Black Cat Tavern

When Unilocal lists this as a «dive bar», believe it. It’s big and filled with shuffleboard tables and lots of other games, but it has the ambiance of an american legion hall. They only take cash, so be prepared. It was like being in your weird uncle’s scary basement, but if you’re looking for campy condoms for your next bachelor party, definitely send your man into the men’s room with quarters, it’s hilarious! Other than that, I’d skip this place and walk a block to the Sellwood Public House.

Sad to see this bar, with its great beer selection and warm atmosphere, is closing down. It was the first bar I came to after moving to PDX in 1996. I will miss it, and wish the owners well in their future endeavors.

Here is one of those little dives that certainly lacks either pretense or douchebags. It does indeed have that going for it. But in that way, it’s also a lot like many of the other bars in the area.
Sure it’s spacious, but the space isn’t exactly filled. If you called out, you might hear an echo. If you’re into shuffleboard, then you’d be into it that much. It’s true.
It’s cash only and sans liquor license. Personally, I can’t really wrap my head around the idea of a dive bar without a liquor license. Why, that’s almost as strange as the jukebox that doesn’t ever seem to be playing anything. That means, the song you’ll be hearing is crickets unless you have the wherewithall to do something about it yourself.
The schedule seems to be irregular as well. I walked by numerous times hoping to scope it out, yet it was closed. The barkeep is really friendly. True that.
But while I want to commend the simplicity of a neighborhood dive, it’s also a little dreary; you might want to consider sneaking in a flask to keep you company.

The Black Cat has a lot going for it.
It’s as fine a shuffleboard bar as I’ve seen in Portland… it has an expansive backyard-​like outdoor space… it has other misc. entertainment options, like a jukebox, pop-​a-​shot, and pool tables… it has beer prices nobody would complain about… and it has an outwardly surly, but sneaky friendly bartender lady that always keeps things lively.
I’m no regular, but I’m batting 1.000 for good times at the Black Cat.
It’s as fun as you want to make it, a great place for semi-​large gatherings of friends looking for casual drinks n’ games, and generally d-​bag free (unless I’m the d-​bag? uh oh).
Plus, on your birthday, you get your first beer — any beer in the house — for just a quarter! (Hell, I’ll be honest, it may have been a dollar or even a penny for that first bday beer… needless to say it wasn’t the only one I had that night and I kinda forgot what the exact special was, but hey, it was cheap and awesome regardless!)
Sellwood and East/​West Moreland are filled with lovely bars, but I’m glad the Black Cat is there adding a little blue collar attitude to the mix.

Went here to play some shuffle board. It was raining out so we didn’t get to enjoy the outdoor space, but it looks nice out there with a ping pong table, horseshoe pits, and a grassy lawn with chairs and a gazebo if I remember correctly.
We were there at 8:30 on Saturday and it was pretty quiet in the bar. No background music, just the commentary from the ducks game on the tube. There were maybe a total of 14 people in the bar including ourselves and the bartender. It usually seems pretty quiet in here, more of a neighborhood joint.

Love this little dive bar! They offer free pool and shuffleboard a couple days a week! Good happy hour deals too!

Great low key spot. Minus 1 star for not having a full liquor license but plus 1 star for having shuffleboard and good beer on tap.
Oh and cashola only!

Come here for: shuffleboard, pool. Do not come here for: food, beer selection, live music. They do have food, of the microwaved variety, existing probably just to satisfy OLCC requirements. They do have decent west coast beer, and I’ve never had a freshness problem. They do have live music, often kind of sad and janky in an unironic way. Service is OK, and here’s why: The bartender passes by you on her way to smoke outside every, like, 5 minutes.
Hey, it’s the Black Cat. It’s a dive bar. Their building looks like crap. Deal with it, come in and play some shuffleboard.

The smoky funk has greatly subsided. One can enter the Black Cat without fear of stinking for the entire next day. The staff is friendly, service is quick.
They have shuffleboard and pool which is free on some nights. It’s pretty cheap to play when they do charge. The beer selection is quite good and rotate with the season. Of course they have the standards there as well.
Fun place that I will go back to. You should too.

Great bar. There’s plenty of room, and a good amount of different kinds of beers.
The best thing is the service and the shuffle board. oh yeah theres a huge back yard with a grill and gazebo.
The food not so much.

Owner is the sweetest woman you will ever meet, the back patio area is beautiful! The beer is cold, the people are friendly, what more could you ask for!

It’s cash only, and they only carry beer and wine. Those are problems for me, but not ones they can’t overcome. The beers are nice and cheap, the service is friendly, and the shuffleboard, video games, pool tables, and patio make up for the lack of liquor quite a bit.
I wanted to give them 3.5, but since I can’t I rounded up because the back yard area/​patio is awesome on a sunny day.

All I can say is, «MA!!!». Pool tables, nacho chips, arcade, everything is pretty awesome for a dive bar. Come by and have a blast.

A tavern with only beer and wine. And definitely not the good selection.
NEXT!
While the others might get excited with shuffleboard, arcade, pinball, pool– I don’t. If I want to entertain myself or my friends, we’ll expect atleast one of those in a bar.
And no food? LOL.
Really.

I liked this pub WAY more than I expected to! This was the next-​to-​last stop on a Sellwood pub-​crawl, so, y’know, the preceeding 3 beers may have put me in a charitable mood.
However! There were tons of ways to entertain yourself in this bar, including arcade games, shuffleboard, pool, etc.
They had a pretty damn good beer selection, too. Shockingly good, for the type of place it is. I mean, good luck finding Deschutes Red Chair IPA on tap at any other bar in town OTHER than Deschutes’ pub in the Pearl.
Also, free popcorn!
I wish the weather had been conducive to hanging out on the patio, because it looks pretty nice.
I never would have set foot in this place if it weren’t for the UYE, so yay for Unilocal

Cheeeap beer. Billards, arcades, outdoor beer garden. Whaat? «family friendly». Go, be nice and merry.

Shuffleboard, Snake Bites, Buck Hunter, Big Screen TV, and Mama – need I say more? If you get in good with the staff you are treated like family here. However, they’re a tough group of «hurry the *uck up, you’re on my turf and time» so if you can take off your sensitive pants long enough to relax and have fun, you’re golden here. Everyone gets ID’d, they’re cash only (w/​atm), and don’t ring the bell or you’re buying the bar a round. A great place to end a birthday if you live close to Sellwood.

i love this place in the sunshine! They have a huge back patio that they only open during the sunniest days of spring and summer. They have lots of entertaining games like shuffleboard, horseshoes, ping pong, to name a few they also have some lottery machines and pin ball?

What can I say? This bar ranks among the best that Sellwood has to offer. It is certainly a cut above the Sellwood Public House right down the block. As said before there are three shuffleboard tables and one pool table. Ok, so it doesn’t have a great liquor selection and you might want to think twice before getting a manhatten there but then again this is a dive, and on that level it’s perfect.
Go there on a Wednesday night and you will be greeted with $ 1.25 PBR’s and free, that’s right Unilocalers, free shuffleboard. This of course means that the elusive, fun $ 15 night is back and it happens at the Black Cat. Why to go there: Three shuffleboards (com’on what other incentive do you need?) and an excellent selection of great classic rock on the juke box. Why not to go there: Smokey (usual at these types of places), and the wait for a shuffleboard table on any weekend night can be daunting.

This is the most brightly lit dive bar I’ve ever been in. Maybe they rpovide so much light to illuminate the many recreational bar games they offer at the Black Cat. Pool! Darts! Video games! Keno!
But most importantly…
SHUFFLEBOARD!
I had no idea how much I loved shuffleboard until I discovered the Black Cat. Better yet, Shuffleboard is free here on Monday and Tuesday nights and they have THREE nice long tables, so come try your hand at it.