Something’s come over Portland, Maine, lately. The city’s bar life has become a mirror to its exploding complexity, and the only reasonable way to respond is to sip your way through it. For starters, don’t let anyone tell you we’re stuck in the past—not when some of our most revered historic figures are inspiring watering holes far more aspirational than academic. Witness the place where General Lafayette slept, now a tony neighborhood bar serving absinthe frappes; the Jazz Age salon-lounge spawned by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow; and the hipster haunt slinging avant garde libations spotlighting War of 1812 naval captains.
Of course, Portland retains its place as a proud stronghold of America’s premier craft breweries, and they’re still very much here. Searching for speakeasies? (Read on, but shhh.) How about a La Dolce Vita-inspired scene flowing with as much Missoni as it is grappa? Si, and prego. And if you’re less diva and more dive-y? Or what about a subterranean, Champagne-and-dumpling den lined in cheetah-print? Got you covered. When you just need to dance to some ‘80s tunes; or to shake your hips to Tito Puente at an authentic Puerto Rican outpost, or maybe let loose and party at a glammy French zinc bar…. Done, done, and done.
Another seismic upgrade to our bars landscape lately: the best don’t just serve extraordinary beverages, but also fantastic vittles. And that’s no coincidence; this is Portland, after all. (Where we tend to tell places with lame food to go jump in the Gulf of Maine.) But at all of the above, there’s a foundational thread of serious adventure behind the sticks, and perhaps one of the best additions to our list hovers far above the city—an iconic historic lounge where you can look down and raise a glass to all of it.
Read our complete Portland, Maine, travel guide here, which includes: