Inside the Hot New Portland Airport Speakeasy

Portland has a complicated relationship with speakeasies. On the one hand, they’re weird, which we tend to like. But on the other hand, they create an arbitrary barrier to drinking, which we tend not to. Cities like Seattle and New York have more formally embraced the concept, and some of those bars really commit to the bit with elaborate rituals for entry and interiors that often resemble period film sets. And there’s certainly an appeal to both the illicit parlor games of the Prohibition era and their more modern escape room-y incarnations. Portland drinking dens have traditionally avoided that level of complexity. Often they’re just back rooms or sub-bars with discrete entrances and retro styling, rather than full-fledged experiences.

The erstwhile Circa 33 never really clicked for me, but Voysey is a stylish and distinct addition to Loyal Legion’s original location, and it’s fitting that the Loyal Legion airport outpost has spawned its own bespoke enclave, called Aurora. And while some alleged speakeasies seem suspiciously like pool rooms with an Ikea bookcase glued to the door, Aurora is very much doing its own thing. These types of places tend to land somewhere between Victoriana and the Roaring Twenties in terms of tone, but refreshingly Aurora is way more of a synthy ’80s album cover. Think glass brick and recessed lighting rather than floral wallpaper and dusty bookcases.

Aurora isn’t exactly hidden but it isn’t obvious either. Loyal Legion’s airport campus is fairly sprawling to begin with, featuring a plein air maze of various booth configurations and distributed server stations. Keen-eyed travelers may notice, however, that the bathroom structure extends a fair bit farther out than it needs to, and the steel walk-in door in a recessed alcove has a fancier handle on it than steel walk-in doors tend to do (there’s also a metal placard reading “curiosity enters the door”). It’s propped open for now, though at some point you may need to enter “1977” (the Blazers’ last championship year) on a nearby keypad to gain entry. The bar is before airport security, so it’s accessible to anyone who wants to hop on the MAX and drink a dirty tequila martini while the planes land out the pink and purple windows.

Ben Coleman

Aurora features two distinct ecosystems for maximum vibes. The front area has organic wraparound lounge seating and a long L-shaped bar. This area is all cream on cream on cream, with lots of warm recessed LED lighting and mirrored walls that create both a sense of comfort and the illusion of space. Past the bar and behind a glass brick wall is a genuinely dazzling lounge, with flowing built-in sectionals and swiveling command chairs like a 1970s spaceship interior. By far the most impressive feature is the wall of aggressively tinted windows, which bathe the room in a dazzling lenticular rainbow of color. The result is a striking kaleidoscope that contrasts the more austere bar area and turns any attempt at cocktail photography into an avant-garde style exercise.

The Loyal Legion proper features a respectable tap list and a solid menu of bar food staples (including a braised chicken bowl with avocado that’s a secret weapon for long-haul flights), but Aurora sports its own cocktail menu with some fun innovations. The Diamond Tooth is a tangy spin on the lemon drop, with the texture of an upscale slushie and the subtle complexity of yuzu. The menu starts off sweet and ends up savory, with egg whites and red wine making an appearance in the Aurora Sour and the ramen-inspired Good Soup, which features Wild Turkey, bone broth, and a green onion tincture. Broth cocktails can be an acquired taste, but it makes for a rich, lipid-infused liquid lunch in between layovers. And thanks to PDX’s “street price” rule everything is in the $14 to $18 range, which is generally what you’d pay at a downtown cocktail spot.

Ben Coleman

Ben Coleman

Aurora has been open since Valentine’s Day, but the clandestine nature of the enterprise means that word has been getting out slowly. A recent Monday evening saw travelers drifting in and out in the ones and twos, along with the occasional squadron of curious flight attendants. If you know, you know, but not everyone knows yet. Half the people I talked to said they found out about it from airport staff. At around 7 p.m. the traffic picked up, with a couple of influencer-types rolling video, and a couple of airport employees stopping by for an after-work drink. One of the latter told me that Loyal Legion was already the go-to after-work spot, so the addition of a stylish sub-bar has been a welcome addition.

Does Portland *need* a vaporwave airport speakeasy? Probably not, no one needs anything at an airport except a place to buy sunscreen and an overabundance of power outlets. But an airport’s weird little secrets, like that cool neon tunnel in O’Hare or the Illuminati demon horse at Denver International, are what give these vast and often impersonal spaces a bit of character. Aurora is unique, impeccably designed, and most importantly comfortable, which makes it a welcome inclusion to the list of airport oddities.