Tamarind whiskey sours and sweet and savory crepes will soon come to a Moroccan-tile-lined bar in the Pearl District. Two Wrongs, a new cocktail lounge pulling influences from the Middle East, the Mediterranean, and Northern Africa, will open on NW 13th July 10.
Unrelated to the now-closed Two Wrongs on NW 12th, the incoming bar is a project from Ramzy Hattar, who also owns the nearby bar River Pig. Hattar has wrangled a handful of talent to help him open the bar: Davide Bricca, an Oven & Shaker alum, will handle the cocktails with Lightning Bar Collective vet Quinn Matthewstearn. An early draft of their menu involves drinks with tropical twists, from the Fidelity with Plantation pineapple rum and banana liqueur to the Nilsson with Don Julio Blanco and coconut creme. Plus, in true Portland summer fashion, the bar will sling two slushies, including a pina colada.
On the food side of things, Hattar reached out to YouTube and Instagram food personality Chef Monkey, aka Naira Ayvazyan. Ayvazyan designed a menu of crepes and salads to complement the drinks, borrowing from her Armenian heritage and memories from trips to Morocco. She’s particularly happy with the Cinnamon Sunset, a crepe filled with feta and goat cheese, roasted oranges, cinnamon, and walnuts. “In Morocco, every morning people were eating oranges with cinnamon,” she remembers. Not all the crepes are sweet, however; her Jazzve crepe combines lightly seasoned chicken with mushrooms and mozzarella. On the light side, Ayvazyan is working on a number of salads, colorful with everything from cherry tomatoes to oranges.
The bar itself will be something to behold, lined with Moroccan and Spanish tile, brass light fixtures, and Moroccan lanterns. Hattar says the bar will often play Moroccan R&B and lots of international rap; he referenced French rapper L’Algérino. “It’ll have that cool, sexy mood,” he says. “It’s somewhere where you’d like to have a drink with a friend or a date.”
Two Wrongs will open in the former Black Rock Coffee space at 617 NW 13th Avenue.
• Two Wrongs [Official]
• Two Wrongs [Instagram]
• Previous River Pig coverage [EPDX]
• Chef Monkey [YouTube]
• For River Pig’s Ramzy Hattar, It’s Been a Broken Path to the Restaurant Biz [Portland Monthly]