{"id":10504,"date":"2015-03-27T13:13:52","date_gmt":"2015-03-27T17:13:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/?p=10504"},"modified":"2015-03-27T13:13:52","modified_gmt":"2015-03-27T17:13:52","slug":"hotel-bar-safari","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/hotel-bar-safari\/","title":{"rendered":"Hotel Bar Safari"},"content":{"rendered":"

April 2016 | view this story as a .pdf<\/a><\/p>\n

Romantic cocktail-hour getaways can be found within the city’s luxury lodgings.<\/h3>\n

by Claire Z. Cramer<\/p>\n

\"Hungry-Eye-APR15\"<\/a>What is it about a hotel bar? That\u2019s easy. First, there\u2019s the thrilling illusion that you\u2019re a sophisticated traveler visiting the super-hot dining destination city of Portland. This is followed by the smug knowledge that you live here, and all these other people don\u2019t. (That is, until you start bumping into people you know, fellow escapists seeking the same illusion\u2026)<\/p>\n

A \u2018Tini At The Top<\/strong><\/p>\n

Spring arriving a little too late for your liking? Here\u2019s a tip. Push away from your desk at 5 p.m. one night this week and head for High Street. Let the all-glass doors\u00a0 whoosh open and sweep you into the lobby of the Westin Portland Harborview. Stride across the polished, twinkling lobby like you own the joint, punch the elevator button, and select \u201815\u2019 once you\u2019re inside. You\u2019re going all the way up.<\/p>\n

The Top of the East is a guaranteed attitude adjustment, no matter how many times you\u2019ve been there. Seeing Portland from way up is a thrill. The Channel 6 signal tower is right there<\/em>, along with Back Cove, Portland Harbor, the bridge. A platoon of bartenders in black shirts & ties and cocktail waitresses in little black dresses glides among the black, white, and sepia furniture. It\u2019s all right-angled, modernist, and understated.<\/p>\n

“I\u00a0 like the Last Night in Oaxaca,\u201d says Alexandra Kearney, our bow-tied barkeep. It\u2019s a mezcal-based concoction involving cranberry tea and Gran Marnier. \u201cThe most popular is probably the Portland Sour. It\u2019s really good, too\u2013Double Cross vodka, lemon, brown sugar, and port.\u201d The menu of intricate specialty cocktails ranges in price from $10 to $15. But we\u2019ve come for happy hour, so we choose unbranded drinks. Alexandra strains one vodka martini and one cosmo into martini glasses of the size Joan Collins used to wave around on Dynasty<\/em>. The glasses are frozen, the first sips bracing, and the happy hour price for each is just $6. A small dish of spicy, salty, crunchy things appears before us.<\/p>\n

Within minutes of our arrival, groups of friends, travelers, and clusters of business folk have touched down in droves, nearly filling the vast space.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can\u2019t rent the entire room, but we have lots of smaller parties here, pretty much every night,\u201d says Alexandra. One flock of about 30 near us is perched on bar stools around a long, high island; they\u2019re snacking on fresh, house-made potato chips and dips.<\/p>\n

Alexandra\u2019s name tag includes the information that her passion is dance. Her posture and movements are graceful, so we inquire.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was trained in ballet in New York City, but an injury sidelined my career.\u201d (If you need further proof that ballerinas really are everywhere, turn the page.) \u201cI\u2019ve been in Portland a little more than a year, and now I\u2019m too busy even to dance at the clubs.\u201d Her smile is brighter than the arty little filament bulbs hanging from the ceiling in neat rows above her. \u201cIt was time to get out of New York anyway.\u201d<\/p>\n

Under Milk Street<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cWe make a lot of espresso martinis,\u201d says Ben Bragdon, a bartender at the Armory Lounge. The wood-paneled cave is tucked downstairs at the Portland Regency; if you\u2019ve been there, you know what a valued\u00a0 hideaway it is to Portlanders.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s our most popular cocktail right now. On Fridays and Saturdays at cocktail hour, groups of friends come in and we just line up the glasses and make batches of them.\u201d The Armory has a martini menu, but most of the drinks on it are the antithesis of the lean, dry cocktails of Turner Classic Movies. It\u2019s all about the sugar nowadays. Flavored vodkas, dashes of Frangelico, Cointreau, infused simple syrups\u2013even maple syrup\u2013dominate. The espresso martini consists of Stoli Vanil, Kahlua, Bailey\u2019s, and chilled espresso. \u201cThe Almond Joy\u2019s been a favorite for ages, too,\u201d says Bragdon. \u201cAnd the Apple Crisp and Chocolate Cake Martini. People who don\u2019t want it too sweet like the Blood l\u2019Orange\u2013it\u2019s tart, and finished with a little champagne.\u201d<\/p>\n

Whatever happened to the craft beer craze or a decent glass of pinot noir?<\/p>\n

\u201cI mean, we sell<\/em> wine and beer,\u201d says Bragdon. \u201cBut we\u2019re making cocktails here.\u201d<\/p>\n

Temptation<\/strong><\/p>\n

A walk up a steep, carpeted staircase delivers you into Portland Harbor Hotel\u2019s plush reception area, which flows seamlessly into the restaurant and bar.<\/p>\n

Eve\u2019s at the Garden overlooks the hotel\u2019s inner courtyard through a wall of glass, one of the city\u2019s best views from a restaurant table. The restaurant, bar, and lobby are a pleasing mix of wood, leather, brown corduroy, and muted terracotta and orange upholstery. Loveseats flank a fireplace where flames dance above a zenlike pile of oval beach rocks. A dowager sits in a wing-back armchair at a window table, flanked by what appear to be her son and daughter-in-law; they\u2019re having prosecco. Guests are coming, going, dining, drinking\u2013it\u2019s a movie set for a travel story.<\/p>\n

Eve\u2019s bar has a happy hour from 4 to 7 p.m., Sunday through Thursday, during which time Sugar & Spice White Russians and Passion Fruit Martinis go for $5 and the Bar Bites menu offers such treats as Merguez Sausage Empanadas for $13.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe get a lot of people from Boston on weekends,\u201d says Helena Crothers, who is making drinks at the bar, which is backed by library-like shelves lined with bottles and glassware. The hotel\u2019s prime location on the corner of Fore and Union streets seems ideal for visitors to city food events.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not really about restaurant week or things like that. People just really want to eat<\/em> in Portland<\/em>. We make reservations all the time. But when they ask, can I get them into Fore Street tonight?\u201d She laughs and shakes her head. \u201cThat\u2019s like a two-months-ago situation.\u201d<\/p>\n

James, a waiter, pauses at the bar. \u201cWe have a really nice woman who lives here, in the West End. She stays with us for a night every month or so.\u201d He smiles conspiratorially. \u201cShe likes to get away.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fishbowl on Fore Street<\/strong><\/p>\n

By comparison, Glass\u2013the bar at the new Hyatt Place\u2013feels the most like a traveler\u2019s super-modern way station. If not for the reassuring sight of Gorgeous Gelato across the street you might be sipping that Smoking Glass Manhattan in the VIP lounge at Any Airport USA. It\u2019s all straight edges, cold surfaces, and a solid wall of windows. Three rectangular columns of marbled blue plastic arranged behind the bar between mirrors\u2013all of which climb to a very high ceiling\u2013make the room look like a giant aquarium at night when the columns are illuminated. The underwater sensation is reinforced with a spectacular ceiling fixture in shades of gold and orange that resembles a mass of floating kelp ribbons overhead.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe show movies from the \u201960s and \u201970s on the flat screen,\u201d says the beverage manager, Josh Miranda. \u201cThings like American Graffitti<\/em>\u2013it\u2019s a lot of fun. We definitely get a local crowd in here. This is the Old Port, right on Fore Street. This is Broadway<\/em>.\u201d <\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

April 2015
\nRomantic cocktail-hour getaways can be found within the city’s luxury lodgings.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10533,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[91],"class_list":["post-10504","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","tag-april-2015"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10504","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10504"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10504\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10534,"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10504\/revisions\/10534"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10533"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10504"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10504"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10504"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}