Wednesday, June 07, 2006

Where to Watch World Cup in Portland Redux

Following up on Lisa's post of 28 May:

Cheerful Tortoise -- divey tavern popular with PSU students is advertising as showing all games. (They also have a location in Beaverton for those of you stuck in the burbs.) It's probably best to call ahead to make sure they mean those 6 am matches when they say "all games." Cheerful Tortoise is friendly and cheap and serves breakfast all day; if you are sensitive to smoke it may not be your best bet.

Horse Brass, Kells, and The Thirsty Lion all have World Cup schedules up on their webpages. Note that Horse Brass seems to be only showing games earlier than noon if England or the US are playing or on weekends, so you'll want to look elsewhere if being out and about for the opening match is important to you. That said, we like the Horse Brass a lot and recommend it!

Sam's Hollywood Billiards -- 1845 NE 41st --503-282-8266--And finally, while the whole point of going out to watch matches is to do so in the company of like-minded fans, which means hitting the spots that promote themselves as World Cup venues, the three of us wandered into this Hollywood joint back in 2002 when the crush of British fans at the Moon & Sixpence for the 2002 Brazil v. England quarterfinal made it impossible to get past the entryway. They sorta went "Huh? World Cup?" but amiably handed us a remote control and once we'd changed the channel, we weren't alone for long, as passersby, many also adrift from M&S, were lured in ("You're watching World Cup? Great!") and we were soon surrounded by a couple-three dozen enthusiasts. Cavernous room with lots of pool tables, a pleasant staff, and I think they serve food, too.

Edited to add:
The City Sportsbar -- Another downtown spot; they have an ad in this week's Willamette Week that they are opening at 7 am for breakfast during World Cup.

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