Joe's Cellar — Restaurant in Portland

Yet another bastion of real Portland in a sea of overpriced boutique restaurants, house-distilled artisanal cocktails and other pretentious BS. This place has two sides, a café and a bar.

The café is not open on Mondays or Tuesdays (I believe). It's right on the corner so you have a great view of the concrete monolith with cantilevered steel upper floors going in across the street. The service is fast, friendly, and the food is unbelievable, especially considering the prices. The country gravy for their chicken fried steak is a meal unto itself, all sausagy and thick, served in such great portion. I've had breakfast for lunch here too, which is enough food for two.

The bar side is a legit Portland dive - no windows, dark colored everything, dim lighting, pool tables, big half-booths with steel stacking chairs on the open side. Open 7 days a week, I've been in the bar side once for lunch and couldn't order drinks since I was working, but all else from the café side holds true. Plenty of regulars at noon on a weekday, still the bartender was speedy and friendly. Considering the age of this place, I'm surprised it doesn't have that grimy feeling or sort of faint, stale aroma to indicate it had...

A treasure of a dive in a now Portland Posh area. The bar I've visited the restaurant that was attached looks long closed. 2 Amarillo sours, a soda and a screwdriver was $37. Food looks bomb for the price but we had just ate elsewhere. Of note for a dive....zero stinky smell. Didn't smell like spilled beer, urine, cigarettes' or strong cleaning chemicals/cloying scent sprays. Would highly recommend. They have a cig machine that had two types of Camels, two types Indian Sprits, Pyramid and a couple others for $8. I haven't even seen a cig machine in a bar in a decade. Multiple pool tables, gambling machines and a mini arcade including...

The outside of Joe's screams "divey dive dive dive bar" and the inside does not disappoint. But I must say, I really enjoy the place. The people pouring the drinks are great folks and many of the regular patrons don't mind the kids who come in for a game of pool and go at karaoke. It's a great place to end an evening with a night cap or get the night going with some cheap drinks and unique seating choices. Location lends itself to plenty of parking but if the mood is right inside, and it usually is, you better remember where you parked because chances are you'll be leaving on foot...