Barlow

Nathaniel made the best Old Fashion on the planet. The passion and flavor cannot be beat! Also, try the Trinidad Sour, unbelievable!!!

Take your date and go for the cocktails. We ordered straight from their cocktail menu and they were excellent. Too few stools at the bar to watch the show, but the outcome was great. I liked the ambiance but the noise to distance across table was too large.
Order the food only if you’re just looking for something to snack on. It’s acceptable — but with so many great choices within spitting distance. But you don’t go here for the food.

I really enjoyed the Portland vibe this place gave off. It was exactly what I wanted out of a cocktail bar my first time visiting the city. The cocktails were excelllent, my date and I had a hard time choosing one because they all sounded so good. Service was excellent and mood was on point.

I go here to collect apologies. Sorry about the wait. Sorry about your food. Sorry about your drink. Sorry about your check. Sorry, what was that? I can’t hear you. I want to love this place. I want to love it so much that I’m PROBABLY going to go back again after I write this. The drinks are so good. The atmosphere is so fun. I just feel like… it can do so much better.
I went once in December and the server was so slow I felt like they were intentionally ignoring us. They gave my friend who asked for a dairy free plate dairy, and then make jokes about how difficult serving was. We get it, but we also kind of don’t want to hear about it.
I went back a second time with a no-​rush mentality. I can be cool, hip, wait 20 minutes for my cocktail.
Getting noticed, getting my order, getting my drink, getting my bill, getting my card. The whole affair took an hour despite my desire to just sit down, grab a drink, and leave. If they expect such busy nights — which they should, for their location — they should consider a better approach to serving customers so that people arrive and leave feeling satisfied. If the wait is part of the charm, at least charm me and make it worth my wait.

Excellent food. I wasn’t super hungry but grabbed dinner here. Two plates were more than enough for two people. Get the Brussel sprouts! Check at the end took a bit, otherwise I would have given 5 stars

Get the brussel sprouts. This is not an option. It is one of the best things I’ve ever put in my mouth, and that is saying something. I enjoyed the grilled cheese, too, along with a couple of their amazing artisan cocktails. Great ambiance, friendly staff :)

So the urban dictionary says the meaning of Barlow is: «Underage drinker and smoker that often cannot remember the night before» and Wikipedia defines it as: Barlow is a place name and a family name. The name is English in origin, meaning «[lives on] the bare hill». The ancestry of most Barlows traces back to the North West of England… Neither one of these definitions is particularly applicable here. Ha!
However, if you enjoy a classy swanky vibe (old Hollywood Glamour), amazing cocktails, a delicious menu, and a very engaging staff… You should probably just go. They also have incredibly privet booths for date nights.
I was there celebrating my birthday and the entire staff took excellent care of my entire party and didn’t bat an eye when my reservation doubled in size throughout the evening. BIG GROUPS BRING CASH.
I will be back for for the Mafia Booth and a Manhattan or two VERY SOON

Spent New Year Eve here, great people love the bar and it’s classy 1920s vibe. The sister bar to the Picnic House next door. Fun to see the bartender do is dry ice tricks!

Amazing cocktails and phenomenal bartender! Great music and beautiful bar. Such a fun stop during shopping and strolling downtown. I saw the bartender treat everyone with kindness, even the street people steps away. That goes a long way. When we come downtown we will certainly come back.

In my trip so far, the mutton-​chopped bartender we met at Barlow has been the most hospitable and fun, and for that sir, we say kudos. There are many practices here that make me realize (having worked at a cocktail bar) what we could have done better. Tricks and treats and classiness abound, and the drinks are expertly prepared.
My Blackjack was an unusual concoction of mezcal, cold-​pressed coffee, brandied cherry reduction and olive oil. Very happy to try such a weird combination of ingredients, especially when the final product was quality. All of the drinks were well-​balanced and exciting to see and partake in. The chips and warm caramelized onion dip was stellar and the atmosphere was inviting. Always good to visit a bar that feels like home.

This place is SO cool! Great cocktails and atmosphere… ordered a few apps which were awesome… I am from Atlanta and there pimento cheese was seriously some of the best I have ever had. will be back!

What a gem! Everything about this place is lovely! We wandered in after a concert at the ‘Schnitz’, and we made it in time for the full dinner menu. The cheddar cheese sandwich with tomato soup is just amazing. I can’t find any other words to describe it. The seasoned popcorn is sweet and savory at the same time; it has a really interesting flavor. At the end of the night I felt like I had to shake the chef’s hand. The flavors are just so well balanced, and unique at the same time.
The cocktails were truly excellent (I had the Elysium and another one whose name I sadly forgot); their Aquavit flight is very interesting and the bartender will be happy to share all the details of where each of them was produced.
The décor and music are lovely; every detail from the chairs to the pictures on the walls to the lamps hanging from the ceiling have been carefully designed for a relaxed, pleasant feeling.
I wish I had wandered into Barlow years ago!

Went here recently for drinks and it was great. Highly recommend Barlow for drinks pre-​show, or just because. Good vibe, quality food from Picnic House next door and excellent service.
Pros:
* Quality Specialty cocktails as well as the classics and good draft beer
* Good food
* Great service
* Fun, unique spot, in keeping with the great cocktail bars in Portland (but how many others randomly toss dry ice around?!).
Cons:
* Street parking only
* Happy hour ends at 6 PM
* Burger is small, so order two if you’re hungry!
* $ 6 a pint for draft is tough in a beer town

Good drinks, good quite crowd and nice area. Needs to have more variety of snacks thou.

Great place for HH. As with any other place in PDX, beer is top notch. For HH, we had the brussel sprouts. They were a little too oily, but very flavorful. I really like how the bar is decorated. Lighting is dim, but the atmosphere was really cool. I’ll come here again on an HH tour.

Loved Matthew the bar manager. We came before dinner and it was pretty empty so we were able to sit at the bar and really enjoy his company. He was able to make custom drinks for us and had time to chat with us. The cocktails were sooooo delicious and he even made a liquid nitrogen sorbet for us since it wasn’t that busy! This was probably one of my favorite bartender experiences ever. Love, love, love him!

Just leaving Barlow on a Thursday, went for a cocktail around 8pm, stayed for four! Good scene, great cocktails, awesome charcuterie plate. Some of the most fun mixtures and flavors of drinks we’ve had in PDX. Fun people watching too out the glass windows.
Service was a little slow but all had great passion and personality. Great for groups or romantic close-​talk tables for a date.
Will definitely return and maybe try their full menu when we do!

This is a very specific review regarding accessibility. I helped organize a group meeting here with people of varying degrees of accessibility issues. One individual is legally blind and walks with a cane. Another is in a wheelchair. One other is an amputee who walks with crutches. Others have various disabilities.
Accessibility here is excellent compared to its peers.
We contacted Barlow ahead of time and queried about their accessibility. They stated that they were compliant. However, this does not always mean that in practice a bar is accessible. Often, walkways are too narrow, particularly for wheelchair maneuverability or seating. At one event, a certain bar stated that it was accessible only for us to find that it has stairs and that it has a regular client they lifted in and since this client did not mind, it deemed itself «ADA accessible.»
Barlow, however, is an excellent choice for individuals searching for an accessible establishment. The seats are low and padded enough for the individual with an amputation to sit comfortably. No one opted to guide the blind individual to our table (or any table, for that matter) or help her avoid unexpected obstacles. Instead, I noticed her entrance and subsequent confusion and aided her.
One individual stated the music was too loud for comfortably hearing conversation though it did not impair my ability. For the most part, Barlow is a rare mostly accessible bar downtown for individuals who may be coping with any number of accessibility issues. For certain issues, I would recommend calling ahead for a quick and easy fix. One would hope they would be accommodating.

Amaze-​balls drinks. An Old Fashioned to die for – I’m talking a real family-​breaker. So yummy
Don’t be alarmed as the mixologist throws fire and smoke into the air – it’s all part of the Barlow experience.
Small plates are good not spectacular but superior drinks make this a 5-​star destination.

My friends and I were feeling a later evening craving for some good drinks, and here we found ourselves at Barlow. Barlow’s themed bar of a classier, upscale, and sophistication for me is always a plus. I like these kind of places, even though it is on the pricier side, it is more relaxed. We did not sit at the bar, but at one of the round tables at the end.
DRINKS: I got a Monet Fizz. There’s not much to say, but I will say that with the drinks that my friends got, the drinks were not strong, but after one of the cocktails, you were feeling pretty good. I would say that people complain about the weak drinks; I personally found the drinks to be suitable for my tastes. Nothing too crazy or new, but I personally found it quite tasty.
SERVICE: Nothing much to say. Our server was new to the area of Portland and probably this job. Friendly and did not bother us as we enjoyed our drinks and company.
A good find in the Pearl District and seems to be a fairly new establishments. Perhaps on the steeper side for a drink, but the atmosphere is great. I wish I had something off of the food list to rate that too, so my review can only be applied to the drinks.