Bar Guide 2014: Ponderosa Lounge

By DEBORAH KENNEDY

Ponderosa Lounge

10350 N Vancouver Way, 345-0300, ponderosalounge.com. 9 am-midnight Monday-Tuesday, 9-1 am Wednesday-Thursday, 9-2 am Friday, 8-2 am Saturday, 8 am-midnight Sunday.

Country music is doing a lot of soul-searching lately. Countless top-40 hits pose and attempt to answer these pressing questions: Just what is country? And what isn't it? To get to country's beating, bleeding heart, look no further than Ponderosa Lounge, a Bud Light bar tucked into the Jubitz truck stop on the industrial edge of the 'Couv. This is where dudes in Duck Dynasty duds woo ladies in straw cowgirl hats and everyone does it up "Pondo style." Just what is Pondo style? It could be washing down a Long Haul chicken-fried steak dinner with your own pitcher. Or maybe it's boot-scootin' on by an Old West mural in which an Indian chief in full feathered headdress passes a peace pipe to a paleface. Can a girl get a "yeehaw"? DEBORAH KENNEDY.

What plays: Country and western and swing. Including secret after-hours Brad Paisley shows kicking out from Moda Center.

WWeek 2015

Willamette Week’s reporting has concrete impacts that change laws, force action from civic leaders, and drive compromised politicians from public office. Support WW's journalism today.