran into someone Joette knows, though I didn't catch his name. We didn't stay long at all.
We went over to Veluer's which stays open til 4am and serves food all night! It looked like good food too, plus they have liquers infused with stuff like pineapple, peach and oregon wild berry. Yum. I did not try one of those drinks, but I would like to go back there sometime.
We popped into Shanghai Tunnel which had a small upstairs, but most of the bar was downstairs. We finally got to play a game of pinball, but I didn't like it that much. It was a Batman game, and it cost me 75 cents and only gave me 2 balls. So lame.
On our way back we walked by the Ash Street Saloon, but they were also charging a cover, so again--no thanks!
We then walked back towards where we live and popped into Tugboat. I really liked this bar the best. They had a live jazz band. I'm not all that into jazz music, but this band didn't bother me too much, and it made for some nice atmosphere. Here I ordered my second and last drink of the night, a cider, so we could hang out there for a while. We sat there, talked and listened to the band til they stopped playing. Then we decided to walk back home, and made it back to our place by 11:15pm.
Kind of a whirlwind tour of some of the bars downtown, but it was a lot of fun.
edit: I forgot one! We also popped into Saucebox which is an awesome name for a bar. They had a really cool mirrored hallway; I'd like one in my house.