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Our Favorite 178 Portland Bars | Bar of the Year: Stammtisch | Best Bars No. 2-5
Strip Club Hangouts | Sports Bars | Shot 'n' a Back | English Bars | Dessert Cocktails
Patio Bars | Bars That Look Like Houses | Skee-ball Bars | Cart Pod Bars
Where to Eat After Bar Close | The Most Important Little Bar 'Hood in Portland
Horse Brass
4534 SE Belmont St., 232-2202, horsebrass.com.
Ah, the Horse Brass. It's as close as you can get to old royalty among the newfangled world of beer bars and beer people, a shrine to the late Don Younger's love of craft beer that extended, in part, to his love of all things English, from breaded fish to brown sauce. On "draught," find always Younger's Special Bitter, an English-style bitter brewed by Rogue specially for the Don, not to mention a mess of stouts, speckled hens, browns and ciders.
Hair of the Dog
61 SE Yamhill St., 232-6585, hairofthedog.com.
While Hair of the Dog's very first beer was a long-lost German experiment, the little legend of a brewery also tools around with English styles still unfamiliar to most Americans, like their malty Little Dog English, which is mild, malty and chocolaty on the palate, plus a recent 1860 XXX Mild, brewed after a 150-year-old English recipe that'll tuck you in early at 8 percent ABV. Which is good, because just like an English pub, Hair of the Dog closes at 10 pm.
Bushwhacker
212-D SE Powell Blvd., 445-0577, bushwhackercider.com.
Bushwhacker opened a new cider taphouse up on Dekum
Street, but to get the huge bottle selection of English ciders, you
should still end up here, sipping a dry in a funny little bunker of a
bar that feels like your friend's basement, minus the memories.
Lucky Labrador
1945 NW Quimby St., 517-4352, luckylab.com.
Lucky Labrador's Best Bitter was one of the original 21 recipes brewed by the brewery—an English bitter, a balanced London-born style that's little-seen today. It's in light rotation at the Lucky Lab, but as it turns out, it's still one of their best beers, impeccably balanced between bready and bitter, just a little lighter than amber, with softly fruity flavors mostly in the melon range.
Moon & Sixpence
2014 NE 42nd Ave, 288-7802.
Named after a W. Somerset Maugham novel about the mind of an English stockbroker, this Hollywood pub is a dim and convivial spot for darts and drinks, with a multipage beer menu that spans from Old Speckled Hen on nitro to Green Flash hop-bombs, plus lovely pot- and shepherd's pies, with a tap that mixes locals such as a breakfast stout from Barley Brown's with English favorites like Bass, Boddington's and an Old Speckled Hen from Greene King. The back patio is prime real estate come summer.
Rose & Thistle
2314 NE Broadway, 287-8582, roseandthistlepdx.com.
This little Sullivan's Gulch pub wears its Scottish tartan proudly, but also happily serves up Boddington's on nitro and a Newcastle Brown on tap, not to mention it has the finest back patio anywhere nearby, with plenty of seating and a choice of sun-spotted tables or covered nooks to hide smokers from the northern rains.
Our Favorite 178 Portland Bars | Bar of the Year: Stammtisch | Best Bars No. 2-5
Strip Club Hangouts | Sports Bars | Shot 'n' a Back | English Bars | Dessert Cocktails
Patio Bars | Bars That Look Like Houses | Skee-ball Bars | Cart Pod Bars
Where to Eat After Bar Close | The Most Important Little Bar 'Hood in Portland
WWeek 2015