Aalto Lounge is a Laid-Back Bar With Cheap Happy Hour Cocktails and Jell-O Shots

With a high-rise ceiling and angular modernist designs, the interior of Aalto Lounge lends itself to a spacious feel that’s unexpected upon entering through the door it shares with Stumptown.

(Emily Joan Greene)
By WW Staff

3356 SE Belmont St., 503-235-6041, aaltolounge.com. 5 pm-2:30 am daily. Happy hour 5-7 pm daily: $3 cocktails and snacks.

Established: 2000

With a high-rise ceiling and angular modernist designs, the interior of Aalto Lounge lends itself to a spacious feel that's unexpected upon entering through the door it shares with Stumptown. Mirrors hang above the bar at 90-degree angles, so wherever your eyes wander you'll be staring right back into the drunken faces of you and your comrades. The blocky concrete seating in the lounge and smoky back patio aren't particularly comfortable, but the laid-back atmosphere and legendary $3 happy-hour cocktails and Jell-O shots make that easy to forget. Linger beyond happy hour for DJs spinning vinyl at tasteful volumes while the crowd of cheapskate Tinder dates and devotees of the $3 grilled cheese and tomato soup special give way to a procession of terminally hip regulars who are pleased to spend $9 on the Goddamn Margarita and $10 on the mezcal old-fashioned.

(Emily Joan Greene)

ARTHUR WILSON-LASSALLE.

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