Hennessy and Anti-Smash Burgers Reign Supreme at After Ours by chef Richard Le

Portland’s first chef-driven vinyl bar is set to open Thursday, August 7. It’s called After Ours and it comes courtesy of a Portland culture-making hat trick: chef Richard Le of Mémoire Cà Phê, Kim Dam also of Mémoire and her coffee business Portland Cà Phê, and Mikey Nguyen of consignment store wunderkind Index.

The intention was to create a space where they and other chillers in their 30s could hang out, listen to music, and eat. Rather than gaming-centric bars or places designed for social media engagement, Le says the idea is to put your feet up and relax. It’s a moody space, low-lit and dim. The deep love of music is apparent — Madlib’s Lord Quas posts up in all his yellow glory across the wall of records from Lauryn Hill’s Unplugged singing visage.

Of course, the menu alone will be the main draw for many. There’s an all-day menu with hits from Le’s food cart Matta, plus a dinner menu to pair with inventive drinks, courtesy of Ketsuda “Nan” Chaison of Norah and Libre. Salt and pepper squid, garlic noodles, and fried rice rule the day. Chicken and catfish sandwiches, burgers topped with egg, add to the menu, too, all dishes Le served at his cart in the past. He says the main demographic he and his co-owners serve remains white people, so they focused on playful renditions of hegemonic American food that serve as conversation starters.

There’ll be brunch, too, Portland Monthly waxing on California-style breakfast burritos and avocado toast done up like a bahn mi. The sharing-style dishes at After Ours reflect Le, Dam, and Nguyen’s households growing up, where drinking and snacking were a nightly affair. Friends and family sat on bamboo mats and ate plate after plate of duck liver, fried and grilled meats, all of it chased with bottles of Heineken and glugs of Hennessy.

“We want to have that same kind of energy,” Le says. “We won’t have people sit on the floor. But the menu is built around that.”

Here are a few of the standout dishes to fire.

Le was raised in the Bay Area, and he says his love of burgers is a powerful love. In-N-Out is his heart song. So he says coming into After Ours, he’s ready to ditch the smash burger and get back to the basics. Four-and-a-half ounce patties get pressed on the grill, but not flattened, to maintain a nice crust from the pressure while retaining the juice — in this case, a fish sauce the beef marinates in for hours. It arrives stacked with American cheese (the “king of cheese” according to Le) and a house-made aioli the team is calling seksy sauce (pronounced “sexy”), a riff on Vietnamese sauces. This signature sauce is a medley of scallions, lime juice, herbs, garlic, and more. “Everyone and their mom is doing a smash burger,” Le says. “I don’t want a crispy piece of paper.”

Le reminds guests that, at the end of the day, this is a bar. That means late-night hours and late-night fare. Enter the Hanoi-style pho. Le says that it looks like thicker rice noodles with a heartier broth, on the fattier side. Once people get Portland drunk — that means by 11 p.m. — this dish is meant to make landing the sober plane a bit more doable, as many will be in bed by 12:30 a.m. There’s both a chicken and beef version, but Le stresses there are no bean sprouts or chefed-up herbs on top. “Just the pho, maybe scallions and cilantro, charred lime wedge, and fish sauces and chiles,” he says. “Really simple, and really high flavor and impact.”

Little would some know, but Nguyen is an unofficial Hennesy ambassador. According to Le, he drinks Hennesy exclusively, going so far as to chase other drinks with the famously luxe ambrosia. After Our’s Saigon Old Fashioned is a nod to that devotion. Served with a big ice cube, the otherwise straight-up Old Fashioned relies on the cognac rather than rye or bourbon. Portland Monthly also noted salted lime gin and tonics and lychee martinis are on deck here, too.

After Ours (2226 NE Broadway) is open 9 a.m. to 10 p.m. Sunday through Wednesday and 9 a.m. to 2 a.m. Thursday through Saturday.