Cheap Life: Free Pool...

By Matthew Korfhage

Like swimming pools, pool tables should always be free. Here's why: If you're terrible, it's no fun, and if you're excellent, it's too fast. Anyway, here are the free Portland tables, by neighborhood, in a list by no means exhaustive.

  1. Burnside/Stark: Goodfoot (2845 SE Stark St., 239-9292, thegoodfoot.com) has free pool on four tables till 9 pm.
  1. Hawthorne/Belmont: Angelo’s (4620 SE Hawthorne Blvd., 231-0337) is free all day, as are two tables at Hawthorne Hideaway (2221  SE Hawthorne Blvd., 445-4600). On Sundays, Back Stage Bar (3702 SE Hawthorne Blvd., 249-7474, mcmenamins.com) has free pool in a setting that looks like Tom Waits’ dreams. Belmont Inn (3357 SE Belmont St., 232-1998, belmontsinn.com), which looks like Waits’ actual memories, has free pool Sundays, Thursdays and every day before 4 pm.
  1. Division/Clinton: Clinton Street Pub (2516 SE Clinton St., 236-7137) has free pool, if you’re lucky enough to get a table.
  1. Foster-Powell: DV8 strip club (5021 SE Powell Blvd., 772-2907, dv8.cc) has free tables Sundays in a bar section separate from the dancin’.
  1. Sellwood: Sellwood Public House (8132 SE 13th Ave., 736-0179, sellwoodpublichouse.com) has public pool, free. Riverside Corral strip club (525 SE Tacoma St., 232-6813, riversidecorral.com) has free pool Sunday all day and Mondays after 7 pm.
  1. Downtown: Rialto (529 SW 4th Ave., 228-7605, rialtopoolroom.com) has two hours of free pool Sundays and Mondays, with too many tables to count on two hands, provided you buy a drink or a meal. Berbati (10 SW 3rd Ave., 226-2122, berbati.com) is free Sunday and 4 to 7 pm daily.
  1. The Pearl: Brix Tavern (1338 NW Hoyt St., 943-5995, brixtavern.com) is always free for snooker, and has the weirdest drink specials in Portland. McMenamins Tavern & Pool (1716 NW 23rd Ave., 227-0929, mcmenamins.com) has free pool until 5 pm and all day Mondays. Every other Monday is league play, however.
  1. Alberta/Killingsworth: Concordia Ale House (3276 NE Killingsworth St., 287-3929, concordia-ale.com) has an insane mess of beer taps and bottles, and free pool all day.
  1. Kenton: Amid ramshackle beauty, the World Famous Kenton Club (2025 N Kilpatrick St., 285-3718, kentonclub.com) has free pool till 6 pm daily, plus all day Tuesday.

WWeek 2015

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