Scoreboard Tavern
4822 SE Division St. Portland, OR 97206Phone: (503) 233.2971
Located in: Southeast Portland
BarFly's Review of Scoreboard Tavern
A defiantly proud (though that can't be the word) dive's dive for evers, with happy hour cocktails under a dollar the past decade, and a rough'n'ready clientele ready to single-fistedly resist their neighborhood's post-grad invasion, The Scoreboard looks to have finally given up the fight. The old men remain, and poker nights retain an Elks-lodge neighborliness, but, squeezed between the new Jackpot Studios and the burgeoning vegan minimall, they really hadn't much choice, and all changes, utterly - new televisions, fresh paint, painful attempts toward fusion appetizers, animated young men of purposeless eyewear and tight polyester drifting about. Nobody pays attention to the everpresent sports, of course, but they never really did.
| Happy Hours | |
|---|---|
| Monday | $2.25 wells, $1.75 doms, $3+ menu 4-6pm |
| Tuesday | $2.25 wells, $1.75 doms, $3+ menu 4-6pm |
| Wednesday | $2.25 wells, $1.75 doms, $3+ menu 4-6pm |
| Thursday | $2.25 wells, $1.75 doms, $3+ menu 4-6pm |
| Friday | $2.25 wells, $1.75 doms, $3+ menu 4-6pm |
| Saturday | $2.25 wells, $1.75 doms, $3+ menu 4-6pm |
| Sunday | $2.25 wells, $1.75 doms, $3+ menu 4-6pm |
This place looks like a den created by a factory worker who saved up his money, put it all into the liquor and TV's and said screw the rest. And then he got his factory worker buddies to help him put it all together.
"Hey Joey, where ya want this TV?"
"I don't know. Put it on top of the other TV!"
Love the flourescent lighting inside too. What better way to really bring out the subtle nuances of the cigarette burns and old scars of the clientele.
The good news in all of this is that what they miss out on in looks, they make up for with cheap, strong hooch. Good pours, good prices, good people serving 'em. Three things that should be in every bar.
Good as this all is, of course, it's no reason to make a trip out of your way to come here. I'm sure you can find a similar place closer to where you live. One that has good peeps and good drinks. Perhaps one that doesn't quite so much smell like ass.
What's amazing is that as bar owner you wouldn't figure out that if you made some pretty basic changes to this place you'd have a gold mine. The location is sweet, and this part of SE has proven it wants a good bar (e.g. North on 50th & Division). These guys put up a digital sign with rollin messages across it and started opening at 7am to serve breakfast as a way to drive more business... Sorry not what we want, just give us a place to hang out that doesn't smell like ass and doesn't have underage kids sniffin spray pant cans
seriously. perfect. go there on a sunday morning sometime if you like football, or just want to check out what it's like in a city that cares about football (real football. you know, NFL). the owners have a bad rap here, not sure why, because they've always been good to us and keep the drinks cheap and the food delicious. i hear it's up for sale, which is sad. squeezed between a new french bistro, a vegetarian restaurant and a bead store, i guess i can't be surprised.
I went there one night and the owner who was completely piss-drunk started berating me for wanting to play the jukebox. The stench from the poorly maintained restrooms combined with the smoke and what smells like burned-out fryer oil quickly becomes an eye-watering excuse to get the hell out.
Just some advice to management- no one is impressed by your 20 blaring TV's and tell your cook if he's going to pick his nose do it where no one can see. I'm glad I didn't order food. Gross.
Cool bar, quickly turning into a hipster haven, with more buddy holly glasses and trust funds then the eye can see. Cool regular crowd, with a couple good bartenders. Owners are asses, but what can you expect. Food is hit or miss, see you there!
Worst bar in town. It stinks, the decor is a nauseating amalgam of whatever free beer signage they got from their distributors, the worst mix of barely legal thug wannabees, video crackheads, rookie drunks, hicks, pedophiles and pukers loafing around sucking warm pabst and the owners are a couple of white trash bigot drunks who are constantly running decent people out of the bar. They've had a few good bartenders but they don't stick around long.
Great neighborhood sports bar that serves locals and a fairly diverse crowd. Great food and drinks, priced well. The owners are a couple of Nazis that shuffle new bartenders in and out as it pleases them. The current owners don't deserve to own a bar of this quality, they will most likely have to sell it, soon.
The food's actually really good, and drinks are stiff (and cheap). All the bartenders are great!
This place is a good neighborhood bar and not too jock. The bartenders are all pretty cool but the owner is a stupid redneck wench. $1 Pabst kicks ass.
We go there sometimes, because it is stumbling distance from our house, but some people actually drive there from Gresham. It's big, lots of pool tables, cheap beer, as in $1. pbrs all the time. good cheap fried food like mini-corndogs. The bad part, is all the people who drive there from gresham. Wierd mix of people at times... oh yeah, and there are way too many TVs showing sports, but I guess they are a sports bar... they should just drop the sports part. sometimes they'll show the simpsons instead.
