Always a solid choice for carefully-prepared pub fare and good local beer. Â The pastrami on rye is my go-to here--salty, spicy piles of the eponymous meat, toasted bread, and Russian dressing (you can, of course, opt to add kraut and make it a full Rueben). The staff are always friendly and eager to recommend their own favorite menu items, including their house-infused vodka and fireball whiskey. Â I live nowhere near this place, but still manage to make it out from time to time because I've always had a good experience here.
Review Source:So cold and wet today I decided that I needed some homemade comfort food! As I am at work I thought long and hard about how I as going to get me a warming cup of healthy soup and a grilled cheese sandwich ( not quite as healthy ) the way I would make it if I were sitting at home in front of the fireplace.
Gave Sellwood Public House a call and  decided to try their soup of the day and sandwich. I am thrilled to say that the Roasted Butternut Squash soup was hearty and had a wonderful hint of spice that made me stop thinking of dipping my sandwich into it cause I enjoyed it as it was. Now the Grilled Cheese??? Exactly how I would have made it INCLUDING just the right amount of raw onion ( requested ) and the fresh tomatoes were perfect. I have to say that whenever I want home cooked food, reasonable and just like I would make it they will be the one I call!
Sort of an unconventional space, but you can't argue with the good beers, full bar, live music, dartboards, late-night kitchen, and great happy hour. Â It feels a little dark and grimey inside, but this is exactly the kind of unpretentious place where I would prefer to do some late night, second or third stop drinking with friends.
Review Source:SPH is such a great place. Ping-pong, darts, poker, a cozy little bar and then a larger room in which my band performed last weekend. The service was great, the drinks were strong and my friends said the food was great as well. SPH just has this great, comfortable, real vibe that makes me want to return soon!
Thanks for having us!
We just found this place and we will go back again very soon. The service was quick and friendly, and the food is very reasonable and very tasty! I love the feel of the bar, you feel like you are walking into someones dining room and are immediately comfortable. Try anything that has bacon in it. This is a basic rule to life, but their bacon is amazing!
Review Source:I've been meaning to update my review since the new owners took over, but somehow I've forgotten to until now. Â Strong drinks, good happy hour deals, friendly and attentive staff, and even though the vegetarian options are a little limited, they're all great. Â (I personally suggest the grilled cheese on sourdough with cheddar and american with fries. Â I've been told it's even better with bacon and tomatoes, if you're into the whole bacon thing.)
They have a great selection of infused liquors they make themselves, and the have a rotating selection of local beers (and usually one cider) on tap.
They still of course have lots of dart boards, the pool table, actual poker games nightly, and Weds night trivia. Â You should be aware that while Yelp says it's good for kids, but it's been 21+ since last fall. Â If the kids want some pizza, you'll have to get it to go.
By far it's my favorite place in Sellwood.
Dear Lacey and Rachel and other SPH staff who treat us with love, hugs, and always charge us for our drinks like good employees should.
We LOVE YOU! I apologize for the three star review I gave you earlier. I know better now (because you read the reviews and guilt your regulars). However, whenever we need to go have a good time, please know that we are coming to the best place we know, because you know our names, what we want to drink, and that the darts are for us and no one else.
Hugs and kisses,
jenn, liv, tracy, and gabe
This review is really only about my 10 minute experience at this place, we didn't order food, or drinks - but in those 10 minutes I quickly figured out that this is not some place I would want to ever go again. We walked in the front door and headed up stairs and was greeted by the very familiar smell of a public bathroom (the air freshener from a public bathroom to be exact). We thought perhaps this smell was just in the stairwell and went in anyway. The pub itself was dark and dingy, and nearly empty. For being a Saturday night at 8:00, this says a lot. We were waiting for a couple more people to show up, so we sat down and the bartender brought us a menu. This awful bathroom smell seemed to be getting stronger and stronger. The other two people in our party showed up and sat down, and looked over the menu. Nothing on the menu really looked all that great. Many of the items on the menu were crossed our with a black sharpie. While everyone was deciding on what to order, a couple of the people in our party decided that they had to leave. The bathroom smell was just too bad. We all decided that maybe this wasn't the best place for us to eat, and we got up and quickly left. Once outside in the fresh air, we could still smell and taste the bathroom smell from inside of the pub. Classy.
Review Source:Pretty much a dive, which is fine I suppose, but my experience there was pretty lackluster. Â We had stopped in for lunch on a weekday. Â Fairly dead in there, just a band setting up. Well the children of one of the band's members were literally running around the establishment screaming and yelling at each other. Â Granted the children weren't employees, but it was totally obnoxious that it was allowed to go on. Â -2 stars for kids allowed to run around like a chapter from Lord of the Flies. Â We ordered a philly cheesesteak (always a dangerous proposition), based on the fact that the owner is from Philadelphia. Â Yep, not so good. Â I'd probably give it another chance if needed, but I'm not seeking it out.
Review Source:The Sellwood Public House is a really weird place. Sitting upstairs and down a dark hallway, it's half bar, half American Legion hall (or at least reminiscent of one). The Bar side has live music sometimes and the "activity room" side (or whatever it's called) offers up darts, pool, ping-pong, guitar hero, Texas Hold'em tables and more. It's a veritable play-land for a drunken group on a pub crawl, I can say for sure.
The space itself has likely seen better days. The bar side is dark and almost dive-y, and the other side is bright as a high-school gym (and with the hardwood floors, it might as well have been, but for the low ceilings). The bar itself is marginally appointed, with mostly large-brand spirits and some decent brew options. The food menu is 100-times better than the woeful offerings of its nearby dive bar cohorts (Black Cat, Sellwood Inn, and Penguin, I'm looking at you), and for a drunken late night group, that's a godsend. They also serve food late, which is awesome.
The service? When we were in, it was incredible. We showed up with a large, drunken group of at least 12 people? More? I don't know, but the server was ON IT. She had us all on separate checks, dealt with food and drink order chaos, people moving around, etc. It was downright impressive. And she did it all with a smile. That right there is worth the 3 stars alone.
Overall, it's a fun place to do some gaming, but I probably wouldn't spend a ton of time just kicking it here drinking.
Again, another newly-discovered gem from the Sellwood pub-crawl.
Once you ascend the stairs, this is a big, sprawling pub, complete with Guitar Hero, pool, ping-pong, darts, plus what looked like a fairly serious poker game in progress.
It was the last stop of the night, and probably a good thing, because if it had been the first stop, I might have resisted moving on to the next stop.
The waitress dealt with our large, unruly group with grace, seperating checks like it was no big, getting our orders right, and being prompt.
The food was B+ pub grub, with a large selection. My chicken strips & fries were perfectly cooked, to the point where I had to ask her to please, for the love of my waistline, take away the remainder of the fries.
As I was leaving, I noticed flyers for Wednesday-night live pub trivia here, as well, so I may return for trivia soon enough.
It was pretty good...
The service was a bit off (my wife whispered to me "we have a bad waitress"), took a while to get menus, brought a wheat beer w/o lemon, then took two trips to bring one (in her hand, not on a napkin or anything).
They have a game room, but kids can't go in there (they did suggest we bring ping pong paddles and ball out to play with).
We had chicken wings and pizza. The wings looked bad (lots of breading and sauce), but were surprisingly good. Pizza was close to being really good...if it was cooked a little longer. But it was still good (although for $2 per topping I expect more than ten or so mushroom slices).
Ordered the chicken strips and frys for our 3-year-old and they were good.
Overall, I think we'll go back...
Terrible service, our waiter got our order wrong at least three times, had to be reminded to bring drinks we ordered and down right disappeared when it came time for the bill.
The chili- lackluster, should always be served with cheese and onions, mine wasn't.
The famous game room- rented out to a private party on a saturday night, and unavailable to the rest of us.
Bathrooms- in said game room so we had to walk awkwardly through the private party we weren't allowed to go to.
Live music- too loud, a bad Ani DiFranco rip off.
The pizza- the toppings were sad, I've had better frozen pizza
We were desperate for food in the neighborhood, so sad!
Best pizza in this zip code, hands down. Â
Wide selection of beer. Friendly helpful staff.
Terrific specials and happy hour choices.
GIANT game room!!!!
This place could handle group meetings / 10 or 20 person parties, particularly during weekdays. Â They have on tap beer selections from Off The Rail Brewery, I think three of them.
Why does the food here suck so bad??? It's a cool venue! I went back again with friends to play darts and pool and ping pong. We had a great time doing those things. Especially since the place was totally empty! It was a Saturday night at 7:30 and no one else was there. Which was nice because we didn't have to fight for the ping pong table. But seriously, how do they stay in business?
People started to show up around 10:30. But it was in no way busy.
I remembered the food being blah, so I ordered a salad. It was blah. The mozzarella sticks were ok. The tots were really good. My boyfriend got the burger and said it was so overdone it was bad. Lame!
I'd go here only for drinks and the bar games.
The pros: Â Friendly service; free pool, darts, and recently added ping-pong; Really good food most days; live music on the weekends that are mostly local acts; pretty good beers that the staff seems to know a little about; not too busy
The cons; SOmetimes understaffed when it gets busy, poker games in the back most week days break up the game room ambiance a little, upstairs
Low-stakes ($20 or so buy-in) real-money tournaments several nights a week, with cash games on the side. House does not charge a fee, but requires that you spend $10 on food and drink. Atmosphere charged with testosterone -- there is usually a big argument an occasionally a fight. Level of play pretty bad, including some serious drinkers. Blind level very steep. The players deal, with one director overseeing things and dealing final table.
The problem with this place is the bad calls by the director. There is no established set of rules. He made one especially horrible call, declaring a hand dead after a player accidentally exposed it. Any rulebook will tell you this is not correct. But the director declared the hand dead -- with all the player's chips in at the final table! -- and even confirmed his decision with a phone call to the club owner. Anyone can make a mistake, but the owner should have overruled this one (he didn't respond to later email contact about this either). It's just not worth playing somewhere where you have to pay such a steep price for a mistake.
The Bad:
Having to walk up 20 stairs to get to it (winded).
The possibility of falling down 20 stairs leaving (drunk).
Bourbon that had the faint taste of peanut butter (taste bud confusion..but delicious).
Overly drunk 40 year old + patrons fighting/joke fighting with each other (Dad?).
The Good:
8 dart boards
A ping pong table
Poker tables
Cheap drinks (Crown and coke was only $5)
Live Music
Friendly staff and gaming vibe
I was really surprised by this bar, because I hadn't even heard of it before and ended up having a great time. Being a somewhat proficient dart player, I couldn't believe that they had 8 dart boards and good quality darts to play with. I went on a Saturday night and it wasn't very crowded, but not dead by any means. We played poker, ping pong, and darts all night while only spending around $30.
I highly recommend this place to anyone looking for a fun night out.
DART BAR. (p.e.r.i.o.d.)
This place rocks! Â 8, count 'em 8 dart boards! Â Two different lanes of four. Â A wide open room dedicated to the art of launching tiny steel projectiles 100's of times over the course of a night. Â
The staff kicks ass, and caters to the dart crowd. Â They have a lot of good beers on tap. Â Their prices are reasonable, and the food is good -- for bar fare it's real good! Â They also have poker nights, and although they can be a raucous crowd when they get their cards, we all generally get along. Â
As a dart bar goes you couldn't ask for more. Â Well lit, new - high quality boards, friendly folks, and good brew!
I'll always think of Sellwood Public House fondly, however something has changed...
Appetizers: Go to Oaks Bottom instead.
Sandwiches: Â Small (we tried the Reuben and Philly Cheese Steak ).
Service: Great, I really wish I liked the food more because our waitress was so friendly! Â
Atmosphere: Â At times it feels like you're in a banquet room in a huge Chinese restaurant, but when the live band starts to play you get that warm tender feeling. Â Could have been the beers though...
My recommendations:
- Come during happy hour: I think it runs from 4-7 PM. Â $2.50 microbrews & well drinks (as well as appetizers...). Â That means I can have my chocolate stout for much cheaper than anywhere else, which is really the best reason to come here (it's the only reason I come here). Â My whiskey sour was watered down. OK, that's what I get for ordering a well drink during happy hour, right? Although the list of beers was quite extensive, about three times we got the "Ohhh you know what? We're out of that."
- Order pizza. Â Maybe other things on the menu are good, but I think pizza is their thing.
This place is a completely different animal than it used to be! Â I'm not sure whether to talk about the food, the bar, the service or the ambiance first, but all are enormously improved and give Sellwooders something to brag about. Â (I'm personally tired of SE not having much to help make it deserving of the phenomenal food/drink reputation Portland metro has and the Sellwood Public House of yore was the epitome of dive-bar SE, seconded well by the Black Cat down the street... Â )
The food appears to no longer be a second thought to the ale flowing from the taps, developing a personality of its own and, from my few-but-becoming-more-frequent orders, has the perfect depth for what could be an upscale/downscale tavern, something very local, yet with quality and maybe even unique food. Â Fortunately (or unfortunately) I had the meatloaf the first time I was there under the new ownership and am now confidant that I always have something far better than Stouffers and almost as inexpensive whenever I want that homey-comfort-food so damn difficult to find when out and about! Â (I've had the meatloaf, the pizza, the Philly cheesesteak and fries... all yummy beyond belief... Â They just added chowder and chili, so I want to try those... )
The service is also refreshing. Â Attentive and friendly staff almost scared my girlfriend the first two times we were in. Â We're simply not used to it...
The fact that the restaurant is up a long flight of stairs is inescapable, but the Cheers-kind of feel when you get there is worth it. Â The ambiance is actually mixed and I both liked and was intrigued by it... Â The bar and main dining room are what you enter when you walk through the hall leading into the place, and the elevated location on the corner of 13th and Tenino gives the place a very organically-local, but still open and light feel. Â The bar is not that dark, staring-at-death kind of scene so common in SE. Â The flat-screens showing sports and news were perhaps a little distracting, but certainly weren't loud or intrusive on a private conversation. Â
And the back room was this interesting (and huge!) space that was accomodating a large party the first time I was there and some kind of dart competition the second time I was there. Â The way to the bathrooms (extremely clean, by the way!) was through that back room and I wondered about the real purpose of the room each time I had to use the bathroom. Â
The first time I was there was around standard dinner time and there seemed to be quite a number of families with kids and couples of various ages. Â The feeling was not quite "chucky cheese" but still happy and upbeat; and then the second time I was there it was about 9:00 and the feel was completely different, with a mixed bar crowd in the front room, but a different mix of people in the back room, some dart thing going on with very serious people playing darts and some younger people playing ping-pong and watching a very large-screen television. Â
The place seems to be getting better each time I go and I've even seen a few people I know. Â I hope this can last...!
I was part of a large group of photography nuts (about 20 of us) and we arrived here to see it not so busy, despite live music with no cover. It wasn't a hassle at all for the staff to have us drop in so unexpectedly.
I got French dip and some beer, and the sandwich was pretty good!
So I like that there was a free concert, good food, and plenty of room for us.
I had hopes for this joint when they came under new ownership.
Those hopes have been dashed. I was willing to put up with the mildewy staircase to get there, the pizza seemed good at first, but the service was affable and reasonable when they are dead, but when there is even the smallest crowd, they become slow and inconsistent. Â
The ownership seems more interested in Poker than food.
It is a shame that no one can seem to make that space work.
That space seems to have a curse. I Â hope they can find a solution.
Sellwood's Public House is a very non-descript place in our neighborhood -- with yummy pizza. They're under new ownership so in a slight state of flux.
There are good and bad things about this place ... the good:
1. pizza is pretty good - just be sure to note the sauce -- as many pizzas are made without sauce or with pesto ... etc. They have a few other italian items on the menu ... but it's limited mostly to pizza.
2. service rocks - waitresses are attentive but not overbearing and very friendly ... in a good way
3. beer rocks - many local brews available on tap - winner!
4. pool tables are always available - we haven't actually played but it's nice to know they're available if/when we do.
5. never crowded - the way I like it
Under the new owners the hours seem to have evened out a little. They're closed on Monday's but seem to stick to their hours the rest of the time.
It's a pretty non-descript place between Tacoma and Tenino on SW 13th ... in the door and up the stairs ... and there you are.
Check it out man!!
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