6 Dark Bars in Portland

Just off Broadway's main drag, this upscale dining room and bar attracts a moneyed crowd in search of old-guard steakhouse fare, legendary tableside service and dim lighting that encourages canoodling and clandestine rendezvous. Couples have no qualms about cozying up in a booth in the darkened bar with a ginger-infused cosmo in hand while they wait for a candlelit table in the dark-wooded dining room located just steps beyond the bar.

Steakhouse-loving diners and West Burnside wanderers slink into this dimly lit bistro and bar and enter a world where old-school fare and tuxedoed service live on. The cave-like ambience might depress eternal optimists (or fans of bright, cheery restaurants) but regulars know this veteran steakhouse as the best place in town to brood over a glass of tawny port in a low-lit bar.

Hotel guests and in-the-know couples compete for seating in this clubby hangout at the elegant Nines hotel. The somewhat secret space is located just off the hotel lobby and Urban Farmer restaurant, and serves as a strikingly dark retreat to an otherwise light-filled hotel. Guests can order classic or contemporary cocktails from the restaurant's drink menu, then pass time playing pool and perusing the library's extension collection of books.

In stark contrast to the cream-hued lobby of the Hotel deLuxe, this tucked away lobby bar is utterly seductive with its wood-paneled walls, old-school atmosphere and dark as night ambiance. It's the sort of setting a liaison would take place, though more often the tiny space fills cocktail cognoscenti eager to watch the master mixologists perfect the craft.

Hawthorne hipsters drown their sorrows with classic champagne cocktails and shareable appetizers at this mod cocktail bar. There's no trace of its former life as a CPA office left; the interior got a complete refresh when it opened complete with dim lighting, teak ceilings and black banquets.

The sophisticated set have turned this velvet-bedecked martini bar into an after work gathering place for well-heeled women and men in power suits. The late-night hours promise hookups in the candlelit dining room, no doubt fueled by martinis ordered from the extensive cocktail list.