Slow-sipping well-crafted drinks in Portland

Place: Clyde Common 

What: tavern with craft cocktails and farm-fresh food

Where:  1014 SW Stark St, Portland, OR

Innovation:  listing the restaurant staff on the menu, in an end-credits sort of way

Result:  Customers are witnessing craftsmen at work -- and then enjoy the fruit of their labors

PORTLAND—My brother told me not to miss the cocktails at Clyde Common, downtown, so on a Saturday evening I popped in and found the sole remaining spot at the far end of the bar. Despite the crowd, the bartender welcomed me with a menu and a glass of water. This set the tone: genteel, hospitible. Right away, I knew this was a slow-sipping sort of place.

The last page of the menu listed the restaurant's staff--all the servers, bartenders, busboys, cooks, chef, everyone who worked in the restaurant. I have never seen this anywhere. It does several things:

• Creates an atmosphere of respect for the staff (perhaps improving tips!)
• Makes the customer feel like he is part of something exciting -- that he is paying for a craft to which many have contributed
• Creates a community to which one would like to return

I ordered the Bourbon Renewal--bourbon, lemon, crème de cassis--which the friendly yet efficient woman behind the bar said was the most popular drink. When I was unsure what to order for a second drink, the bartender just came out and said it, with a smile: "We have the best Old Fashioneds in town." Settled. It was indeed an excellent O.F., one of the best I've had, without a hint of fruitiness. Strong and gripping. 

Meanwhile, two different couples had come and gone, sitting next to me and talking with me. After each departed, the barwoman said, "Well, weren't they just the nicest people?" I felt at home. It is good to hear people speaking well of others. 

A couple from Seattle took the empty places and some bros entered seeking shots. The bartender smoothly and pleasantly -- without pretense -- told them they don't do shots in this here joint. She offered to pour their desired liquor in little sipping glasses. Meanwhile, the bros were amazed at the ingredients in the punch bowl, listed on a coaster, and kept talking about shots. The Seattle couple and I had a good laugh -- and we were saying how our Long Island Iced Teas and Yeager bomb days were blissfully behind us. Just then the bartender said that Clyde Common's sister bar next door, Pépé Le Moko, serves the best Long Island Iced Tea and that we might actually like it. 

The Seattle girl said surely not.

The bartender smiled and said hang on. She pulled a tattered black molekskin notebook from behind the bar and went expeditiously to a page somewhere in the middle. Then she got out three little sipping glasses and began her craft. Soon, she was serving us, on the house, samples of the craft, polite version of a Yeager bomb -- and it was extraordinary, worth sipping and not shooting!