Dixie Tavern

I do my absolutely best to be professional on Unilocal,but I will just say it; this place sucks!
First off, there is a six dollar cover for guys. Yes I get it, you have to make money to pay the girls and the bouncers. And there were a ton of bouncers. I counted at least five on my way to the bar, though I was fortunate to not be harassed by them like with other reviewers. But that’s beside the point. I could walk five minutes in any direction and go to a far superior bar for free, or a very small cover (two dollars at Ground Kontrol, which is where I went after here).
Second, the wait for the bar was insane. I don’t mind waiting, but being bustled around by douche-​bros and their bro hos from the suburbs definitely is not a good time for me.
Don’t let people lead you on by saying this is a legitimate country bar. It’s not.

Place was alright. Paid $ 6 for cover. But the bouncer didn’t let me back in the last 30 minutes. … That’s why I’m giving this place a 2 stars. He said it was closing soon, but 30 minutes is plenty of time to meet ppl and get one last drink

I came here mid-​week when it was slow, and received great service. The bartender who helped me was named Crystal (or Krystal). She suggested I come back on a Friday night, as she said that energy is quite a bit better on a Friday or Saturday night.
I came back mainly as I like the fact she was smiling and had good energy. As a business owner myself, I truly believe you’re only as good as your people are. She kept a smile (not a fake plastic one) when it was crazy slow, and she worked the bar well when it was busy…. The other bartender who helped me tonight was super sweet too.
High energy and good times! Too bad my friend had to stay at work, so I was the lonely cat in the bar! Never felt awkward though as the energy in the place was solid.
When I visit from Seattle I will stop in here in the future.

Dukes of Hazzard meets the Jerry Springer Show. No frills college-​age drunken rut emporium with bullshit kid drinks. Sort of a bridges and tunnels sort of place. If you’re a redneck who finds him or herself in «the big city» this is where you drink. If that’s your deal, have at it, but it’s clearly not for me.

I don’t like drinking beer out of a can. IM A DOMESTICATED WOMAM. I don’t like watching girls dance on a bar top and I certainly DONT like getting cut in line.
Ok thank Unilocal this review is shorter than most. Yeah well so is my patience for this place.
Not going back in this lifetime. Not for this old lady.
Not a bad place, just not for me.
~Gram~

TLDR:
Not bad. But not great.
The bouncers are really rude… I get it bouncers are supposed to be somewhat stern and what not… but here we have had consistent RUDE bouncers.
Bartenders are either awesome or mediocre… drinks are ok. Food is ok.
Fun to dance here on the weekend nights bar hopping.

Somewhere between two and three stars.
It’s OK and the crowd is OK for what it is. This is the kind of place I loved to frequent during college. Drink strength and price is pretty much what I expect for a place like this. I’d love it if they were cheaper, but they’re not out of line.
My biggest problem is that this place seems to have an identity crisis. It wants badly to be both a country bar AND a hip bar for 20-​somethings… and it could probably be done, but they don’t do it well. The result is just an odd mix. There’s enough «pop-​country» (which I hate) out there that they could stick mostly to that and some real country music and make it work.
I’m also not too crazy about their whole «Coyote Ugly» schtick. It’s just whatever, doesn’t do much for me either way.
Bartenders range from very nice and personable to downright miserable bitches that clearly have no social skills. Pick your girl correctly and stick with her. The ones that don’t look like bitches and actually smile are usually a good bet.

Drinks are blah, place is blah, music is blah. Too big and too loud for no reason. Nothing keeping you there. Nothing to remember.

Ok, I don’t know what it’s like when this place is busy but when we got there it was during Happy Hour mid-​week and totally empty. We had just finished passing out blankets to the homeless lining downtown Portland during a snow storm, and walked in blindly hoping for a cheap drink and quick eats. The Alan Forbes posters on the wall got us excited. The bartender was super friendly, drinks were strong and cheap, food was plentiful, tasty and cheap, and we had a good time there. Would I like it when it’s packed with college students and bros? Sure doubt it, but the three of us had a ball in the empty bar…

It pains me to rip this place apart, but they really have left me no options.
I loved this place a few years back. The staff was friendly and attractive. The cover and drink prices were affordable. I never had a bad time here.
However, the last few years something changed and it really starts at the front door. The bouncers are always jerks. They think they are cops, which they are not. They always are unfriendly and seem to be on a power trip. I have now seen on 4 occasions them not let one person in our group in citing them for being too intoxicated. I think my group of friends knows when someone is looking and/​or has had too much and shouldn’t be let in, but the common denominator is the «bad boys» out front of Dixie. I understand they have to monitor people, but I honestly think they’re out to get people.
If management reads this, we have left (Saturday most recently) with 10+ people because of this. That’s a lot of money on drinks leaving because your «bad boys» have a vendetta. Your neighbors at Barrel Room let us all in and we told them what your «bad boys» said.
Second, cover has went up. I don’t really put this as a huge strike, I get they’re trying to make money. However, nothing has changed in this place so maybe don’t gouge your customers at the door.
Third, they’re not great with groups. We’ve tried to book large groups before and they don’t cut great deals. It’s mind boggling since 20 – 30 people guaranteed there is soooo much money on food/​drinks. They just don’t seek to care.
Sad to see this place fall from the graves. We literally use to go here 2 – 3 times a month when we were more into the downtown scene. Now if we’re down there we prefer Barrel Room or Jones.

Bouncer almost broke my ID, said it was fake, and didn’t let me in. Took it and showed it to some other workers (I actually think one was a manager, some ugly bald dude) and they all laughed and stated that they could tell it was not real. It’s fine don’t let me in, but don’t break my ID. FYI not a fake. Asshole. If you’re that concerned about under age patrons, get an ID scanner, not every one carries two forms of ID when they’re bar hopping. Never coming here again, and I tell all my friends this story.

I wish I could give this place less than one star.
If you’re looking for rude service or a place that lost the meaning of customer service — this is the place for you.
First of all, the bouncer was extremely rude, unfriendly and downright incompetent. We had visited a beer fest before going and we all had our PLASTIC souvenir cups and he said we couldn’t bring them in. Sure, we think — maybe we can leave it at a coat check. No coat check. Fine, okay — what about leaving it outside. He literally says «if you leave it outside, I will throw it away.» Okay — ummm — «so there’s a lot of people coming in from the beer fest do you guys have some place we can put them?» «Nope!» He said (sternly and like a douche).
If I were the owner of a bar that was barely full, I’d be extremely angry at the fact that I just lost SIX extremely ready to pay, customers. The group behind us (7 girls) had the same problem. He wouldn’t let them in because a few of them had the, again, plastic cups. So they said «well let’s not go here then.» And left. So, there goes 13 people that just left this bars ENTRANCE because of our souvenir plastic cups. Let me also note that the two other bars we went to were TOTALLY fine with the fact we had these cups.
The last straw was that our friend who works in Bellevue, Washington and is on business from Argentina — got denied access because he didn’t have his passport on him. Now anyone that says its Oregon law to have a passport or Canadian ID to be allowed in U.S. Bars, fine — but why is EVERY bar we went to letting him in? He has two Argentinian ID’s.
Okay, I’m done now. I have never written a Unilocal review but I was THAT upset about this experience.

My girlfriend reserved the «VIP» section for her birthday which included her name being up front on the billboard. We get there the night of and ask them about it and they try and not let us in. After about a half an hour of pleading our case the «manager» wouldn’t let her in because he didn’t like her attitude. We paid for the VIP and he wouldn’t let us in. After pleading with him for half an hour they finally led us upstairs. When we get upstairs they wanted to cut my girlfriend off, when she was very upset. We were promised an extravagant affair only to be deceived with an upstairs bar that carried only well liquor but put them on shelves to look «classy». Overall horrible experience if I could rate zero stars I would.

I came to Dixie Tavern for a bachelorette party. We enjoyed the private VIP room upstairs which was nothing more than a semi closed off room overlooking the dance floor below. All the same, we felt privileged and had the convenience of the «no wait» bar upstairs.
Being from a Tennessee college town, I was no stranger to the «good ol boy» crowd that seemed to dominate the bar that night. The music was fun and the crowd and atmosphere was a great place to get silly with the girls.
If dancing isn’t your thing and you’re more into the theatrics of people watching they have ropes over the bar top that are meant for spinning and dancing with. The lady bartender will periodically hop on and do a «sexy» dance. They aren’t the only ones Coyote Uglying it up there. Our bachelorette party along with several others throughout the night were allowed to make a special debut up there. It was a pretty good time prancing our dangerously high heeled shoes and making fools of ourselves trying to mimic the moves the bartender made with the ropes. I can only imagine what a comedic show it made for.
Fun place for a girls night.

The bartender was AMAZING!!! I will definitely be visiting this bar again soon! I also enjoyed the music! A very good place! I like this place better then some places in Los Angel

Bar hoping last night, ended up in this place. It wasn’t our first time here but definitely our last. The drinks were good though. On a Saturday night it was kinda slow, the music they played were old jams from like 15 years ago and some older. This was going to be our last spot for the night, but the vibe in this place wasn’t good. We left after 30 min. Also all the bras that were on the ceiling were gone… what happen?

You know, this place would receive a lot higher stars if it wasn’t for the FACT that the security out front is completely sexist. 3÷13÷2015… Whoever was working at 1:40am told me the place wasn’t permitted to let ANYONE back inside, and it was an exit only from 1:30am. He had literally just saw me just step outside to try finding my friend. Then some girls walked past and asked the security guard if it was open… And he shrugged and said «come in quickly» while looking straight ahead. As I started my way in again, he put his hand up and said «Not you».
I called him out for being sexist, and only permitting women into the bar. I also tried rationally explaining that the girl inside the bar that was with me is my designated driver. And I don’t have another way home because she had my wallet in my jacket (that she was wearing). So I was stuck out in the rain for an hour, waiting on my friend because a sexist security guard was standing at the front door.

Not enough good things to say wow
I wasn’t expecting much but like whoa from girls dancing on the bar to birthday shots to the best management I have seen in Portland YET! Thank GAWD lol
I’ll add more later when I am sober lol
Great prices too however they do not call last call and probably missed out on more $$$$ from me plus tip… Darn. So keep an eye on the time and have fun.
Found out a friend worked there lol small world

As a group of guys we came down to Oregon from Washington. We came as a pretty diverse group. An Asian, a Native American, African American, and a few Caucasians. Well we all got through the club except at the end they stopped my friend. I figured oh he must’ve got stopped because he lost his id or was acting to drunk.
When I went to the bouncer he said he had a hat on. I asked why he let the rest of us in with hats. Than he said his jeans were to baggy. I showed them mine and said mine were way baggier and he had skinny jeans on. Eventually my friend showed his university id and than he was allowed in.
That left me in such a foul mood that I went to the manager and demanded my money back. Eventually after I waited for him to say he needed to contact someone to do such a thing he gave us all of our cover fees. They also had the bouncer apologize.
I figured with all of the gay pride surrounding Portland that racism wouldn’t be such prevalent. Please do not go to this establishment

We wandered into this place since we were WAY too early to a birthday dinner. I was pleasantly surprised by the place. The happy hour was amazing. $ 2.25 wells and $ 2 PBR, Hamms, and something else. All the beer is in a can which makes it simple to pick from and the server was friendly and helpful.
We walked out the door with several drinks and hardly any cash out of our pockets. This place gets a bit crowded and crazy the later the night goes, but if you need to kill some time, it’s worth a shot.