Ash Street Saloon

Sweet tattoo laden bartender complimented my ID
Buck Hunter
Sweet tattoo laden bartender laughed at my dumb joke
Juke Box with Heavy Metal
Sweet tattoo laden bartender made me a heavy pour
5 out of 5 stars

Home to my favorite bartenders and awesome regulars!

Been coming here for a while. Great place if you like live music. Staff is really cool
And a nice patio with covered patio out back… love this bar

Staff was very friendly and accommodating. Ordered a quesadilla a bloody and a mimosa. All were perfect. Unexpectedly awesome.

Sure, it’s a dive. I didn’t expect much, but when I’m first ignored, then snapped at for not ordering how I was ‘supposed to’, then the happy hour burger comes with just some limp pickles and nothing else, I’m actually disappointed. Sub-​par for a dive bar is pretty bad.

I have only been here for drinks. The drinks are cheap, especially during happy hour which goes until 8pm and the drinks are strong. There is outdoor seating in the back and front of the establishment but you can no longer smoke in front of the place as per the signs taped on each table.
This is a very divey bar in Old Town just a few blocks from the Waterfront. I love sitting out here with a cold beverage and people watch. When the sweetheart and I meet up with each other, this is the usual spot and before you know it, we’re running into people that we know and it’s a wonderful time just shooting the breeze with your friends.
There is also a stage area set up for your visiting bands. I’ve never been here when there was a show on but you can usually hear it just walking by in the evening hours. It adds to the charm of Old Town and I love it.

Can’t complain it is what it is… simple bar, stiff drinks, and a the dive bar necessities. No complaints from this guy.

Favors the locals. I was denied entry for being too happy to enter their bar with an out if state license. I had a mild amount of drinks before trying to enter. Poor hospitality Portland!

awesome bar to see really good music and get a good drink and good food.

I think what I love most about this bar is the fact that there’s no other bar like it in the city (and certainly not downtown, which is getting more hoity-​toity by the second). Sure, you can point me to other dives that may smell more like urine and old-​people-​carpet, but this place is a legit monument and tribute to old Portland.
It just has everything a good dive should have:
1) Strong, cheap drinks
2) Really good happy hour ($ 2 – 5 plates)
3) Decent pub food aside from just nachos (their burgers are SO good)
4) Colorful clientele who don’t give a fuck that you think they’re colorful
5) Friendly, non-​pretentious, efficient bartenders
6) Bathrooms from your worst nightmares
Plus, they have a decent stage and music venue room that I’ve seen a couple good shows at. Although honestly, most of the time I can’t handle the local metal/​grunge that I tend to hear on weekends — but that’s just my own personal preference. I’ve also never been charged cover when I wasn’t there to see the band (but I don’t know how hard-​fast of a rule that is).
However, it’s not really that easy to just go hang out in the bar area when you’re not there for the music. It’s far too loud to hear yourself think. So, just a heads up. though maybe you’ll already be too drunk by the time you get here, and the need to think can be disregarded entirely!

Before I get into it, try the Happy Hour. If you’re not full and buzzed on ten bucks, you did it wrong…
The Ash Street Saloon is one of the few remaining relics of «Portland Fucking Oregon» before it became the emasculated, mustachioed, transplant-​riddled Portlandia you see today. Believe it or not, punk and metal and grunge and dirty rawk once ruled this fair city.
This is a place to hear local acts 7 nights a week, booked and mixed by people who genuinely love this venue and who have love and respect for the artists and bands who take the stage.
Ash Street is the place to drink whiskey and cheap beer, get a solid burger, roll the dice on a local band, and shoot the breeze with the salt of the earth. This scene isn’t going to be for all of you but neither was this city, once.
RIP Lefty, and Long Live The Ash Street Saloon.

Great food, feel good place. Reminds me of my youth. Would love to hear a band there someday.

Really nice oasis downtown. Great local/​divey bar, but you can find that all over Portland. The real gem here is the music. If you want to see great local rock music go here.
The booking is consistently great, unless you like Santana or whatever band is hip for a minute. It’s authentic Portland. Some of the greatest local bands have played here over the years, and there’s a reason. If you want to experience what’s left of the Innovative and rocking Portland scene come here.

Always a fave. Divey, cheap & stiff drinks. Perfect spot to watch all the idiots flock to wait in line for a pink box of doughnuts.

I don’t think über-​divey downtown bars are my scene. We came here last Friday to listen to a friend’s co-​workers’ band. The bouncer let our buddy in free since he was «on the list» but we all had to pay a $ 5 cover to get in. There were a whopping 6 other people in here, so not sure why a cover was necessary.
It’s dark, they have weird hand-​drawn art all over that kind of reminds you of bad late night 90s cartoons. The drinks are cheap, everybody wears black T-​shirts, and the music was pretty bad. The vinyl on the booths are falling a part and their chairs feel like they came out of a 70s high school chemistry class.
They did seem to have a decent tap list and obviously a very well stocked bar. But I wouldn’t bother coming here even for a pregame drink. There’s nicer, more enjoyable places to go.

A little grit and rough edges, music almost every night, cheap cover and cheap beer– everything a person could want when checking out small, potentially up and coming, bands of various genres, often rock/​punk/​metal oriented. The walls are covered with all types of art, many of them oddly enough being superheros with mustaches. Look up on the ceiling and you will see posters from old concerts and hanging bikes– which while probably not intended, complements well the fact that across the street is Portland’s famous «Welcome to America’s Bicycle Capital» mural. With cover being only about $ 5 each night and wide variety of bands coming through, what better way to continue discovering new bands, different genres of music, and just rocking on?

I love going to shows at Ash Street. Friendly bookers willing to showcase acts for a low door charge, good sound system and a solid mix. Place is loud but the sound is good in the room. Bar staff is friendly and drinks are reasonably priced.

Sure, it’s a scuzzy little dump. But at least it’s not a pretentious scuzzy lil’ dump, with airs of higher-​and-​mightier-​and-​hipper – than-​thou importance. Depending on what brand you order, you could have 3 or 4 pints and cover the tip, for ten bucks or less. Not too many places downtown that can say the same.
I don’t believe I’ve ever been with a group that started an evening @ Ye Olde Ash St Saloon. I have certainly been w/​parties that started at other, niftier — read: ones with usable toilets– nearby spots (Huber’s, Kell’s, etc) that wound up there @ Ash st, by night’s end. They are also very conveniently located directly across the street from my current favorite burrito cart, open super late. Bottom’s up, buen provecho, and stay thirsty, my friend!

I will say that it’s not quite as dive-​y as I expected. Sure, it’s a dive, but I’ve been to much «divier» places in much more «normal» cities. That being said, we were hear about 3pm on a Sunday, and the place was rather dead. So maybe the dive aspect comes out more at night.
So here are my thoughts — it’s an okay place. The bartenders are fine. The drinks are cold. They have a decent tap selection of beer. My mixed drinks were not poured as strong as I am used to at a dive bar, which was a bummer, and prices weren’t quite as low as I’ve grown to expect at a dive bar. But, it was fine.
My umbrage is with the music (not the live music). The music itself was fine, but it kept changing volumes. One song would be so loud you couldn’t hear yourself think, and the next song could barely be heard… back and forth and back and forth this went. That drove me nuts.

Wandering about downtown PDX, I was lured here to the Ash Street Saloon by the siren call of some unknown punk band. Well, I’m sure they were known to some but I hadn’t heard of them and don’t recall their name– not bad, though!
The place wasn’t very busy, but the beer was cheap and I loved the well-​worn dive bar atmosphere. Nothing pretentious or ‘hipster’ about this joint; just a good watering hole. Cheers.