Slow Bar Attracts Every Off-Duty Bartender on the Eastside

The Slowburger is as much a rite of passage as it is a meal.

(Hilary Sander)
By Lauren Yoshiko

533 SE Grand Ave., 503-230-7767, slowbar.net. 11:30 am-2:30 am daily. Happy hour 3-6 pm Monday-Friday, midnight-2:30 am Sunday-Thursday: $6 non-Slowburger burger, $6 ceviche.

Established: July 2004

Make a cursory scan of the tall booths and packed bar at this Industrial Southeast watering hole and you'll spot every off-duty bartender on the eastside. Few places can pull off $3 Rainier, a metal-based soundtrack, Duchesse de Bourgogne on tap ($6.50), boozy slushies ($7) and above-average cocktails quite like Slow Bar. It use its own single-barrel Woodford Reserve bourbon for the house Manhattan ($10), and Portland Potato Vodka for the Northern Lemonade ($8). Large frosted windows catch shadows of smokers mingling with those from adjacent bars outside, but everyone ends up here when they get hungry. The reason for this is the Slowburger, a leaning tower of onion rings, Gruyere, butter lettuce, pickle relish and aioli atop a half-pound of Allen Brothers Angus beef with fries ($13) that's as much a rite of passage as it is a meal.

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.