The Old Gold opened on North Killingsworth Street in October 2011 and built its name on a deep whiskey shelf and a no-fuss neighbourhood welcome. The Oregonian named it one of Portland's best neighborhood bars, which is the reputation the room still trades on.
The address is 2105 North Killingsworth Street, in the Overlook district of North Portland. The bar reads as a corner watering hole where a regular might run into a neighbour or fall into conversation with a stranger, and it pairs that low-key room with a brown-spirit list far longer than the setting suggests.
What to order is whiskey, neat or in a cocktail. The shelf runs long across bourbon, rye and Scotch, and the kitchen makes its food from scratch, so a pour and a plate is the standard Old Gold order. Pricing stays in the mid-range, which is part of why the place reads as a neighbourhood bar rather than a destination whiskey lounge.
The cocktail program gives the bar a second gear beyond the whiskey list. Portland Monthly files the room among the city's whiskey-led bars, and the mix of a serious spirits shelf with a working kitchen and made-to-order drinks is the combination that earned the Oregonian nod.
The room is small and built for regulars, with the whiskey backbar as the visual anchor. It is the kind of bar that fills with a local after-work crowd and holds them through dinner, rather than turning over a queue at the door, and the scratch kitchen keeps people in their seats.
The best time to go is a weeknight, when there is room at the bar to work through a flight and talk whiskey with whoever is pouring. Weekends bring the neighbourhood out in force, and the small footprint fills, so an early seat is the move for anyone who wants the unhurried version.
The crowd is North Portland locals, whiskey drinkers and neighbours after a low-key night out. Reviews return to the size of the list and the welcome of the room, and the bar's longevity since 2011 is its own signal in a city that turns bars over quickly.
The appeal is a genuine neighbourhood whiskey bar with the list of a far fancier room. For more of the city, see the best bars in Portland and the roundup of whiskey bars in Portland, or browse the wider whiskey bars pillar.
