Weekender Favorites: Cuban Cocktails in Oregon
Portland, Oregon's Palomar serves thoughtful takes on classic Cuban drinks. Plus, an ice cream sundae worth a detour in Illinois and our favorite barbecue in Charleston.
IN TODAY’S NEWSLETTER
Weekender Favorites: Why Palomar, Ricky Gomez’s Cuban-inspired cocktail bar in Portland, speaks our language.
The Order: A southern Illinois ice cream stand has cracked the code with its cold fudge sundaes.
Featured Destination: Charleston is home to some of the best barbecue you’ll find anywhere, but this spot isn’t sticking to local traditions.
Embracing Cuban Classics at Palomar
PORTLAND, OR — When it comes to cocktails, I usually seek out classic drinks or ones with refined twists. I’m looking for cocktails where the bartender has smartly swapped base spirits or modifiers or adds infused spirits that match the drink’s flavor profile. That’s precisely why the menu at Palomar, Ricky Gomez’s Cuban-inspired cocktail bar in Portland, speaks to me so much.
Palomar, which turned five this year and was a finalist for the Tales of the Cocktail Spirited Award for Best U.S. Restaurant Bar, offers drinks like a Cobbler made with rum, sherry, and guava, or a Cuba Libre that includes gin alongside the rum. In addition to drinks that bring in tropical fruit, Gomez and bar manager Jordan Valls serve Cuban classics like a Floridita (a daiquiri with maraschino liqueur) and a Hotel Nacional with a little pineapple to add sweet-tart flavors.
But the drink that best gets across what Palomar does well is their El Presidente, one of my all-time favorite cocktails. The Palomar version is made with Jamaican rum, blanc vermouth, orange curaçao, and tiki bitters, as well as Pasubio, an amaro with notes of blueberry. By swapping in amaro for the traditional grenadine, the El Presidente retains some of those fruit flavors while picking up complex notes, like pine.
The vibrant ambiance — bright yellow bar seats, black and white tiled floors, palm print wallpaper, and pink and turquoise menus — is what you’d expect from a bar that focuses on Cuban cocktails, and there’s also rooftop patio seating in the summer.
The food menu from chef Ricky Bella, who has worked at local spots like Bullard Tavern, melds Cuban inspirations with influences that reflect his Mexican-American heritage. That yields plates like croquetas de jamón with guava dip, vaca frita with avocado salsa verde, and a grilled pineapple salad. They’re the kind of bites that go just right with a pineapple gin and tonic. 959 SE Division St #100, Portland, OR 97214