Willamette Week’s 2008 Drink Guide

[May 21st, 2008]

Ooog.

Sorry if I’m not all there today.

It’s been a busy few weeks: In the past month, we’ve sent 20 drinkers to bars, pubs, taverns and clubs all over the city in search of the best watering holes in town. And damn, were we thirsty. We sipped, slurped and slammed at 120+ drinking establishments and brought back the goods to share with you. You’ll find many of our old favorites inside, along with a few new haunts. We’ve marked them with a icon. We didn’t include a thematic index this year. You can search by more criteria than we could possibly list here with the Megasearch bar on wweek.com.

Because we’re all about the people, we paid special attention to the patrons. We want you to know what your new best friends—or fellow imbibers, anyway—will be like. We scouted out the haunts of a few of Portland’s most recognizable drinkers (lusty clubbers, gourmet sippers and the beer guys) and even tried to make a few drinks on our own.

Did we miss some good bars? Probably. There are a lot of places to drink in this city, and our livers can only take so much. If you’ve got a suggestion for next year’s guide, give me a call or drop me a line at bwaterhouse@wweek.com.

Here’s how the bars are arranged:

• Name of establishment: In alphabetical order.

• Address, phone number and days/nights open.

• A brief description of said establishment.

• Perfect Patron: ideal customer for the joint.

• Happy-hour details, including days and deals.

• And all the extras the bar has to offer: video poker, karaoke, strippers, patios, and so on.

Salud!

Ben Waterhouse

Special Sections Editor

Publisher: Shawna McKeown

Editor: Ben Waterhouse

Art Director: Ben Mollica

Copy Chief: Kat Hyatt

Drinkers: Laura Atkinson, Byron Beck, Michael Byrne, Kelly Clarke, Shoshanna Cohen, Jason Howd, Kat Hyatt, Casey Jarman, Lance Kramer, Andy Kryza, Shefali Kulkarni, Jessica Machado, Michael Mannheimer, Amy G. McCullough, Aaron W. Mesh, John Minervini, Hanna Neuschwander, Sara Moskovitz, Corey Pein, James Pitkin, Deeda Schroeder, Beth Slovic, Ethan Smith, Hank Stern, Mike Thelin, Amanda Waldroupe, Ben Waterhouse.

Copy Editors: Matt Buckingham, Sarah Smith

Designers: Erik Blad, Brian Brown, Soma Honkanen

Photographers: Cameron Browne, Benjamin Reed