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The Driftwood Room, Hotel deLuxe
729 SW 15th Ave., 503-820-2076, driftwoodroom.com. 4–11 pm daily.
Toward the end of the 20th century, when just about every other landmark fell to developers, the threadbare remains of the Driftwood Room couldn’t offer much more than teased glimpses of Cold War–era gusto and midcentury-modern elegance. Lucky for us, that was enough to inspire a painstaking renovation that would shape the then-new Hotel deLuxe’s guiding vision. Eighteen years into its second iteration and approaching 70 years as the grande dame of Goose Hollow, the Driftwood still effortlessly charms locals and tourists alike with its delicate, refined aesthetic and maximalist drink choices—five Champagne cocktails, six Manhattans, tableside absinthe menu. YOLO, more or less.
Hey Love, Jupiter Next
920 E Burnside St., 503-206-6223, heylovepdx.com. 3 pm–midnight Monday–Thursday, 3 pm–1 am Friday, 10 am–1 am Saturday, 10 am–midnight Sunday.
Reigning champion of the annual Spirited Awards’s coveted Best Hotel Bar prize, Hey Love floats along on a senses-splattering explosion of rabid floraphilia precisely arranged to simultaneously provide a cloak of privacy amid weekend crowds and ensure that the loneliest business travelers never feel like they’re drinking alone. It’s technically a concept-driven bar (lest the whole endeavor feel too organic, note how seamlessly the foliage shifts to accompany holiday pop-ups), but the lingering impression it leaves is of a welcoming whimsy. Whether its true function is party destination or simply vodka-loading base camp, few bars can so easily spark visions of eterna-blossoming escapades to come. Fun but not flighty, asexually flirtatious, euphoric yet never high, Hey Love means never having to say you’re sorry.
High Horse, Bidwell Marriott Portland
520 SW Broadway, 503-552-2218, marriott.com. 7–11 am and 4–10 pm Monday–Friday, 7 am–1 pm and 4–10 pm Saturday, 7 am–10 pm Sunday.
Expectations matter for the most important drink of the day. Thirsty travelers looking for mimosa-soaked brunches, say, would be best served sampling the sun-lit rooftop oases of Tope or Metropolitan Tavern (atop the Hoxton and Eastlund, respectively) rather than the second-story confines of the Bidwell Mariott’s humble High Horse. Opening three years ago as an uneasy compromise between sports bar and high-minded boîte—fixed seating pointed away from TV screens, art pieces resembling dartboards hung beside actual dartboards—downtown’s only 7 am watering hole muddled through the post-pandemic malaise, chilled for a while, and now itself serves as a monied clubhouse for business-traveling orphans overflowing with organic bonhomie. Continual turnover of clientele usually guarantees a stilted, awkward, self-distancing patronage, but certain spaces leverage that shared anonymity. When nobody knows your name, we’re all irregulars.
Abigail Hall, Woodlark Hotel
813 SW Alder St. 3–10 pm Monday–Tuesday, 3–11 pm Wednesday, 3 pm–midnight Thursday–Friday, 5 pm–midnight Saturday.
This distaff counterpart to Woodlark Hotel’s Bullard Bar honors the legacy of proto-feminist icon and Multnomah County’s first woman voter, Abigail Scott Duniway, with impeccably outfitted, era-appropriate furnishings to dignify every vice. Hotel beverage director and legendary PDX mixmaster Derek Jacobi pours a typically inventive array of cocktails. On Sundays, high-tea seatings at 11 am and 1 and 3 pm invite a rarefied blend of anglophiles, ladies who lunch late, and baffled tourists to gather around the old Cornelius Hotel’s former Ladies Reception Hall to sip local Smith teas in vintage teacups—with the option to add CBD tinctures and/or a shot of booze for a very high tea indeed.
Meadowrue, The Ritz-Carlton
900 SW Washington St., ritzcarlton.com. 7:30 am–11 pm daily.
The Northwest’s first Ritz-Carlton wants very much to emphasize its regional identity, though there’s little chance patrons of, say, the famed NYC flagship would be confused. Aside from the sheer frisson of brand recognition, Meadowrue sells itself on an admittedly breathtaking décor incorporating endlessly renewable green, in every sense. Stroll through lobby furniture seemingly constructed from a Montessori school’s next-gen Lincoln Logs to find Meadowrue’s signature buttercup strands rising up from the bar like an elvish altar and seating rendered from glittery, somewhat reptilian material perhaps skinned from actual lounge lizards bred to the purpose. It’s an impressive array of design motifs plucked from the imminent future and directly referencing the Pacific Northwest, though not necessarily Earth. The buzz around the hotel’s much-delayed completion has largely died down; a recent Thursday evening found just two pairs of dressed-down patrons sipping not especially extravagant cocktails. Meadowrue offers $1,250 shots of cognac, yes, but also well whiskey (Maker’s) for $12, which wouldn’t even pay the tax on a Manhattan bar tab.
Ringler’s Annex/Al’s Bar, Crystal Hotel
1223 SW Stark St., 503-384-2700, mcmenamins.com. 3–10 pm Wednesday–Thursday, 3 pm–1 am Friday–Saturday, 3–10 pm Sunday.
Our appreciation of the McMenamin brothers’ efforts to forge hospitality hot spots from repurposed relics is not a blanket endorsement of the vast corporate machine built upon forgettable beer and bougie psychedelia. Their record, even among just area inns, varies wildly. Edgefield’s poor farm–turned–golf club/nightclub carries a whiff of destination weddings descending upon a boomer fantasy camp. For all the historical value of saving one of the region’s oldest saloons, the current White Eagle approximates a Hard Rock Casino lacking all three components. Ringler’s Annex/Al’s Bar, the adjoining lounge and stage beneath the Crystal Hotel, may have been grown from the same genetic material, but a few simple touches—toning down the Deadhead & the Maiden kitsch, emphasizing simply crafted staple cocktails—somehow cultivated a mutant strain of the brewpub blueprint—recognizably McMenamins’, should you squint, yet casually cosmopolitan and indelibly chic despite the advancing age of a boîte that predates the publicans’ vocalized hotelier ambitions. Most hotels of note eventually host some sort of lounge. Even in Portland, though, it’s the rare bar that builds a hotel overhead.
Rose & Compass, Sheraton Portland Airport Hotel
8235 NE Airport Way, 503-281-2500. 6 am–11 pm daily.
For a town overcrowded with local celebs, Portlanders do tend to get giddy whenever genuine A-listers visit. Best of luck to any amateur paparazzi sussing out the quarters of touring NBA teams or young Hollywood’s opiated smart set, though—we’ve got far, far too many boutique hotels for best guesses about stars’ lodgings to be much more than guesses. But one way or another, visiting luminaries often find themselves at the humble PDX Sheraton by sheer dint of its proximity to both domestic-carrier gates and the rarefied tarmac reserved for Gulfstreams. By all accounts, traveling icons do little more with Rose & Compass’s dedicated VIP cellphone room than bitterly ask assistants when their carriage arrives; still, one benefit of worsening Portland traffic is that boldfaced names hang around the bar often enough to make an otherwise sleepy Sheraton seem just a little bit classier than your average airport hotel. And while the odds of a Clooney or Chalamet sighting are pretty long, locals seeking out a staycation away from prying eyes might as well indulge the luxe comforts an occasional brush with greatness affords.
This story is part of Taster Magazine, Willamette Week’s new guide to the best of beer, wine and spirits in Portland. It is free and can be found all over Portland beginning Wednesday, April 17, 2024. Find your free copy at one of the locations noted here, before they all get picked up! Read more from Taster magazine online here.