Portland After Hours

When I moved to Portland in 2012, I took a job at the (now-closed, then just-opening) small plates restaurant Radar on North Mississippi Avenue. Around 10 pm or 11, I’d leave and head into the night, shift after shift, grateful to Mississippi Pizza Pub for feeding me late-night, slightly congealed slices. I could never quite comprehend how dead the city would seem. How could hundreds of thousands of city dwellers be asleep so early every night?

As things tend to go here in Portland, it took some time for the city to reveal itself, to wipe off the layers of quiet misty rain and realize there are ample all-night offerings—they’re just not always loudly lit up in neon (though they can be, and perhaps slightly broken). Granted, the late-night landscape has changed post-pandemic—some bars have taken to closing at a far more modest hour, and 24-hour reliables like the Original Hotcake House no longer serve ’round the clock.

Even more than when I got off shift a decade ago, there seems to be a need for a guide to what’s still open as the clock strikes midnight and, more importantly, after. So, we made you a roundup of what’s open late into the night, be it a place to grab coffee at 10:30 pm or where you can go at any hour of the evening, on into the morning.

After all, there’s more night to fill these days. As we swing into the darkest time of year—whether it’s the psychological weight of the holidays or the sun setting at a barely palatable 4:30 pm—it feels like the moment to celebrate this city’s somewhat secret after-hours world. That could be with the misfit camaraderie of a card table at Kit Kat Club or a new all-night LGBTQ+–centered party at Process where fashion is expression and ambience.

Yes, it’s dark out, but don’t call it a night quite yet—let your eyes adjust to what’s around you. There’s a lot of life to be lived after hours on both sides of the river. —Robin Bacior, Arts & Culture Editor