The Old Gold

Wonderful selection of whiskey. Delicious food and a very friendly staff. One of my friends go to places.

I appreciate the down-​to-​earth ambience of The Old Gold. They have a very impressive menu of whiskies, but unlike some whiskey establishments, it doesn’t come with cliché condescending attitudes from elitist bar staff of what you should drink and how you should drink it. Instead, the staff have been friendly and welcoming on every one of our visits.
The food is great too. Keep a look out for their specials — we’ve ordered a few and we wished they were permanent items on the menu… namely an enormous meatball sub and a memorable chilli hot dog (with Olympic Provisions sausage).
If you are a Timbers fan, then an added bonus is that they show every match.
Still need to try the cocktails — they sound right up my alley so that’s next on my list!

Great atmosphere, liked the cider on tap, nice service, and good happy hour prices. A great date place, but go early to get a table.

Great selection of whiskeys and a wonderful cocktail list.
ALSO great drink specials and beers on tap.
The cocktails we got were all superb!
Some of the best in portland for the price!
The barback Andrew is super cool and friendly!
I didn’t try the food, but it looked great!
Only downside is it was on the chilly side, but hey, some like it hot, some like it cold.

Great food, even better beer on tap! 49ers Friendly Place and the home of The Niner Empire of Portland

Came from San Diego as a tourist to watch San Diego Chargers game, friendly environment for being a 49ers like bar, staff and customers. and if they friendly to tourist pretty sure it’s 10xbetter for locals. Lots of whiskey with combo deals and craft beer. Bald head bartender I think named Best Bartender, great guy, support this local bar!’

Met friends here for dinner and had a very nice time. We sat outside. Food and drinks were all good. Atmosphere very nice.

Weiner schnitzel special. Closest thing I have had to a downstate Illinois pork tenderloin sandwich… minus bun, add sauerkraut. Add the Cubs WC win and a fine night with fellow fans. Always great, the OG

I stopped in for dinner and must say I’m impressed at how lively this place was on a Monday night… you kids! I was also generally impressed by the food n drink I had, to wit:
1. I liked the Herb E. Hancock quite a bit – it’s like a gin gimlet with some herbs muddled in… refreshing and excellent and gone in just a few gulps, so I ordered a couple more. Boo-​yah.
2. The spicy nuts (giggle) were a good bar snack
3. The Mac and manchego was tasty but a bit on the salty side.
4. I got a salad with the roasted carrot dressing, which was GREAT. And I’m normally no fan of carrots, nope nope nope, but this dressing, made in house, is superb. If I kept track of salad dressings, I’d bet this would be a top-​3 all-​time salad dressing. But I don’t keep track of salad dressings.
5. On a subsequent visit, I decided to snack on curry popcorn while drinking bourbon (curry powder, popcorn, and bourbon… the cornerstones of my exemplary physical state). When I eat popcorn, apparently I inhale slightly just before I put the popcorn in my mouth… I know this now because the back of my throat and lower reaches of my sinuses were completely coated in curry powder before I knew what was happening.
(Sneezing with a mouthful of popcorn is a disaster.)
6. That’s all.

A really great bar for sitting and drinking spirits. Good cheese fries. Small beer menu tap list. The beers they do have are pretty good. Very small dinner menu. The chicken salad sandwich is not mayo chicken salad. It’s pulled roasted chicken with what I think was curry. There’s a goat cheese mayo and some chopped nuts. Missed the mark for me. The elk burger was good. Just wish they had more on the menu.

Chill atmosphere, real good drinks and the cauliflower po-​boy was delicious. I’ll be back for the elk burger. Highly recommend the Herb E. Hancock cocktail, very refreshing lime and basil concoction to sip on after a a long hot day!

I love this bar. I loved it more before they hired a new chef. The mac & cheese and grilled cheese were the best dishes on the menu and both were changed to have a Spanish flair. Unfortunately the chef doesn’t have a good understanding of Spanish flavors.
The new grilled cheese was good, but the original one with caramelized onions and fried sage leaves was phenomenal and often the reason I came to Old Gold. The new one has a romesco sauce, which I usually love, but this one was spicy, and a traditional romesco shouldn’t be spicy at all.
The mac & cheese used to be creamy and cheesy, everything you want in a delicious mac & cheese. The new version uses Manchego, which is fabulous on a cheese platter with quince paste, but is not a melting cheese and does not belong in mac & cheese. Thus, the dish ended up tasting like béchamel sauce and not a very well seasoned one at that. While the new grilled cheese was edible, the new mac & cheese was not.
When I expressed my concerns to the bartender, he confirmed they did have a new chef and that the menu items were different. However, he was clearly uninterested in my concerns that the dishes were not properly made as he walked away from me continuing to just confirm they were different.
I will continue to visit Old Gold because their drinks are delicious, the atmosphere is inviting, and the service is typically exceptional. However, this will no longer be a destination to eat & drink for me, but rather a place to get one or two last drinks at the end of the night.

For some reason, I have been desiring meat lately.
The early humans ate every wild thing. Fruit, nuts, berries, roots, mammals, fishes and reptiles. I turned down termites to eat on a trip, I had dysentery that day. But always wonder. So humans eat insects too. If they did not eat all the things, they died.
Since, in many places, they drove wild animals to extinction. An example is the attraction for bush meat in Africa. In West Africa, it is hard to find because it has all been eaten! There is a huge smuggling operation of bush meat from Africa measured in tons per year:
.
In «developed economies» today, we consume farmed monocultures: cow, pig, sheep, chicken, turkey, occasionally duck. We don’t eat wild animals. Soon we will extinct wild fish and then we will have farm fish. See the book Four Fish by Paul Greenberg for that.
That is the attraction for elk burgers you can munch at Old Gold. Even though they may be farm elk, you can close your eyes and imagine they are wild elk.
The elk burger has a fine flavor, not that different than beef. Actually less beefer than beef. My friend is a personal chef with clients who want unusual meats. He has cooked bear for them. His advice: Spring bear only. The flavor of the meat is determined by the diet. Into Summer, many bears in hunting range are eating garbage. You do not want that taste.
So elk and other farmed «wild» animal meats are going to have a good but not strong gamey taste year around because of their feed.
Old Gold’s elk burger is prepared with house made cherry relish Yum!
Old Gold also has a focus on whiskies. They have a wall of tan liquids some made by wild brewers.
Across from Old Gold my friend’s satellite has landed on a silver building. So munching your wild burger looking out from your cave and fire, you can contemplate how far we have traveled from our ancient days eating meat in caves, to into space, to eating meat at Old Gold!

I really need to come here more often. First, they have a list of 30+ bourbon/​whiskeys to choose from, so the drink options are endless. The bartenders are super knowledgeable and competent and it seems like they really enjoy their job, which is refreshing.
The food is basic American food, but with an extra delicious touch (caramalized onions on the grilled cheese). I highly recommend the mac and cheese.
Both the food and drinks are above average, but the best part about The Old Gold is that the patio is non-​smoking!
I wish I lived in this neighborhood.

Randomly came across this place via Instagram. We just moved to NoPo from SE and am thrilled we have a whiskey bar in walking distance from the new pad.
The husb and I both hand some super yum cocktails and split the Elk Burger and Kale salad. Both very delish. Salad could have used a little less dressing (seemed a bit greasy) but still loved it. Burger was cooked perfectly, but maybe a little extra on the jam/​cherry spread!
Overall, great and can’t wait to start some whiskey flights and try all of the food on the menu. It all sounds so good!

This is a super fun bar. I’ve been a few times now, and it’s always packed with lively NoPo peeps. The cocktail menu is pretty impressive for the neighborhood tavern type of vibe they have.

First off… Order the curry powder/​yeast popcorn, it’s delicious!
Overall I think Old Gold has a great cocktail menu and a decent selection of beers available both on tap or cans/​bottles. Last night I enjoyed the Mintstagram cocktail and followed it up with a Bitburger tall boy, so you got options is what I’m saying.
During happy hour, sandwiches are a $ 1 off. The grilled cheese was definitely worth the $ 5 happy hour price, the fried sage was a nice touch.
The one thing to note (and I’m thankful to my fellow Unilocalers) is that be aware you must order at the bar. It would have been nice to have had this written down somewhere on a board or a small sign on the tables (maybe they have it and I just completely missed this) because no one informs you of where to order, so just a heads up get in line somewhere at the bar.
My biggest gripe (and this is going to make me sound like an old man) is that acoustically the space is terrible. When filled up completely it is so loud! We had to shout across a small table between ourselves. So yeah… I’m officially an old man, get off my lawn!
If you’re in NoPo I’d highly recommend checking out the Old Gold.

Fun place to host an event! Lots of food options!
White bean and eggplant dip with veggies and garlic toast.
Ginger ale with cherry syrup
Fries were good…

I am fond of The Old Gold for many reasons. The space, the beverages, the mood, the servers and the food. During the summers, I enjoy sitting outside among fellow Portlanders enjoying a sip of The Old Gold’s whiskey selection and nibbling on delicate bites.
Who am I kidding? The Old Gold is just good and wholesome. Service is fast and friendly. The servers are mostly tall and typically handsome. The food is pretty tasty. I just wish the menu was a bit larger. The crowd’s usually tame, but the noise volume can start to echo in the tall rafters and get loud. I like the large outdoor patio on warm days and snuggle inside on the cooler nights.

Old Gold is legit.
Patio — good amount of space. Tables: some in sun and some in shade; umbrellas provided.
Indoors — awesome «Portlandia» type décor, high boy tables, good sized bar.
Staff — on point. Quick to work with the rush of HH crowds and knowledgeable about what they sell.
Drinks — Holy bajeezus. Go through the door and look to your right. You see that? It’s a giant ass chalk board list of Whisky. Jackpot. Also, they have a drink menu full of great beers on tap and some straight up delicious cocktails for reasonable prices.
Food — good deal all around. HH is the way to go for sure.
My order: The «Angie» drink (Whisky, fresh ginger, ginger beer, and a lime) this was crisp and refreshing. Like an upscale whisky ginger it was great for the warm day.
HH Grilled Cheese. Super delish. The bread was fantastic and of course grilled in tasty butter. Along with the stringy cheese was caramelized onion and fried sage. This just topped it off. I ate the whole thing in no time. It also came with some salt/​pepper kettle type chips. For $ 5 I was sold.
All in all this is a great spot. You can tell it’s frequented by locals in the neighborhood and surrounding businesses. I would definitely come back if I found myself in the area.