Club 21

A comfy little dive bar that specializes in burgers and beer. There is a patio out back that is mainly for smokers and few pinball machines inside. The crowd is mainly regulars from around the neighborhood, and the place is packed in the evening on the weekends. All the burgers are quite delicious, my personal favorite being the Shadow Burger. The beer menu is small, but quality; mixed drinks are subpar. Great place to swing by after work.

For a long time Portland resident, Club 21 harkens back to the days where bars were comfortable and still rock and roll. There's great pinball, an excellent patio and very few hipsters. If you're like me and do your best to avoid bars where people are on mac books and sipping craft lager, Club 21 is for you! Great staff, great burgers and a rad atmosphere makes this place classic.

I came here for Portland Burger Week 2013 out of curiosity to try this unique looking Perkin burger, which was sort of a burger meets french dip style concoction I'd heard good things about. I was surprised when I pulled up because it looked like a strip club on the outside, but I thought hey - let's give this thing a whirl namely, all the other burger joints were sold out and I was freaking starving! There was a line to order at the bar, which I totally understand because hey - it's Burger Week! Portlanders take their burgers seriously. I ordered our burgers fries or onion rings were only $1 to add on which was awesome! - it wasn't until after I had my beer boneyard IPA for the win! that she told us it'd be an hour wait. Damn! I was so hungry I wish I'd known before she'd poured my beer, but we went ahead and waited. True to form, it was exactly one hour by the time we got our food, but the server was so polite and nice despite the rush, it was all good. The burger was actually super yummy! or maybe I was just really hungry? But I probably wouldn't go back here, which is why I give it 3 stars. It's a dive bar, and we couldn't sit on the patio because there were so many people smoking up a storm. It's super dark and small and full of ash trays and video poker, which just isn't my style. But if that's your style - definitely check this place out! While I liked the burger, I don't know if I'd ever order it again - I think I'll opt for the more traditional burger and then get a french dip when I'm feeling it - rather than combine the two.

Club 21 has become my go-to bar for strong drinks and consistently solid bar food and a legitimate build-your-burger menu . It's never obnoxiously crowded and the staff is super friendly. Pro-tip: they do bottomless mimosas on the weekends for $10.

I first visited back in 2007 when it was often mistaken as a seedy strip club or a weird Hansel & Gretel death trap. 5 years later and it's still mistaken as a seedy strip club, but no, there are wonders to behold. Club 21 was magical for me because it was the first bar on the West Coast that I was able to smoke in and wasn't a Korean bar in a strip mall. It was a dive in the most classic sense. Wood paneling, shitty pinball, velvet painting and other shitty paintings, a fairly old big screen, and food that came out of a box into a deep fryer and down into my gullet. The clientele was a mix of old regulars and the ever-invading hipster. The whiskey was poured high and the PBR flowed cheaply. It was the perfect place to have a drink, ignore the world, and fall deeper into your impending alcoholism. I loved it. Then it got bought by the owners of Gold Dust Meridian and closed for a while. I was worried. Would there be fishbowl drinks now? A schmancy food menu? Good looking women?Fortunately, the owners knew what they were doing and knew what they had in their hands. A friendly dive. They cleaned up the place, got rid of the lottery machines that had broken so many dreams, and extended the patio into something more welcoming than an iron fence. The wood paneling is still there, the whiskey is still poured high, and the clientele remains friendly and warm. My only complaint? Too many bands now, just let me drink.

Club 21... still holding on. Even though the shows have dwindled down this is still a rad spot. My GF and I love the build your own burgers. YUMMY. Check out their DJ nights. Always playing really solid garage and punk jams.

Surprisingly good. Great food, for $6 the burger is awesome. Cheap drinks - a $4.50 Vodka Redbull. Docked it a star because the music sucks. If you're the "Portlandia" type, you'll love the music.

Club 21 has recently changed hands and has undergone a god sent of a makeover. Gone are the cheesy Budweiser banners, withered paint and layers of dust. These have been replaced with some alluring period lighting and a whole slew of cool breweriana that fits so naturally its hard to imagine the place without it. It looks sublime. Other welcome changes include Burgers that dont come from a stack in a frozen bag from Sysco. Ive had their 'Build Your Own' Burger many times now you have a boatload of choices for this and I am not BS'ing when I say that it is one of the best in town. Ive learned to request it "medium rare", because otherwise it comes well done, but that is the only trick you need to know. Anyhow, thankfully everything is still pretty much priced like the days of old; $3 wells during Happy Hour, $3.50 the rest of the time; so you dont feel like you personally paid for the remodel which was one of my fears going in. With the exception of the one located behind the bar, all the TV's are gone. But fear not! They have a projection screen that will be rolled down for those Blazer games as they come along. In the meantime theres always the Pinball to keep you busy. Yes, I think theyve done a knock out job bringing this historic building back to life. It still feels like a dive bar, but now it has some much appreciated style going for it. Other bars in the neighborhood should take note. Living just across the way, I may have finally found my new home away from home.

Cheap stiff drinks and one of the best burgers in town, IMHO. Nothing more needs to be said. Except, seriously, their build your own burger is one of the best burgers in town.

Great patio, strong drinks, 4 pinball machines and a friendly staff. What else do you need from a club house? Oh and the records are always spinning, good ones.