The Solo Club

Portland Cocktail Bar Solo Club Reopens With Tropical Drinks and Tapas | Eater Portland

"After two years closed, Solo Club in Slabtown has reopened under new ownership with David Rodriguez — an alumnus of Teardrop Lounge — steering the bar program and shifting the focus away from amaro toward balanced cocktails built around Latin American and Caribbean spirits and house-made syrups and cordials. Much of the menu relies on those house preparations: the Cosmopolitan swaps cranberry juice for a house-made cranberry cordial made from whole cranberries, orange liqueur, and a spritz of orange blossom (using the liqueur in place of a typical sweetener reins in the saccharine nature of the cocktail and adds floral notes), and a house ginger syrup appears in several drinks, including an 'El Diablo' tequila highball where the syrup adds a hit of heat to play off mellower black currant. Bartenders lean into a tropical bent by spiking cocktails with Haitian rum, aged tequila, and fruit juices — examples include a horchata-coffee cocktail with Haitian rum and aged tequila and a rum-and-vermouth drink paired with a piña colada–esque coconut-and-pineapple blend — though you'll also find spirits-forward options like rum, tequila, mezcal, a bourbon-ginger, an American Trilogy, and tiki drinks such as a Jungle Bird. Chef Romeo Lopez, who runs the culinary program at Besaw’s, handles the food with a tapas-style menu featuring fried calamari with chile aioli, spot prawns with adobo, boquerones, nachos, patatas bravas, and smaller Basque pintxo–style bites like ham-and-cheese croquetas. The vibe has shifted from a suave, low-lit cocktail bar to something a touch livelier: Rodriguez programs a soundtrack of ’90s and early-2000s throwbacks (Whitney Houston, Britney Spears) with the hope that people will feel comfortable getting up to dance, cocktail in hand. Solo Club is open 5 p.m. to midnight Wednesdays through Sundays (with possible later hours Fridays and Saturdays) and plans to open Mondays and Tuesdays for special events in the future." - Eater