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Michael Shea, the co-owner of Rum Club (720 SE Sandy Blvd., 467-2469, rumclubpdx.com), describes his month-old bar as geographically and philosophically at the midway point between Beaker & Flask, the cocktail-heavy restaurant down the block, and the Slammer, the delightfully weird dive across the street. I don't think I can do better. Rum Club, which Shea, a former bar manager at Doug Fir, conceived with Beaker & Flask's Kevin Ludwig, serves Hemingway-class cocktails at reasonable prices (all $8) in a tiny triangular room almost completely filled by a horseshoe bar topped in glowing African mahogany. The bar encourages long, pisco-soaked conversations that drift on and on until the 2 am last call, so fortify your stomach with a stream of deviled-ham sandwiches ($5) and pickled eggs (beet- or turmeric-flavored, $1) and settle in.
WWeek 2015