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A welcome addition to the neighborhood, Richmond Club embraces mid-century warmth through the gentle proddings of a French-Basque sensibility—a rather bright departure from the moody, English-inspired pub character of the Richmond Bar that came before it.
The old Richmond Bar was once hailed as an excellent cocktail lounge. Though toward the end of its life, a few of my former barfly employees remembered something a little different: less the polished drinking room of its early years and more a revered upscale dive with unusually good comfort food.
“Upscale dive” is admittedly a very funny thing to call a place, but to be fair, that is also very much a genre here in Portland—and it was meant in the most loving sense of the phrase.
Still, talking to others, it seems Nate Tilden and his business partners had something a little more particular in mind when they opened the late bar back in 2013. And there’s something rather nice about seeing our friend Dan pick up that thread more than a decade later—not by resurrecting the Richmond Bar, but by returning to the spirit of what the place seemed to be reaching for in the first place.
Enter Richmond Club: a proper neighborhood cocktail lounge.
Where its predecessor gradually loosened around the edges, Richmond Club feels remarkably considered. Thoughtful drinks, excellent little plates, warm light, eclectic but carefully chosen furnishings, and hospitality that feels affectionate rather than rehearsed. No theatrics, just a lot of little things done very well—all of it giving the place a certain timelessness without feeling remotely stuck in the past.
And the room itself is genuinely beautiful. Curated without feeling precious, handsome without trying terribly hard to remind you of it. Out back is perhaps my favorite part: a lush, almost secret-garden patio that provides a leafy escape from the apartment-complex hell that has slowly come to dot Division Street. You almost forget where you are.
Almost.
Perhaps that’s what I like most about Richmond Club. It clearly has a point of view, but no particular vanity about explaining it to you. There’s something increasingly nice about a place that simply knows what it is and gets on with the business of being it. Some might call that quiet confidence. I think it’s a good part of the charm.
And so, people of Richmond, we once again have a neighborhood bar bearing our neighborhood’s name. I rather like that.
And I’m quite glad it’s here.