Spare Room Restaurant and Lounge

Spare Room Restaurant and Lounge
The Spare Room
Logo
The restaurant's exterior, 2022
Map
Address4830 Northeast 42nd Avenue
LocationPortland, Oregon, U.S.
Coordinates45°33′29.1″N 122°37′12.7″W / 45.558083°N 122.620194°W / 45.558083; -122.620194
Opened1977 (1977)
Website
spareroomrestaurantandlounge.com

Spare Room Restaurant and Lounge, or simply The Spare Room, is a dive bar,[1] restaurant, and entertainment venue in northeast Portland, Oregon, United States.

Description and history

Dance floor

The Spare Room is a restaurant and entertainment venue with two bars in northeast Portland's Cully neighborhood, established in 1977 in a former bowling alley. The restaurant's daily menu features standard pub food and classic American cuisine for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.[2][3]

The space has a large dance floor and hosts a variety of events, such as bingo for seniors, country–western dances, karaoke, and hard and indie rock concerts.[2][4] The Spare Room hosts a monthly event called "the Get Down", described by Willamette Week as a "soul, funk and R&B dance party that's almost too popular", as of 2018.[2] The venue also hosts "Sugar Town", described as one of the city's "most established inclusive dance nights" featuring a disc jockey who specializes in blues and soul music.[5]

Reception

Interior bar, 2022

The Spare Room was included in Portland Monthly's 2014 list of "Portland's Best Bars of the Moment".[6] In her 2016 overview of restaurants along Northeast 42nd Avenue in Cully, The Portland Mercury's Andrea Damewood described the venue as a place "where the magic happens" with "a hell of a karaoke setup".[4]

In 2018, Willamette Week described the venue as "an Old Portland icon that stands as the antithesis of New Portland's bougie homogeneity", with dim lights and inexpensive drinks.[2] The paper's Donovan Farley wrote, "The food is typical bar fare with a homey twist – think meatloaf and spaghetti dinners... Like a chilled-out and boozy Waffle House, the Spare Room also serves breakfast daily at 7 am, making it the rare establishment that's a great place to begin and end your day, provided you can do so while remaining employed."[2] Willamette Week also included the venue's "live-band karaoke experience", called "Karaoke from Hell", on their 2018 list of Portland's "best places to sing karaoke",[7] and the "Sugar Town" event in their list of the city's most "queer-centric" dance parties.[5]

See also

References

  1. ^ "These Happy Hours Are So Cheap—It's Unreal". Willamette Week. 2016-09-30. Archived from the original on 2019-02-12. Retrieved 2023-08-08.
  2. ^ a b c d e Farley, Donovan (June 9, 2018). "The Spare Room Is the Antithesis of New Portland's Bougie Homogeneity". Willamette Week. Archived from the original on June 15, 2018. Retrieved March 9, 2019.
  3. ^ "Spare Room Restaurant & Lounge". Thrillist. Archived from the original on May 26, 2016. Retrieved March 9, 2019.
  4. ^ a b Damewood, Andrea (October 18, 2016). "NE 42nd Is Portland's New Restaurant Row". The Portland Mercury. Archived from the original on November 18, 2017. Retrieved March 9, 2019.
  5. ^ a b Gormley, Shannon (June 12, 2018). "Five Queer-Centric Dance Parties in Portland". Willamette Week. Archived from the original on June 18, 2018. Retrieved March 9, 2019.
  6. ^ Barker, Brian; Dundas, Zach; Ritchie, Rachel; Scott, Aaron; Tepler, Benjamin; Seiler, Margaret; Patail, Marty (February 3, 2014). "Portland's Best Bars of the Moment". Portland Monthly. Archived from the original on June 4, 2019. Retrieved March 9, 2019.
  7. ^ "If You Want to Sing Out..." The Portland Mercury. April 4, 2018. Archived from the original on October 19, 2021. Retrieved March 9, 2019.
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