Portland Happy Hour: Wild Abandon Revisited

Posted by Kelly

Adam came home from a former Rose Festival co-worker's birthday recently and gave me Rachel Trice's card, President of PUNCH, dedicated to event marketing and pr. He told me she wanted to know more about Happy Hour Honeys' blog and that he thought I'd really enjoy talking with her. We emailed and decided it would be appropriate to meet at a happy hour. I chose Wild Abandon on SE Belmont and 25th, remembering my vow to return after going last October with all of my college roomies pre-Latin dance class.

Arriving at 5:15ish with plenty of happy hour left we ordered their Goat Cheese Torta ($8) and drinks to start. I had a lemon drop ($5) and Rachel tried a Pinot ($5). Still chatting and snacking on the plate of goat cheese with pesto and whole cloves of garlic served with grilled bread, we decided to order round 2 of drinks. The waiter, providing consistent attention, wandered over multiple times before we decided to order round 3 of drinks and the Shrimp Mazatlan ($5, shrimp cooked with peppers and onions served with polenta cakes)...I said in the first post about Wild Abandon that I wanted to try it next time and I'm glad we did.

While swapping stories and showing each other pictures of our puppies on our phones, we asked for dinner menus. Perfect, a fellow happy hour-er that (like Katie and I) orders more than one drink and one happy hour dish! We chose to share the Surf and Turf ($19) and order round 4, why not? Wild Abandon's surf and turf featured steak and scallops served with garlic mashed potatoes and grean beans. The meat and scallops were cooked perfectly, and who doesn't love some garlic mashed potatoes? I would highly recommend this entree...and if you share that plus a happy hour item you're sure to be full, with your taste buds satisfied, and your wallet not too stretched.

I would definitely recommend putting Wild Abandon on your list of happy hours to attend in SE. You'll be glad you did, not only for the food but the unique atmosphere using a variety of hanging lamps to provide a dim lighting in the small, thin building. And Adam was right, Rachel and I hit it off and had a great night!

Latin Dancing and Portland Happy Hour: Wild Abandon

Last Friday night the girls (Dena, Leslie, and Katie) and I finally made it to Wild Abandon for happy hour. It is this cute little place at 2411 SE Belmont St (close to SE 25th) that is long and skinny (had it not been cold and rainy there is a cute back patio area) with cute lights and nice waiters. We all ordered off the happy hour menu which included food that started at $2 and went up to $8. We each ordered different dishes and got $2 cheesy garlic bread to share. Yum.

Leslie got the Cavatappi Pasta for $8, which I definitely stole a few bites of. Dena got the $5 Portobello and Veggie Sandwich and a small caesar salad ($3). Also delish. Katie got the Chicken Mazatlan ($5) which was also quite tasty. Next time I want to try the Shrimp Mazatlan. Actually now that I think about it, there are lots of other things I would like to try. Everything that the waiters carried by looked amazing and the entire restaurant just smelled awesome. Finally, I got the Willamette Dream Salad ($5) which is so not like me, I'm not usually a salad getter, but it was really really good. Of course we also got drinks, it wouldn't be a proper happy hour without them! We got Lemon Drops and a Cosmopolitan, all $6 and all really good. If we had more time...and a little thing called money...I think we would have all had at least one more!

So we ate (and drank) up and headed out to our Latin dance class. Yeah, that's right, we decided to take an intro to latin class at The Ballroom Dance Company in Tigard (8900 SW Commercial St.) The classes are usually 5 weeks long with about an hour long class each week, but we decided just to drop in to a beginners class for $9. It was pretty hard! We were definitely the youngest there, with a couple older women and one loud couple (well just the woman). We learned the walking (I guess) technique for the Cha Cha, Rumba, and Samba and we weren't bad, but we weren't the most coordinated. It required a lot of control, hip action, step onto straight leg, settle, straight, settle, toe first, present your inner ankles, knee up but don't take your foot off the ground. Oh and now do it REALLY fast. Yeah, it sounds kind of complicated and it was, we were really sore by the end, experiencing some back pain and a little butt burn. Ultimately it felt good, we definitely worked some previously ignored muscles and had fun laughing at our awesome technique. We'll definitely be back!

But the night wasn't complete with out a stop at Bannings Restaurant and Pie House (11477 SW Pacific Hwy, Tigard) on the way home to reward ourselves with a marionberry pie for a job well done (or at least a good effort).