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Alberta Street party dive The Nest, which was destroyed in a fire last year (the sole evacuee was a cat, which firefighters treated with oxygen), inspired virulent loyalty among its regulars—enough so that they followed the bar south to its brand-new location at the old Duke's Landing space (2715 SE Belmont St., 764-9023). After a few city licensing hiccups, the bar reopened this September in a multistory Buckman house with most of its DNA intact, if rearranged: the same boudoir paintings in the bar, the same sun-and-moon mural on the patio. A pingpong table stands in a garagelike rec-room space, while a pool table is tucked into an upstairs bachelor-pad den that seems made for hanky-panky. Man in Black cover band Counterfeit Cash once again plays the first Friday of each month. The food menu now includes the occasional meat item, with panini and quesadillas for $3 to $6, cooked on a little folding toaster. But the drinks are still cheap and stiff and basic, and even the cigarettes are the same: The owner is staging a $3 "fire sale" on stale smokes that survived the blaze. Many Northeast Portland regulars have moved or branched out to Southeast, and they trickle two-by-two through the door. Consider it a punk-rock family reunion in a little cabin in the wilds of Belmont.
WWeek 2015