Spirit of 77 (review)

The Portland Trail Blazers last won an NBA Championship in 1977.

Interestingly enough, 1977 was also the last time anyone wanted to go to a sports bar. There is something intrinsically repulsive about a building full of people placing the well-being of their mental state in the hands of large men playing childrens' games, blindly glued to the disgusting Americana of an endless array of television sets. The Spirit of 77 aims to change all that. And for the most part, they're largely successful thanks to some incredible design work and a splash of Fooseball.

The Spirit makes it's intentions known from blocks away with it's massive rooftop signage: This is a Portland Trail Blazers bar. It's probably not the best place to bring your purple and gold. Once inside, you'll be immediately be met with the backside of the four hoop Pop-a-Shot machine, which is addicting to the point of exhaustion. But circumnavigate that, and you'll find rows of counter-height tables lined like pews before an alter at a massive projection screen upon which all Blazers games are shown.

This is definitely the place to go if you're a Blazers fan who's in the money. If you're ballin' on a budget, you might want to look into illegally streaming games online, because 77 is spendy. They've eradicated their once incredible happy hour, neutering the gameplan of hitting up Spirit for the Blazers' east coast road trips, during which the games start within the 4-6 discount window. Still, if you can stand sipping on Pabst pounders while just-off-work business people sip Pink Elephant, Spirit of 77 is worth a shot.

Also worth a shot? Pop-a-Shot. The record is 129. The kid standing at lane 1 got it.

The bar is rather awkwardly isolated from any other fair on MLK boulevard, across from the green spires of the Convention Center, and mere blocks from the Blazers' home court at the Rose Garden. and unless you plan on getting blackout drunk at the doggie day care next door, your best bet is going to be to head for lower Burnside once the game is over. Or you can just cycle through Pop-a-Shot, Darts and Fooseball and tell yourself that Chuck-E-Cheese was never this much fun.

7.5/10