Meantime I'll leave you a picture of Portland's diviest of dive bars (more here if you're in a mood), the Pirate's Cove on Sandy Blvd. (Click to enlarge, which I recommend for the full experience.) It was originally called the Sandy Jug because, if you shape your pub like a moonshine jug, you're pretty much not into subtlety. When I stopped by to snap this pic, a guy tried to sell me scratch lottery tickets out front. I declined, and for good measure, waited for him to disappear back into the tavern before I took the shot. It's wrong to judge people, but he didn't look like the kind of guy who wanted his picture taken. I believe it does a nice job of capturing toxicity, so.
See you next week--
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*Unless, of course, I do. Bloggers are shifty and unreliable, so I wouldn't trust this statement if I were you.
Hmmm... not so sure I'd classify it as the diviest of the divey. The jug gives it a certain sort of character. :-) There are plenty of dive bars out there without even that going for them.
ReplyDeleteI believe every crime and sin known to man has been committed at this location in its long, checkered history. And that stretch of Sandy is grim.
ReplyDeleteThe Jug at least has the advantage of looking kind of cool from the outside. Is it still a strip joint? I haven't been in there since a bachelor party years and years ago. It was a seedy strip joint then.
ReplyDeleteIndeed, that stretch of Sandy, which isn't far from home, is quite grim...unless you're in the market for a scratch ticket. Then it's pretty sweet.
Well, hopefully you're making good progress on the second book. Hope to see you in a pub soon.
It's grim, but not *that* grim, and it's my neighborhood. Nice to be able to walk to the two best Pho restaurants in the city (Pho An and Pho Oregon) and the plethora of Asian markets is a big plus. In some ways, Roseway is the 180 of lifestyle neighborhoods like Mississippi and Alberta. Anything I may *need*, (bank, major supermarket, Asian markets, car shops, barber, cleaners, dentists, library, liquor store, schools, golf course, 2 major bus lines, the max) plus a great donut shop, movie theater, old-school pharmacy, are all within a 5 minute walk. Something to be said for that. However, there are no trendy restaurants, coffee shops, bars with good tap lineups that aren't shitty coke dens (although they do have their place...) or the aforementioned Pirate's Cove are non-existent. I think the neighborhood is ripe for a nicer place or two, but I think that maybe because a lot of the commercial property is owned by Vietnamese who lease to others in their community who want to open another Pho place or some such, that won't happen soon--combined with the fact that the neighborhood is filled with ethnically mixed working-class families and has few apartments and large houses filled with young singles may be a factor as well..
ReplyDeleteAre you saying that you will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy?
ReplyDeleteJeff, I totally understand being tired of "thinking" about beer. I often realize that I'm not enjoying it as much as I used to, and I take too much time evaluating it.
ReplyDeleteA good recent example for me: Last Thursday, I returned from a trip dedicated entirely to beer research. You actually helped me plan the trip, and for that I am entirely grateful.
When I returned from my 7 day journey that involved visiting 22 different beer establishments, I needed to take a little break. I didn't want to think about beer for a short while. I just wanted to enjoy it.
Now, it's been a week since my trip ended. Tonight, I made a post on the blog, but I still feel like I need to make more of an effort to appreciate my beer experiences. I can't think of constantly breaking them down at the moment.
I'm sure I'll get back to that soon, though...