The Best Bars in Buckman

Scotch Lodge is a dark, wood-paneled whisky bar with towering walls of bottles, marble counters, and the kind of lighting that forgives everything. It won the James Beard Award for Outstanding Bar. Drinks come smoky and layered, the kitchen turns out silky pasta and fried brie sticks, and someone in the corner is usually having a quiet moment with a rare pour. Dress like you've read a book, then decline to mention it.

1. James Beard Awards 2026 · Winner · Outstanding Bar
2. James Beard Awards 2025 · Nominee · Outstanding Bar
3. The 50 #63 · North America's 50 Best Bars

Jeffrey Morgenthaler, one of Portland's bartending legends, helped set up this cocktail bar in the lobby of the Kex Hotel as an unabashed love letter to the Pacific Northwest. The space feels like a well-appointed living room, and the menu lists alcohol percentages alongside each drink, which sounds nerdy until you're grateful for it. The range runs from zero-proof options to a 39% Old Fashioned over a single oversized ice cube.

1. Spirited Awards 2025 · Top 4 Finalist · Best U.S. Hotel Bar
2. Spirited Awards 2024 · Top 4 Finalist · Best U.S. Hotel Bar
3. The 50 The 50 Discovery

1. Huckberry The 50 Best Dive Bars in America

The horseshoe bar juts into a low-ceilinged room lit by fairy lights, which tells you most of what you need to know before the first drink arrives. This is a cocktail bar with serious craft credentials and a named spot on Difford's Guide, but it wears that lightly. Off-duty bartenders from around Portland fill the stools, which is either the best endorsement or a sign you'll have to work harder to get the bartender's attention.

1. Difford's Guide 5 stars · Difford's Guide
2. Portland Monthly The Best Bars in Portland
3. Spirited Awards 2023 · Regional Honoree · Best U.S. Cocktail Bar – U.S. West

1. Esquire The Best Bars in America
2. Bon Appétit America's Best New Restaurants

1. Spirited Awards 2024 · Regional Honoree · Best New U.S. Cocktail Bar – U.S. West

Sandy Hut is a neighborhood dive on a traffic island on NE Sandy, now dwarfed by the apartment buildings that sprouted around it. It has been cleaned up a bit, so the food is better and the drinks cost more, like everywhere. Parents stop in after soccer practice for a pint and a shot, punks work the pool table and video poker, and the late-night crowd returns for hangover brunch. Portland's Best Bars list includes it.

1. Portland Monthly The Best Bars in Portland

The bar inside Jupiter NEXT Hotel is draped in plants and local art, designed to feel like somewhere sunnier than Portland on a Tuesday. It's a cocktail bar that shapeshifts across the day, quiet enough to nurse a drink in the afternoon and loud enough to justify a second one by night. The drinks lean tropical, bright and built for humidity the Pacific Northwest rarely delivers.

1. The 50 The 50 Discovery
2. Spirited Awards 2023 · Regional Honoree · Best U.S. Hotel Bar – U.S. West