Oregon Trail: Bar Crawling in Portland

I was back in Portland, Oregon for a long weekend again, and due to the constraints (that is, chaos) of the trip, the drinking was sort of haphazard. Like a visit there earlier in the year, there were no planned expeditions to bars carefully contemplated and chosen in advance. But urban drinking in general is getting pretty good and I didn’t have to think too hard. The job was made easier by all the spirit-forward cocktails defined by distinctive spirits. 23 Hoyt had a rich and good-looking Old Fashioned called Rum & Rye, these being Pampero and Old Overholt respectively. The Heathman Hotel’s O-N Negroni featured the assertive and elegant Organic Nation gin from Ashland. And the Living Room Theater, one of the most fun places to get a drink, had the Reel Martini, made with another Oregon craft gin, Ransom Old Tom from the city of Sheridan, which yielded not a Dry Martini but a real Martini nevertheless. The movie would’ve be fine without it, but after two, I was ready to like anything.