Review: Clyde Common - Happy Hour

Clyde Common inaugurates a series of articles exploring Portland's best cocktail bars and the hamburgers that inhabit them.

Gazing out the window, cocktail in hand, I realized that Clyde Common may be Portland's best bar for people watching. Hip out of towners from the attached Ace Hotel milled about the sidewalk as the ubercool bike set and delightfully trashy Stark St folk passed by - every Portland cliche well represented. The soundtrack isn't bad either. Behind me at the large busy bar were the rants of local cooks packing their chef's knives and touring musicians attempting to brag their way into bed with dolled up ladies. But I had trouble paying attention, my drink was just too interesting and there was a burger on the way.

Clyde Common puts equal emphasis on it's kitchen and it's bar, a Portland trend I greatly welcome. Captained by Jeffrey Morgenthaler, the large U-shaped bar churns out a rotating list of creative cocktails and a dizzying variety of bourbon and rye's including $55 pours of Pappy Van Winkle 23yr. A friend and I mused over the idea of a drinking game involving a casino-style spinning wheel with every bourbon represented - whatever whiskey you land on your companion has to purchase for you. What do you think guys, a small one under the chalkboard? OK, maybe not, but the real attraction here is the cocktail menu, especially during happy hour (3-6 and 11-close) when a generous selection of the menu is available for $5.

A recent outing included:

Black Dog - Cachaca, Lemon, Apricot Preserves, Egg Whites, Bitters

Egg whites gave a smooth mouthful while the apricot adhered to the cachaca's funkiness just enough to smooth out it's edge.

Salt and Pepper - Gin, Grapefruit, Lime, Peychaud's, Salt

I'm not normally big on salted rims, but seeing the grapefruit and peychaud's I suspected they were trying to tease out pepper without using any in the drink and I was curious to see if they could pull it off. Sure enough, a remarkable sensation of salt a pepper was more pleasing than it sounds due to it's citrus tang. Damn impressive.

The Dissident - Becherovka, house-made Tonic Water, Lime

(pictured at the top of this article)

Becherovka is Czech digestif derived from more than 30 herbs and a colorful past. This riff on the G&T is known in the Czech Republic as a Beton, and what really makes it special here is the house tonic water - bitter, surprisingly sweet, and complex this is a perfect after dinner gut healer.

Hamburger Sandwich

Lately I've noticed a creative burger option on the happy hour or 'bar' menu at almost every destination cocktail bar in town, and damn if I'm not going to eat all of them. My 'hamburger sandwich' ($6) with bacon ($1) and cheddar ($1) seduced me on site with that great fast-food style bun. Creative twists like a puree of dried tomatoes instead of tomatoes/ketchup and pickled onions in place of onions/pickles cleverly simplified the condiments. The cheddar was gooey and the bacon nice and crisp for a change - I never once looked like a dog struggling with a chew toy. I felt the beef was well seasoned but really fall apart texturally (high fat content?), which was fine as the sandwich held itself together like a champ. Tang and subtle sweetness from the tomato puree and pickled onions, great proteins, and a hell of a bun made for a damn near perfect 'six dollar burger'.

Although the burger doesn't come with any sides it's a meal unto itself, but we ordered some marcona's & olives ($3) and the charcuterie board ($5) for the sake of gluttony.

Marcona Almonds & Olives

I love Marcona almonds, and these were indeed them, a great cocktail snack.

Charcuterie Board

This was maybe a bit more mundane than we were hoping for, but the dry salami was top notch, as were the tart cornichons and zippy dijon. The egg was a nice touch, but we had to arm wrestle for it.

Not to emphasize this point too heavily as it's already difficult to find a seat at the bar during prime time, but a couple of Portland's best cocktails and a badass burger for a little over $20 out the door is a hell of a deal. Not enough for you? How about great people watching, a unique 3pm start time, and a late night option? Oh, and I hear dinner is great too. Give me that whiskey wheel and I'll pledge full fealty.

Clyde Common

1014 SW Stark St.

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Comments

[Smokin' Bunny]

Goodist,

You wrote "I felt the beef was well seasoned but really fall apart soft texturally (high fat content?)."

Yes and no.

(Fist off, let's clear up that I'm writing this presuming you meant "AND fell apart well.")

It's unlikely that they are using an extremely low fat content - "expensive cut." That would, cooked perfectly, fall apart very well.

Most likely what they are doing is using a fatty "cheeper cut."

So... yeah - FAT, but here the rub -

If you cook a fatty cut really fast, it'll fall apart well, but so will the fat, so that's why when you get served beef/pork/lamb/goat/yak/zebra/wallaby/etc you end up sucking on fat chunks.

What you gotta do is cook it for a very long time.

Put the big ol' honkin' bit o' dead animal in the fridge with some seasonings and liquid. Then the next day, take it out and cook it, with the liquid(and more if needed) on... oooh 300... for about 5-10 hours.

That should get ya some tenderass flesh for your delicate palate to inhale with glee.

Have fun,
Smokin' Bunny