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Amid lush foliage-print wallpaper, a print of a towering inferno greets visitors in the formal entryway of Southeast Hawthorne Boulevard bar Afterlife. The blown-up photo from the Lahaina Wildfire of 2023 might not be immediately recognizable, but Afterlife owner Bobby Hooper says he lived in Lahaina at the time, and the photo serves as a reminder of the life he built in Hawaii over the years.
Hooper finds beauty in what grows after destruction. He incorporates intentionally distressed details in Afterlife’s interior, like torn wallpaper, scorches on the handmade wood bar, and distressed original wood flooring from the 1911 building Afterlife shares with businesses like the Echo Theater.
With hospitality experience also branching back to Los Angeles, Hooper was last involved with Wonderlove. Originally from Salem, Hooper tells WW he was inspired by how openly and often Portland welcomed him, and he hopes that Afterlife can be another such place for newcomers, visitors and the Hawthorne neighborhood.
Opened in October and built out from a former Harlow juice bar and cafe (now on Southeast Division Street), Afterlife looks something like a Hamburg tiki bar. The space is dark with moody LED lighting and exposed black seismic beams. There’s a variety of seating options, from standard-size booths to tall benches against the wall perfect for anyone whose height sails past 6 feet. Afterlife hosts live music, DJs and karaoke along with a monthly makers market, but on a recent Thursday night, the bar was ripe for takeover after the bar’s karaoke host called out sick.
Afterlife’s cocktail menu is loaded with hidden gems. Hooper’s tastes trend sweet with fresh citrus but get filtered from typical mai tais and mojitos into something more distinctly Deutsch. The Muerte ($14) is an activated charcoal mezcal margarita topped with a dried lime slice that tastes like Halloween all year. The Pigalle Country Club ($14) is a surprisingly light and bright blend of scotch, lemony citrus, bitters, marmalade and sugar. But the Fur Trader ($14) caught taste buds in a trap repeatedly with bourbon, coffee liqueur, fernet, maple and bitters. It tastes like a subtle twist on the espresso martini, especially with a twist of lemon peel to bring out all of the coffee’s distinctive notes.
If any of that sounds too fancy, Afterlife also has a litany of standards as well as tall drinks like Tom Collins, aperol spritz and Dark & Stormy. The food menu for now is a humble list of plant-based soups like chili and balila, but will soon host vegan comfort food vendor Gnarlys. In the meantime, Afterlife might not have many nightlife neighbors, but it already joins the veritable Valhalla of the eastside’s top-shelf cocktail lounges like Dirty Pretty, Lollipop Shoppe and Rontoms.
TRY IT: Afterlife, 3632 SE Hawthorne Blvd., instagram.com/bar.afterlife. 2–11 pm Tuesday–Thursday, 2 pm–1:30 am Friday–Saturday, 2–10 pm Sunday.