—All photos by Dina Avila
October 1 is a big day for Portland's eating and drinking scene.
Hours after the brewpub Wayfinder opens to the public on Saturday morning, Bar Casa Vale will follow suit, inviting folks to pair craft cocktails and sherries with drinking snacks inspired by the cuisine of Northern Spain.
The bar comes courtesy of Nate Tilden (Clyde Common, Pépé le Moko, Olympia Provisions), Bryon Adams-Harford, Kenton Weins, and Marty Schwartz.
It will have seating inside for 50, as well as a standing bar where guests can wait for their snacks to be delivered beneath a clothesline dotted with numbers corresponding to their orders.
The space, decked out in arched windows and Spanish tile and lit by vintage hurricane lights, also has a patio—anchored by a sole olive tree—with room for another 50.
The menu, overseen by Louis Martinez (also of Clyde Common), features more than 40 snacks and mains, including anchovy olives, mussels, Castilian fried quail eggs, montaditos, crispy pig snout, chicken wings with piri-piri, merguez with spiced tomato jam, lamb skewers, black rice with squid and sausage, braised pork cheek with pommes puree and pimenton gravy, ratatouille, grilled carrots with feta, mint, and almonds, and Turkish chop salads with aleppo butter and fried chickpeas. And that's just a taste of what's in store.
As you can see, the kitchen will be an open one, featuring a large hearth fueled by white oak.
And nestled between the kitchen and the bar will a charcuterie and slicing station showcasing a shank of four-year-old Fermin Iberico ham.
Bar Casa Vale: 215 SE 9th Ave., 503-477-9081; Hours: 5 p.m. to midnight, daily
