The Matador

Well, there's only so much this author can say about about the Matador...at least in a positive light. With The Bitter End no longer in business, trying to find a bar close by that has cheap drinks, pool tables, and at least decent service has become almost more trouble than it's worth, almost.

The bar staff are all mostly decent people, serving up stiff drinks to the wide variety of patrons. Unfortunately there are a lot of Portland "Hipsters" that frequent this dive bar. The worst kind of hipsters too. The in-your-face, quaffed-hair, tight, girl-jeans-wearing, pool-table-stealing mother fucker type of hipsters that don't really know anything about anything, who feign intelligence, and take any opportunity to let a stranger know how miserable their lives are.

Aside from the dick-shitting, asshole customers that hang out in this bar, there are a few actually cool regulars that make this spot not quite so dreadful. The pool tables are decent, with free pool on Sundays (Sunday is definitely the best night to hit up the Matador, as most of the aforementioned hipsters are sleeping off their xanex hangovers). There's a back room with an odd assortment of games including a basketball hoop shooting game, some sort of sensor-based boxing game (or maybe it's a dancing game? it's hard to tell when the people playing it are sort of doing both...), and a few others. There's a cigarette machine that costs way too much money. Basically the only real reason to ever go to this place is because it's right down the street from my work, the bartenders are starting to recognize me and pour larger and increasingly cheaper drinks, and seem to push service to me higher up on the queue. If none of those things apply to you, don't bother even setting foot in The Matador, there are plenty of other places to spend your money in Portland.