Slotting in a 10 a.m. pre-flight cocktail is a time-honored pastime, but it’s rarely a stylish endeavor. Airport bars tend to skew somewhere between “fun-sized fast-casual franchise” and “coffee kiosk with a liquor license,” but a new post-security lounge
from Straightaway Cocktails is looking to change that. The bar, which opens on Wednesday, September 9, is a retail-bar hybrid the Straightaway co-founder Cy Cain describes as “Pacific Northwest Futurism.” It’s an apt description: Despite the bustling surroundings, the space itself is an oasis of calm. Wrapped in knotty reclaimed wood and undulating sound baffles, it’d be an undeniably stylish build even if it wasn’t plonked in the middle of Concourse C. But that’s not the only thing Straightaway’s doing differently: Every cocktail on the menu pours straight from one of the company’s cans or bottles.
Indeed, that’s Straightaway’s whole deal: classic cocktails built from the ground up to sit inside a can until it’s time to party. That’s not to say the new bar is a glorified vending machine: The drinks are iced, aerated, and garnished as needed by the resident bartenders, served in the appropriate glassware, and often accompanied by a thematically appropriate snack (think a scoop of lemon sorbet or fancy Fritos in a little ramekin). Cain says his team’s goal was to create an experience in line with the “lofty bar” Portland’s cocktail scene has set in recent years, so presentation is a big focus. Indeed, one of the bar’s alcoves contains copies of legendary raconteur Charles Bakers’s The Gentleman’s Companion, a tome beloved by a very intense stripe of cocktail nerds.
Airport drinking is often a hybrid between indulgence and expediency, and the space is something of a hybrid itself: The front area is set up for retail, with a grab-and-go cooler on one side and inset shelves stocked with boxes and bottles of Straightaway’s various products. This area of the airport is actually zoned for retail, as indicated by the neighboring Skanner newsstand. The deep, narrow floorplan is broken up by a swoopy Art Deco bar in the middle and a seating area with tarmac views in the back. The adjacent gate was recently remodeled to accommodate the next generation of widebody aircraft, which means there should be some interesting sights for planespotters.
The cocktail list is a mix of classics — an espresso martini, a paloma, that sort of thing — along with some more unusual collabs and limited editions. Straightaway has been working with local bars, including the Sports Bra and Tulip Shop Tavern, on special recipes. These aren’t the exact drinks you’d find on the menu for those bars (that’s not really how canned cocktails work), but director of innovation Norah Furst says it’s a pretty in-depth consultation. “We get approval at every stage of the process,” she says of the recipe development process.
The food options include some drinking snacks and a handful of fancy hot dogs, the latter priced at $15. That’s a bit steep by PDX standards, which is becoming increasingly known for its industry-leading price-matching rules. But they are pretty substantial Zenner’s dogs loaded down with stuff like caramelized onions and kimchi. And there’s likely to be regular collaborations with the local wiener scene; for example, the opening party on Thursday, August 6, featured food writer and Emmy-winning The Simpsons writer Bill Oakley’s signature weisswurst. Still, this seems like a place to decompress with an Old Fashioned and some tranquil vibes, rather than a spot to carboload before a long flight.
“Pre-batched” is a divisive term in the cocktail world, but Cain isn’t running away from it. “We’re a cocktail company,” Cain says, “and this is our opportunity to showcase that.” Canned and bottled mixed drinks have exploded on store shelves in recent years, pushed forward by bar trends during the pandemic and a decreased interest in going out (though the OLCC rejected a recent bid to get them in grocery stores). They’re certainly well-suited for the airborne part of air travel, as evidenced by Straightaway’s multi-year partnership with Alaska Airlines, but it will be interesting to see how popular this concept is on solid ground.
Thanks to the stunning remodel, the aforementioned pricing rules (and Lloyd Center’s much-lamented closing), the Portland Airport is shaping up to be one of Portland’s better shopping centers. And with Straightaway’s new experiment, along with a new Freeland Spirits tasting room and Loyal Legion’s vaporwave speakeasy, it’s shaping up to be one of the better spots for a bar crawl, too. Just make sure you can crawl to the boarding gate afterwards.
