"A great bar rides almost exclusively on how it makes customers feel. You can sell a restaurant on one soul-warming dish and a café on its singular coffee, but good luck convincing anyone to meet you at a bar for the drinks alone: It needs a certain magic that forces patrons into a better mood as they walk through its doors."
"When a bar homes in on its identity, and wholly leans into this beautiful kernel of whatever transformative truth lies at its core, the force is palpable. In Portland, that energy manifests as escapist respites-from the city, the rain, the bills. We want our bars to take us somewhere, and when they can pull this off, they usually stick around for a while."
"If you close your eyes and breathe deep on a quiet afternoon at the Horse Brass-before it's invariably filled with regulars-you can get a whiff of cigarette smoke from decades past, forever remembered by the walls, wooden beams, and low ceilings. Half of those cigarettes were probably smoked by its late proprietor Don Younger, patron to the emergent brewing scene of the 1980s."
A great bar depends on creating a mood that transforms patrons as they enter. In Portland, bars often serve as escapist respites from the city, weather, and daily pressures. Successful bars fully embrace a clear identity and commit to details across drinks, food, décor, and service. The Horse Brass exemplifies time-locked authenticity with lingering cigarette scent, wooden beams, vintage posters, real metal darts, 20-ounce pints, and classic menu items like fish and chips and Scotch eggs. Continued devotion to a founder's vision and faithful homage to British pubs sustains lasting customer affection and atmosphere.
Read at Portland Monthly
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