820 Happy Hour

Name: 820
Location: 820 North Russell Street
Portland, OR 97227
Contact Information: 503.460.0820
Web Address: www.mintrestaurant.com
Smoke Free: Yes
Happy Hour: Monday-Saturday 4 p.m.-6:30 p.m.
Features: $5 selected cocktails, $3 well drinks, $2.50 draft beers, choice of half-dozen appetizers
Insider Tip: The best Saturday happy hour around. Like the cocktails? Ask your server for a copy of the drink list to take home.

Review: With innovative cocktails, sweet potato fries worth spoiling your diet for and easy parking, 820 has the best happy hour east of the Willamette. A sister bar to next door neighbor Mint, 820 is a perfect date place for pre-dinner drinks, yet unpretetious enough that you could swing in here solo.

The bar is U-shaped with an outdoor garden for those who would rather revel in the sun that on the black couches. The drink list is not as impressive as other local cocktail hot-spot Vault, however, I’ve yet to have a drink at 820 that I haven’t liked.

As the popularity of the place has increased, so have the prices. However, the drinks are still a pretty good deal, most of which center around fruit purees and flavored vodka. The limited happy hour menu still includes some favorites. Try the IVO for a wonderfully sweet infusion. The O – an orange twinged mojito – is an excellent choice as well.

For food, the lamb burger ($6) gets high marks as well as the sweet potato fries ($2.50). The fried calamari salad ($5) is good if you’re not watching your weight and the ceasar salad ($4) is an acceptable substitute if you are. However, if you’re a vegetarian, this is definitely the place to come for drinks, not food.