When you go travel to any new city you never been to before, I always say: ask a local where to go. So, who better of a local to ask on my latest trip to Portland then my younger sister? She’s been begging my to visit her for over a year, so I finally caved and booked a ticket to see her in Oregon. She also knows I’m a foodie and a happy hour queen, so I trust that she won’t take me to just any happy hour in Portland, she’ll take me to some of the best.
Let’s just say, she didn’t let me down. On my second night, we had plans to eat a later dinner after our trip to the waterfalls at Fogo de Chao, but we were ravenous from the hiking and sun and decided to try a happy hour. Instead of giving me options, she just told me we had to go to thePortland City Grill happy hour inside the “pink building.”
When we drove and noticed the dusk-reflective tinted windows of our destination building, I finally got why they called in pink. The entire structure stuck out like a slightly sunburnt thumb amidst the darker cityscape. It called out, “Catch the sunset and sip on happy hour drinks upstairs!” Sold.
You have to take an elevator once you enter the pink building and it takes you all the way to the top 30th floor where you hear Adele’s “Hello” being played on the piano, along with cocktail shakers shaking and patrons chatting and chuckling. In the lounge area (where they offer happy hour only), it’s imperative to get a window seat and if that doesn’t work, you can still catch the breathtaking view of the city from the bar area.
My sister wasn’t going to let us miss our window seat opportunity, so we waited patiently for a table to get up and quickly, yet smoothly made our way over to the table and took over the vacated seats. Our table was bussed immediately and our server came over with happy hour menus and mentioned the happy hour wine specials. I asked about the Perfect Pink Margarita and she said it’s basically a margarita with cranberry juice. We opted for a bottle of the $26 featured happy hour wine (120 Chilean Chardonnay) and ordered some appetizers.
We were saving our appetites for dinner so we ordered sparingly and got the $4.95 Caesar salad with romaine, radicchio, Reggiano Parmesan and lemon Dijon vinaigrette and the Crab and Avocado Roll with pickled ginger and wasabi. The Caesar, especially for under $5, was the perfect light and crunchy snack to accompany the wine. I inquired if the “California Roll” was real crab and was told it was half-and-half (half imitation crab, half real crab). The roll was simple, and only $5.95 – probably not the best representation of the happy hour dishes, but nice if you didn’t want something heavy.
XXOO,
Maren
30, 111 5th Ave, Portland, OR 97204
(503) 450-0030
FIND WEST HOLLYWOOD HAPPY HOURS!
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