Clyde Common

Clyde Common in the Ace Hotel on SW Stark Street is the bar that put Portland on the cocktail map. Jeffrey Morgenthaler's programme — barrel-aged cocktails, house-made ingredients, and the definitive Amaretto Sour — pioneered techniques that are now standard in serious cocktail bars worldwide. The current programme continues in that spirit.

THE AMARETTO SOUR

Jeffrey Morgenthaler's Amaretto Sour is one of the most influential cocktail recipes of the last 20 years. Amaretto, cask-proof bourbon, fresh lemon juice, and egg white — shaken hard, served over ice with a cherry. It transformed the Amaretto Sour from a sweet, forgettable drink into a serious cocktail. It's still on the menu. Order it.

BARREL-AGED COCKTAILS

Clyde Common pioneered barrel-aged cocktails in America — cocktails aged in small oak barrels for weeks or months before serving. The technique adds complexity, softens the edges, and creates something genuinely different from the sum of its parts. The barrel-aged Negroni is extraordinary.

THE ACE HOTEL

Clyde Common is in the lobby of the Ace Hotel on SW Stark Street — a hotel that has become a template for a certain kind of creative, independent hospitality. The bar opens onto the lobby; the energy is good; the people-watching is excellent.