Most galleries end at a gift shop. Ours ends at a bar, and the bar is not an afterthought. It is where the visit turns into a conversation. So when the season turns, the Lounge turns with it. The fall menu went live in Portland on September 21 and in San Antonio on September 22. Darker, warmer, a little stranger than summer.
Built to the same creed
The drinks are composed the way the exhibits are. Seasonal, specific, easy to love on the first sip and more interesting on the second. The zero-proof list is called Free Spirited, and it gets the same attention as everything else, because a good night out should not depend on what is in the glass. Food is made for a table of people who have things to say, not for a tray on the way out.
The visit ends in a better chair.
Come before, stay after
Here is the thing nobody tells you about walking through art for an hour and a half: you come out with opinions. The Lounge is where you say them out loud. In Portland the room is treated like a gallery too. Todd Moyer’s 11 Dimensions is going up in stages above the bar, and if you sit long enough you will watch it change. Order something you cannot pronounce. Stay for the second round. That is the whole plan.
