Whether you are a pro or an amateur pinball player, UrbanDrinks.com offers a comprehensive listing of Portland bars and restaurants where you can find and play pinball. Gone are the days where you walk endlessly from bridge to bridge in search of a late night pinball fix. Simply enter the keyword "pinball" into our search engine and we make the magic happen.

Here is a current listing of where you can find pinball in Portland:

Berbati's; Billy Ray's; Black Cat; Blue Monk; Bonfire Lounge; Chin Yen; Clinton Street Pub; Florida Room; Goodfoot Pub; Gravy; Green Dragon; Hollywood Billiards; Jimmy's Sports Bar; Low Brow; Marathon Taverna; Red Room; Side Door; Slingshot Lounge; and Tennessee Red's

If you know of any locations that we are missing, let us know.

~Cheers!

The Urban Drinks crew recently convened to sample a new Norwegian vodka by the name of Christiania. While most of us at Urban Drinks are strongly opinionated about our gin, we nonetheless attempted the impossible. That is, we attempted to distinguish among a selection of four different vodkas in a blind taste test. The taste test line up included three grain-based vodkas, including: Finlandia, Absolut, and Lubrication. Lubrication is an Oregon-based vodka and a bit under the radar, while the Finlandia and Absolut vodkas are obviously well known across the United States. Interestingly enough, Christiania is a potato-based vodka, which is a point of distinction among the crowded field of top-shelf grain vodkas. The parameters of the taste test were simple. Each taster had no knowledge of which vodka was in each of their four identical glasses. The vodka was served neat with absolutely no mixers. The tasters had a selection of appetizers to routinely cleanse their palates and were given approximately 15 minutes to sample each of the four beverages. Additionally, the tasters were not permitted to discuss their opinions until the end of the tasting. The results... Well, to my surprise, Christiania vodka placed either first or second with each of the tasters. Indeed, I was very surprised to see the potato-based vodka dominate the other grain based vodkas. Also of interest, Absolut was rated both first and last place by different tasters, which illustrates the inherent difficulty of distinguishing among this group of neutral spirits. Personally, my preference for a potato-based vodka prior to the taste test was Monopolowa by Baczewski. Yet, Christiania was obviously more refined and less syrupy than the Monopolowa. It is however unlikely that Christiania would continue to convey its character or similarly dominate these other vodkas if it were mixed in a cocktail, as most people tend to prefer these days. In fact, the Christiania brand claims to have created the first sipping vodka, which is probably the best way to appreciate this spirit. At least some of our tasters agree that Christiania is best served in its natural state, without any mixers getting in the way. While I too enjoyed the subtleties that Christiania had to offer, I'm likely sticking with gin. At least one distiller is finally returning to the proper ingredients for making vodka.

UrbanDrinks.com was ranked today #14 among the top tech start-ups in Portland. We were actually a little surprised to see UrbanDrinks ranked as high as it was. The criteria for the index includes only companies that are less than 5 years old, are technology based, and are not publicly held. I guess people just like a good happy hour.

A quick reality check on UrbanDrinks.com begs the question: Where did Seattle's happy hours go? Even though the population of Seattle is nearly one third larger than Portland, Portland nonetheless towers over Seattle when it comes to the shear number of happy hours offered by Portland's bars and restaurants. Perhaps Seattle just isn't as happy as its little nephew to the south. To illustrate my point, UrbanDrinks.com is currently registering only 192 happy hours for Seattle compared to Portland which is at a whopping 307! A quick search on Google for "Seattle Happy Hour" yields a myriad of websites, none of which trump the number of happy hours offered by UrbanDrinks.com. Regardless of any excuse as to why there appears to be less happy hours in Seattle than Portland, it's up to the residents of Seattle to make the Urban Drinks happy hour directory a great resource for their community. If you know of a happy hour that we are missing, please let us know.

I was at a party a few days ago where someone brought in some ingredients and a recipe for "Oprah's Pomegranate Martini". Now, I'm not going to criticize the quality of the drink itself (not much anyway), since everyone who had one seemed to really like it. Here's the recipe:

• 1 1/2 cups pomegranate juice
• 2 oz. Absolute Citron vodka OR white tequila
• 1 oz. Cointreau liquor
• Cup of ice
• Optional: Splash of sparkling water
• Optional: Squeeze of lemon

Shake ingredients in a shaker and put in chilled martini glasses. Put pomegranate fruit into glass as garnish. Serves 2.

Keeping in mind that "Oprah loves martinis—and this is one of her favorites!", and at the risk of sounding like a pompous drink snob, I can't help but to point out the problems with this "martini."

First, it's not a martini. This is the part that bothers me the most. It's hard to find bars these days that don't bastardize the name martini by calling every cocktail a martini. If I order a martini at any bar that knows anything about making drinks, it should be assumed that I want it made with gin, not vodka. I sure as hell don't want cranberry juice, chocolate, or some other alcohol cover-up added to it. If I did, I would order a bananarama cherry chocolate cocktail or whatever (or maybe some pudding with a little vodka in it). A martini is made with gin, not vodka. If it has vodka substituted for gin, it's a vodka martini. It's fine if you like vodka martinis, but vodka shouldn't be the default spirit used in a standard martini. And if you don't like gin, you should try some good gin in a cocktail made by a good bartender. It's not the same plastic-bottle gin you shot in college. So it should go without saying that this pomegranate concoction is not a martini. In fact, I'm so sure it warrants being called a cocktail.

Second, it uses 1 1/2 cups of pomegranate juice. Even though this is for two people, that's a lot of juice for a cocktail. If we cut the ingredients in half, it's 6 oz of pomegranate juice, 1 oz of tequila or vodka, and 1/2 oz of Cointreau per drink. That's "weak sauce" as they say. Maybe it tastes good, but it's hardly a cocktail when you have a 12:2:1 ratio of juice, primary spirit, and secondary spirit. It's definitely not a martini.

Third, what kind of drink allows you to substitute tequila for citrus vodka? Sorry, but that's two different drinks (neither of which are martinis!).

It's clear to me that Oprah doesn't actually love martinis. You can't love something when you don't even know what it is. She doesn't even love cocktails. She just likes a little bit of alcohol to go with her juice.

Here's a scenario for you. It's Saturday at 3:40 pm. It's raining outside and you just want to grab a cheap bite to eat and a pint of beer. Where should you go? If you find yourself in this situation, you should check out UrbanDrinks.com, where you can search for happy hours in your neighborhood that are going on right now. For example, say you are in the mood for some Pho soup. Type that into the UrbanDrinks search engine and presto: Silk is offering a happy hour starting at 4pm. UrbanDrinks also sets you up with 5 other happy hours that are going on right now in the neighborhood. If you don't like any of those selections, try the other 150 happy hours that are also going on right this very minute. Try it out for yourself and you will never be in want of a happy hour ever again. ~Cheers.

About 3 years ago, I moved to Portland from New York City. Initially, I welcomed the surge of burritos, bento, and sushi that can be found on nearly every corner in this town (a strong characteristic of every west coast city). But after a while I began to crave the staple foods of the east coast, which are utterly lacking here in Portland. After searching far and wide for the past few years, here is what I've found: Bagels: Kettleman's in Southeast Portland offers by far the best bagels in town. If you go to Noah's or any of the other "bagel" shops, they will try to serve you a round loaf of bread. Don't let them fool you too. If it's not boiled, it's not a bagel. Kettleman's bagels are also available at Sip and Kranz in the Pearl. Italian Subs: Lucky for you, Portland has two excellent sub shops. Geralidi's located downtown is a ma and pa owned establishment that serves their own version of an Italian sub under the trade name of "The Spicy Geraldi". If you are in Northwest Portland, stop by Tribute's where they do exactly what their sign says: "Serve the American Dream", in the form an Italian sub of generous proportions. Cured Meats: Kenny & Zuke's located downtown just off of Burnside, offers a mean selection of pastrami, corned beef, and real bagels. They are also open until 3 am on Friday and Saturday night in case you are in the mood for some good food after a heavy night of drinking. Lager: Currently I have been unable to find anyone that can make a decent lager in this town. Unlike Yuengling, the oldest brewery in the country, who has been brewing lagers to perfection for over 150 years. You can find more "real food" recommendations and listings of happy hours in Portland on UrbanDrinks.com.

Well, we did it! "It" being our collection of over 300 happy hours in and around the Portland area. A quick search on Google for the "Most happy hours in Portland" puts UrbanDrinks in 5th place. Obviously Google still doesn't have their algorithm dialed in yet. When will we reach 400? It all depends on the support of Portland's happy hour hobbyists. Thanks everyone for helping out. ~mike @ UD