Skip to main content
In the beginning, there was Slice. No, not the Slice that's in the Zipper complex on Northeast Sandy, though if you ask the former owners they'll probably tell you that's part of the problem. Apparently, Northeast Portland isn't big enough to support two generically named pizzerias.
And so, the Slice formerly located on a rather innocuous strip of a mostly residential 'hood, wedged next to a convenience store, dry cleaner, boutique clothing store and coffee shop, is now The Pocket Pub (2719 NE 7th Ave., 287-3645, pocketpubpdx.com).
Owners Kara Lammerman and Jennifer Cale clearly have modest intentions, but when you're working with a space the size of a studio apartment, "dreaming big" isn't a realistic option. You can take in the entirety of the bar from the doorway, and it looks almost unchanged from its previous iteration—they even kept the pizza oven. If you didn't know better, you might think Slice just shifted its focus.
But that slight pivot makes all the difference.
Boise-Eliot has bars, but nothing that fills that narrow niche between blue-collar dive and something slightly more high-end. The neighborhood has food, but you're not going to Ox for a casual weeknight dinner.
The Pocket Pub splits every difference. Cocktails are simple and fruity, the beer list is slight but won't insult snobs, and the pizza—12-inch pies, from margherita to blackened fennel, topping out at $15—is a respite from the grease bombs at Sparky's.
It's middle-class but not stuffy, as comfortable as your living room, and just what the area needed.
Willamette Week