Lucky Horseshoe Lounge

Ann Marie is cool and super sweet… she answered all my questions kindly even to the dismay of the bearded poser at the end of the bar on his 5 year old dell laptop… if youre going to be hip… get a new laptop and wear flipflops
Im feeling Lucky… and most fortunate.

Speaking as a business owner on Clinton Street, I couldn’t be happier that Anne Marie has whipped this space into shape and given us a chill place to hang out at the end of the working day. Which could be as early as 3:00. :-)

Anne Marie was super fun to chat with early on a tuesday evening. And she has 2 towns on tap. Yum!

The bartender is bearded and awesome. The beer is fresh and the panini is surprisingly good. The girls are cute. A good fun dive. Portland as it should be.

Small place but very lowkey. Nice place to chill if you are waiting for a show at Clinton Theater. Deviled eggs are tasty but the grilled cheese was a little bland.
Nice happy hour place 4 – 6 everyday.

Look, I can walk into this place on a Friday night and immediately find a seat. That alone is worth the 5 stars for this part of town. I’ve never had to wait for a drink from the small but expertly curated tap selection, and when you add to that the surprisingly good sandwiches, it just gets better and better. This is an unpretentious bar for unpretentious people. And for neighborhood denizens like myself, it offers a welcome balance between Dots and the Clinton Street Pub. And the people watching from the outdoor seating is second to none.
My only complaint is that it doesn’t open until 4pm on weekdays, which means I have an hour to kill after K&F coffee closes. Although I guess I can just grab a bite to eat at Noho’s while I wait. Damn, I spend way too much time on this corner…

Small corner neighborhood bar with a bar food menu and cocktails, beers and wines. The Panini! s are good. Try the Tater Totes — they are amazing!

The Lucky Horseshoe Lounge is a friendly little bar that epitomizes «low key.» It’s a good place to go when you want to keep your evening mellow.
It’s got a chill country vibe. Think Sam Elliott, not Yosemite Sam. Neither a hick bar, nor a saloon, nor a honky-​tonk, but a dimly-​lit joint where they play Hank Williams, Johnny Cash, and Willie Nelson. The bartender is really sweet and takes good care of her patrons.
They’ve got a decent few beers on tap, plus a great deal on a shot of well whiskey and a pint of Olympia (only five bucks!). Cocktails are a better bet. They make a decent old fashioned, and their well drinks are nicely mixed. I haven’t had any of the other drinks on their current cocktail list besides their old fashioned, but they seem like they’d be tasty enough.
The food isn’t great, but nor is it awful. I’ve had the tot-​chos here before, and they served their purpose. That said, there is better bar food to be found in the surrounding area. Your best bet is to hang at the Lucky Horseshoe, decompress a bit over a little drink, and then once you get hungry, keep moving. But don’t leave too quickly, as it’s too nice a place to rush through.
The main thing that draws me to this place is the vibe. Sometimes, especially if you’re hitting a lot of bars in one night, you don’t want a place with pounding music, a cavernous space, and a massive menu. You want a chill spot to hang out and enjoy the good company over a drink or two. And that’s exactly what the Lucky Horseshoe is.

Service is great on weekdays (Mark, you are rad!). Haven’t checked out weekends. Food is kind of what you expect for a teensy spot. Tots and nachos, the usual bar fare. What I love most about this place is the ability to have a work meeting without getting drowned out by loud music, loud television, and loud patrons. I can actually hear a conversation. Yay!
Also the bathroom is clean. Super important and so rare in this neighborhood. If you are a SE local, check out the velvet painting of Hosford MS. Hope this place sticks around.

Incomplete Package
or
Around the Corner and Underwhelming
When they were building the place out, I was excited. It looked like fun, hip, western-​themed. My kind of place. And, being a mere three blocks from my door, well within ‘stumbling distance.’ They did a good job with the décor. Take a look at the menu, though, and the façade is lifted.
The food offerings are minimal and don’t fit the tenor of the place. Nachos? Sure. Tots? Okay, I can see how they fill a role. Panini, though? Wtf is that about?
The turkey with havarti and olive tapenade, for instance, has no business on the menu card at a dark, brooding bar with gold-​tinted chandeliers and a red neon horseshoe in the window. I ordered it anyway. When it arrived, I was underwhelmed. There was nothing luxurious about the thin, oozing breadplank at the bottom of the basket. And it was incredibly salty. Like, salt-​literally-​on-​the-​outside-​of-​the-​ciabatta-​roll salty. If olive tapenade is coming to the party, I don’t think you’ll be lacking in salt, so don’t add it to the bread. Overall, it felt cheap.
The staff isn’t bad, or mean, or surly. However, they’re never particularly engaging — which seems to fit the overall feeling of the place.
The beer selection is, at least, pretty good. Pfriem, for instance, made an appearance.
Overall, though, I can’t help feeling like the owner saw this location as low hanging fruit, put in a nice looking façade and then half-​assed the menu, looking for any way to increase their margins.
If you’re just drinking, and don’t really care what’s under the hood, you could be blissfully ignorant here. With so many good options nearby, though, I can’t recommend LHL.

Tatchos, nachos, neighbors and beer. What more could I want from my Local? Nothing.
The nachos are especially good with fresh roasted tomato salsa and they have a great rotating selection of microbrew as well as a tub full of frosty cans.

I love the lighting and feel of this spot: cozy and warm with great people watching windows. We did not have any food but the local IPA was great and the mixed drink was just right. I think this is a great neighborhood spot and will look forward to future visits.

Cheap.
$ 4 micros, 7 or so choices that were quality including Occidental and Gigantic.
Nicer than a dive-​tastic dive.
It’s quite cozy, and it was warm on a cold winter’s day. Not a ton of comfy seating. The bathroom is clean, which is always a big plus in a lady’s world.
Service was whatevs.
It was fine. Even though the place was empty we had to go up to the bar to order, although she did bring us out the drinks. Typical Portland bar service.
Random music.
Between blasting the Bee Gees, Hall & Oates, Michael Jackson, and other random goodness, this bar had me quoting Fitzgerald: «I was within and without. Simultaneously enchanted and repelled by the inexhaustible variety of life.»