Multnomah Whiskey Library

Address: 1124 SW Alder Street, Portland, Oregon, 97205, United States
Tel: +1 503 954 1381
Website: view Multnomah Whiskey Library’s website
Door: Members & guests only
Style: Members' club/lounge bar
Food: Set menu
Established: 2013

Review

A fairly non-descript street door leads up a wooden staircase to the former storage area of a piano store. The store must have been well stocked as this is a sizeable space - impressively so when you first walk in, particularly as the bare brick walls under the double height ceiling are lined with shelves bristling with spirits.

Ladders on rails allow the bartenders to access to the 12 foot high shelves lined with over 1,500 bottles of spirits, some 800 of them whiskies. As in a library, the bottles are meticulously categorised according to region and spirit type - as is the thick bound menu.

Order a classic cocktail and chances are one of the four trollies will be wheeled to your table and the drink constructed in front of you. Indeed it's a conundrum whether to sit at the leather topped island bar or to sink into one of the chesterfield sofas or club chairs. The grand brick fireplace, Persian rugs, furnishings and high ceiling give the room a stately home feel.