Bailey's Taproom
213 SW Broadway Portland, OR 97205Phone: (503) 295.1004
Located in: Downtown Portland - Visit Website
BarFly's Review of Bailey's Taproom
When empty—on a Monday, a Tuesday, say—it’s easy to think Bailey’s is your own private social club, with casked beers, local beers, obscure imports in kegs, a private bartender who offers tastings and speaks of notes top or bottom, of chocolate in your beer. The Entertainer décor encourages this, as do the couches. It is beer that is wine, for manly men—all men, really.
Women don’t come here except with husbands and boyfriends, which means on a Friday or Saturday the mood in the room turns into the white-collar version of an officer’s bar, a sailor’s haunt minus the whores. Since the place closes early, one does suspect that Bailey’s doubles as a staging area for Mary’s strip club flashing across the side street—which is, of course, exactly what you do with a drunken sailor.
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I'd edit my previous review if I could, but since I can't figure out how to do that, here I am to correct myself.
I stopped in Bailey's tonight, and there was a different bartender that was great. Interested in beer, and in YOUR beer, and genuine. Cool kid, and it was well appreciated.
If you like great beer, stop in and enjoy.
Bailey's has its own pros and cons. If you're the type of "beer fan" that thinks Henry's is impressive because they have more taps than you can count, regardless of the fact that it happens to be 80 shitty, boring beers that cater to the well dressed and the folk that think it's hip to drink good beer, you should probably stay there. If you're looking for something very good and a well thought out draft list of around 20 beers, Bailey's is probably one of the top three places in town (along with Horse Brass and Saraveza). Good prices, good location and a nice space inside.
The pros end right around there though. Place closes at midnight, which you'll certainly be well informed of by the owner/bartender if you walk in past 11pm. Beside the fact that he's obviously more interested in staring at the clock and waiting for quitting time than he is in serving you good beer (or actually hiring a bartender), he also has that typical Portland service trait of talking away to someone while you wait and wait and wait for him to get to you.
But the draft selection is damn good and it's certainly worth stoppping in. Just make sure it isn't Sunday, that you're not planning on eating, or it's past 11pm.
Yes, they have a decent selection of beers, if you haven't recently visited Henry's and the 100 taps there. Prices are fair but no cheaper than anywhere else. The windows surround one in whatever ambient light Portland has to offer, but that same light unfortunately illuminates the clientèle which can only be categorized as fresh out of their office pods where they have been watching Star Wars on DVD instead of doing their jobs. I've got to admit I'm a nerd, but these guys(there were only two women at the bar) took the cake to Loserville. I could only expect a class in Klingon as the evening's entertainment.One chap even tried to pick up one of the ladies while she was having a wonderful time with her male companion. Her disgust was probably the biggest laugh I had there. The service was inattentive yet still existent.
