The Alberta Street Public House

by Sam Soule for pdxguide.com
June 10, 2005

Once there was a bar on Alberta Street called The Love Train, perhaps the most brilliantly named dive in all of Portland, especially brilliant given the fact that, by reputation, The Love Train was one bad-ass joint, aka, "a really tough bar."

Unfortunately, in my midling 20's, I was still growing my drinking legs. At that time the Love Train scared me and I never took the opportunity to visit. My loss; the bar closed in (or around) 1995.

What I do know is that the sign that the The Love Train once sported was a real thing of beauty, a shining red and yellow rectangle with 70's era "romance" typeface. It stood out like some funked-up Cupid's arrow admidst the run-down environs of then-Lower Alberta Street.

How times change. (For that matter, how Alberta Street has changed.) Today, in the former location of The Love Train, stands the antithesis of a street-wise, tough bar: an Amercan-ized version of an Old World pub. Chilled Guinness, anyone?

The Alberta Street Public House has stood in the former Love Train location since 2001, one can only imagine that renovations were extreme. As far local approximation of European pubs, we pretty much ruined our chances of getting THAT right with our viral conception of micro-pubs.

But as far as Portland pubs go, the Alberta Street is smart, cool and comfortable.Deep-set and high-backed booths line the front room; relaxed table-seating rambles through the white-washed meeting hall adjoining. This second room also acts as home to an entertainment calendar running the the bluegrass-with-obligatory-jig field (bonus snore: poetry readings).

Yes, well-scrubbed and rough-hewn organic vibes are almost over-powering at the Alberta Street, the hallmarks of new NoPo. The Love Train has long left the station.

But do you like pigs? Well, the Alberta Street Pub apparently does. It's like a BBQ joint set to family friendly overkill. Ceramic, painting, kite, it doesn't matter. If it's a pig, the Alberta Street Pub will put in display. Why? I don't know; I don't care. It's their popular french fries -- sugary and salty -- that I care about. As I do the traditional pub fare Alberta Street offers (Bangers and Mash, Shepherd's Pie) -- good and cheap. But as far as the pigs go, there are some things I can just ignore.

Of course the real question is, do you like Pabst? Dummy. Of course you do, you live in Portland.

Tuesday the Alberta Street saves a night ruled by the fickle whim of "weekend-ing" service industry workers with some sure-fire PDX-marketting: Cheap PBR Night (dollar pints). Something all of Northeast Portland understands. Button-down long-hairs chairing failing non-profits and alterna-punk buskers with smudgy tattoos line themselves up in a surprisingly civilized fashion to drink Portland's favorite cheap swill, cheaper.

Afterwards, the two parties tend to separate, with the "squarer-than-they-think-they-are" older half commanding the indoor seating, while the "stridently contrary" younger crowd arranges themselves outside in the sheltered patio area, as if to beg for change or burst out into busk-like song. (Someone take the guitars away.)

On Tuesday nights, the Alberta Street Pub really captures the essence of what Alberta Street has become: a safe-haven for enterprising whites of all ages who like to see themselves first in the comfortably left-leaning philosphy in which they wrap themselves and, second, from the bottom of the glass they drink from. The proof is in the PBR.

And there is one element of decor that brings it all home for the Alberta Street Public House, and that is the old Love Train sign, which hangs from the ceiling facing the bar.

The suggestion seems clear. This location remains the heart of NE Alberta Street.

The opinions expressed within are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of pdxguide.com or The Columbian Publishing Co.