Saraveza

This is by far my new favorite bar! I had read about it when it first opened, and then with all the places on my list, completely forgot about it until Armando’s friend recommended it as a great place to grab some Craft beers on Sunday afternoon. Oh how I love this place…

The Atmosphere – Authentic Eastside Portland: vintage with a flare. Everything is beautiful old wood, from the floor to the tables to the bar. The tops of the tables/bar are a clear lacquer covering old colorful bottle caps from various beers. The chairs we snagged were old beauty salon chairs (complete with working height adjustment) and they were SO comfy! I could have melted into my chair and stayed all night. The bar stools looked cushy and have full backs, which is a nice feature. They have awesome old-school beer and random memorabilia throughout the place, including the Spud Mackenzie dog, a huge Schlitz hand, but best of all…they have the fishnet leg lamp from the movie A Christmas Story – how cool is that? They have exposed brick in certain places, and other areas are covered with bumper stickers. This is a very hip/comfortable atmosphere, to say the least.

The Food – Short and sweet menu with some mean options, the majority of which are homemade. They focus on fresh, “from-scratch” items, so I am assuming everything will be good quality. Saraveza specializes in the pasty, which if you are from the Midwest, you should know all about this goodness! It is basically a pot-pie (but so much better), and Saraveza offers a few versions on the menu, as well as a daily special (lamb curry was for this day – yummy!).

We ordered “The Nater” (The traditional pasty. Porter braised beef, potato, carrot, rutabaga & onion) to split, and it was served to us on individual plates, already divided, with portions of their delicious homemade pickled veggies on the side – how cute. The meat was in larger pulled pieces, combined with tender vegetable and potatoes, nothing overpowering the other. They serve with ketchup as well as two other sauces, in case you want some heat.

Just fyi…they also offer a Steve’s Cheese Plate w/salami – are you kidding me? We will be back for this, pronto!

The Beers – The focus is on American Craft and Belgian Ales, and they serve over 200 beers between the bottle/tap offerings. They also have a few vintage coolers where you can just pop-in and grab some of your favorites to go…how convenient!

They list the draft list on chalkboards throughout the restaurant so you can see them from anywhere. We tried: Heater Allen Pils/Big Sky IPA/ Pyramid “Barbed Wire” Imperial Hefeweizen/Brewdog & Stone “Basha” Belgian Black IPA…all were delicious. They also offer a five beer sampler for those indecisive folks.

Service/Pricing – Service was totally friendly, just not exactly speedy. As you might guess, the prices aren’t exactly cheap. I would say it is average pricing for the quality, but the location and atmosphere you get at Saraveza puts it a cut above the rest. I can’t wait to come back and spend a long, rainy afternoon drinking and eating the day away.

*Jayne