Swift Lounge

I came in for some late dinner on a weekday, and was surprised to find how busy it was. Their was only one table left when we got here. I ordered the pulled pork sandwich and one of the 32oz mason jar drinks. This bar seems to cater to a young crowd, as it was filled with people in their early twenties. I will say it was very loud. The outdoor seating is very appealing, I would love to sit outside here in the summer. The food was delicious and the proportions where quite large. The drink list is what will probably make me a returning customer, it’s really fun. Mimosa with pop rocks? Who can’t love that?

Really cool joint right near where I live so it’s convenient and the prices are good. Drinks are awesome and have funny Portland-​y names and the mason jar idea is typical but enjoyable when you’re sipping on one of their many delicious cocktail options.
However I never look forward to my exchange at the bar because the guy in the beanie is always kind of rude and arrogant. He’s totally unpleasant and seems to be annoyed for whatever reason… Other than the staff this place is really cool.

This placed was hyped to me for days as having great food but my BLT was so soggy it almost fell apart before my first bite. The fries were refried. They were too hard to eat yet rubbery at the same time like they reheated a stale batch in the fryer. The brussel sprouts were saturated in oil and limp like they were cooked at too low a temperature. Not crispy and yummy like I had hoped. Also, it was 26 degrees outside and probably 30 degrees inside. No heat. I don’t feel very loungy with a scarf, hat and coat. I’ll skip it when I go back to Portland. Too many other places to try.

Not good at all!
Poor service and too many hipsters on tinder dates.
Ugh.
The server was rude and forgetful, and we ended up getting half our order to go and the other dine in by mistake… Arg.
We ate outside the restaurant in the car.

Despite being full of loud hipsters, this place is significantly not terrible thanks to not having their music loud (even when the DJ started playing), a defined line for the bar (there’s a sign), and bartenders and servers that are pleasant in the face of an endless crowd. Yes, they have a menu of drinks served in mason jars and if that’s what you need then this is the only place in town to go, but for those of us that prefer their drinks to have no more than three ingredients they pull that off well. Their menu for happy hour is surprisingly full with generous portion sizes. I had their pulled pork sliders and ordered french fries expecting the sliders to be about a quarter of the size of a whimpy fast food burger, but they were really just two every-​so-​slightly-​smaller-​than-​average-​sized burgers. The pulled pork itself wasn’t quite as amazing as I expected, but better than most places — not too watery/​juicy, but still moist and impossible to keep in the bun yet a substantial portion. Additional surprises here were the bun and pickles — the bun was some kind of a potato roll type thing (or probably not, what do I know — it wasn’t a dense bread is the point I’m trying to make here) and the pickles make it so it wasn’t just a meat and bread combination. The fries were pretty damn good too, but I was disappointed that about half the bowl were little short stubby ones that got all hard from overcooking. Despite being full of hip Portlanders, the crowd is very mixed and fantastically friendly.

I love this place! I don’t care that I’m about 20 years older than anyone there and the music screams «fucker» every so often. The drinks are inventive and scrumptious! One of the best bloody Mary’s in the city-​they use bacon dust! The brunch with a bucket of mimosas is a must and the Brussel sprouts are yummy. They have a good happy hour from 4 – 8. My favorite though is brunch and sitting outside. Play your Lil Wayne and Game rap! I’ll drink enough to not care!

Poor service. Order took a half hour. Asked about it twice. Both times the server was disrespectful about it.

Best blt I’ve ever had. Jeez. So good.
They need to do something about that music from the game though.

Now this place, I would have to say is pretty dang cool! We didn’t even know but we go to their sister restaurant, Blackbird ALL the time! We love it!
But Swift is a little different, it’s much more a Bar than a restaurant. You order at the bar, you sit at stinky gross dirty tables, and there is loud loud music. With that, the bra is pretty small, there are plenty of tables in the main room, back room, and even outside. Although the space it still pretty cramped.
The atmosphere is cool, super chill. They have amazing drinks! So many different types of mixed drinks, including mason jar drinks!
Their food menu is really good. Like really yummy!!! I reccommend their mac n cheese. Blue cheese + bacon. That’s all I’m sayin.
It was very loud inside with the music they were playing, so if you want to have convesation. maybe sit outside where it’s quieter

Great food!
Great drinks!
Extremely nice staff!
I’ve been here a couple times and have not been disappointed!
Their happy hour has some delicious food items at a great price!
The only downside, is you can get quite the hangover from drinking too many mason jars full of booze, but that one might be on me

If I lived here this would be my regular bar. The people, music, drinks, food, and vibe were great.
People– random and exlectic mix of metal, grunge, someone reading a book, and a ton of obvious regulars there for some grub and a drink.
Music– mostly rock/​metal but with a lot of random and some old stuff mixed in. Music theme is scheduled and on a poster
Drink– huge, cheap, and strong. Perfect ya? But even more than that they were really good too. Bitchy parrot was surprisingly spicy. I wouldn’t recommend the large size.
Food– super good. And happy hour prices were impressive. Advise? Skip the taquitos and go for jakes chicken. And everything not on the happy hour menu. Go for all of it. Seriously.
Vibe: local bar with fun kitch and great bartenders who felt no need to kiss your ass. Not stuffy but an easy place to stay and hang.
this place was such an awesome find, I dread the day that it’s too crowded to just hang out here

Just before my arrival to Swift this afternoon to enjoy a planned happy hour with a group of friends … a friend warned all of us on FB that we were changing location because of awful service experience she was having. She posted the following–
We are going to another location down the street… first of all, there is not much parking here… they are playing head-​banging music so loud that I’m eventually going to go home and eat my young! We have been waiting for an unreasonable amount of time to get wait help. So I went to the bar to place an order and asked the bartender what she was making as a drink for another customer because it looked interesting. She replied in a snappy and unkind way– «THERE’S A MENU OVER THERE, WHY DON’T YOU GO LOOK AT IT!» I had to ask the customer she prepared the cocktail for what they ordered so I could order the same thing because the bartender was not interested in helping me by answering my simple question?
I guess this means our weekly happy hour group will never patronize the Swift Lounge again.

All of the mason jars are tasty as ever and an absolute must at this place.
Great vibes, great people, great drinks.
A certain Portland favorite of mine.

I really liked this place. Neat atmosphere, awesome mason jar cocktails, great tasty food. We got the bbq pork and hamburger sliders — loved the hamburger slider, squirted juice from the meat or the melted cheese or the buttery toasted bun (couldn’t tell) from biting into one — and we also had the chicken with honey mustard crispy skin which had some exceptional flavor to it, the sweet accented with black pepper, and the fondue fries… Omg. I will dream about them. Had two mason jar drinks and was very pleasantly buzzed afterwards. The dark candied in syrup cherries that adorned them I would have liked to award ‘best cherry flavor ever’ and recommend they make the ‘Chimney Swift’ with 5 of them, at least. ;)
Place was very hot and very loud, the seating outside would’ve been preferable, but due to the popularity of cheap delicious food and drinks, nothing was available. If I lived in Portland I’d come here often on cool nights.

Come here for the cheap cocktails in mason jars and nothing else. I’m serious, the food was just a’ight. The drinks were stiff and cheap. The bartender was kinda rude to my friend, so the service was not that great. And it was really dirty, when the sun was shining you can really see the dust, dirt and grime. i mean can’t it be a dive bar that is still hygienic and cleaned occasionally?

I am a fan!!!
Cool music (different DJ every week, I think), chill and casual vibes, and CHEAP drinks. Come early because this place fills up! They’re known for their mixed drinks in mason jars. The $ 6 regular sized mason jar is called the sissy lol and the larger one is only $ 8!
They also serve food! The food is decent, but not amazing. I ordered the mac and cheese which was kind of plain, but their fries were pretty good. I love the portion of the fries, it was huge! Enough to share for sure if you just want to munch on a little something.

Came here for happy hour with two of my other friends around 5:30 on a Friday night… my mistake, because of course it was going to be busy. Took only a few minutes to wait for a table to clear up, which I think it was just because it was just good timing, but that’s okay! Between the three of us we had to sit at a two person table and completely squish the table next to us, so it felt very uncomfortable knowing I was in someone else’s space. After a bigger table cleared up we moved, so it wasn’t too big of a deal, but the place is definitely packed. It was also SO loud between the music and conversation around you, so it took a while for me to get used to the noise level — maybe a seat outside could be easier on the ears for next time.
I’m not sure if it was because it was super busy, or if that is how Swift is all the time, but we ordered our drinks and our food at the bar. It was kind of a bummer having to get up and weave through all the chairs and people to have to order since we were sitting in the way far back corner behind everyone else’s seats, but it wasn’t a big deal at all.
To drink, I got the monthly special, I believe it was like a ginger and some sort of berry lemonade vodka drink. It was amazing, and it came in a mason jar, so of course it’s going to be good. To eat, we got Cesar salad, Nate’s chicken, and fondue fries. Oh. My. God. those fondue fries will be in your dreams, I swear. They are so delicious and cheesy. I definitely recommend — no demand getting them. The Cesar was delicious as well as the chicken, so I would order those again; plus at happy hour prices I got all of those things for 11 $… you just can’t beat it.
I’ll definitely be back, Swift!

I loved my experience so much that I had to «Yelp» it… in February… four months following my first and only visit in mid-​October. Is it weird that I still think about this place 4 MONTHS after my visit? Being from the Bay Area and visiting Portland for a mere second time, fate took me to Swift Lounge the night I arrived and it was awesome!!!
Being the only place within walking distance that was still open at 1:30am on a Wednesday night, I wasn’t sure what to expect, but was really glad I went. We entered and the whole place was lit with prayer candles (a Halloween touch, I presume?) and had a super cozy/​friendly atmosphere. My friend and I sat at the bar and ordered our first drink, (I remember cardamom was heavily involved for mine, and bacon for my friend’s.) We sat back and watched the interaction amongst the regulars as we enjoyed our drinks.
We then sat and watched, enchanted, as the male head-​bartender? (didn’t catch his name) with tats was preparing fresh ingredients for the next day’s craft cocktail needs; fresh mint, cinnamon, nutmeg, etc., each in its own jar; a mixologist’s dream! He was super friendly and attentive to our drink needs. As one employee started to close the blinds, I thought they were trying to rush us out, but the head-​bartender told him to stop doing that because it was too early. I felt special and was glad because that meant we could order a second drink.
I loved the whole experience and can’t wait to come here the next time I’m in Portland!

This place took my first legal drink experience, so I think it has a little place in my heart.
But from an unbiased point of view, I really liked this little place. And I really mean little.
It is on a pretty packed road, but if you can find parking I say you go ahead and go in!
I wanted to go to a place that had both good food AND good drinks, and they had both!
Everyone talks about the mason jar drinks, so I asked the waitress to get me the most popular one in the «Sissy» size and a sissy I was. Got me tipsy halfway through. Mind you, it was on an empty stomach.
That was handled soon by one of their bowls. They ran out of broccoli and they gave me a range of veggie substitutions and I chose cauliflower.
We also ordered a Mac and cheese that tasted like gourmet chili-​Mac. Extremely yummy!
My bowl wasn’t drenched in sauce which I enjoyed. It was very refreshing and filling, and there were fried leeks which added such an amazing flavor. Plus a little Aardvark sauce and you’re golden.
The bathroom is a little dinky, so I avoided that madhouse.
Overall, a fun first drink experience!

*This review is regarding service only and not drinks and food.
Walked in and sat at a table for about 10 minutes watching the three bartenders playing on their cell phones. Went up to bar to order drinks, since they must not have table service. Stood at the bar for 2 minutes (fake coughed, etc.) still the three couldn’t be bothered to get off their phones. So we left.