Established in 2015, the business operated in a space previously occupied by the Blue Monk, a jazz club and restaurant, in southeast Portland's Sunnyside neighborhood.

[4] Willamette Week's Martin Cizmar said the "shiny" bar had a music collection ranging from David Bowie to Bob Dylan and displayed "yellowed" newspapers covering the murder of John Lennon, Richard Nixon's resignation, and Neil Armstrong's walk on the Moon.

[5] The newspaper's Jay Horton and AP Kryza said frequent patrons "are drawn in for enlightened takes on bar-food staples, while the nightly invasion of dressed-to-impress concertgoers depends more on the venue's top-shelf sound system and eclectic booking".

[6][7] Horton described the venue as a "temporary pied-à-terre that attracts the cream of like-minded drinking partners", with "silent-screen classic" films projected on a back wall and "up-and-coming" bands downstairs.

He wrote, "With interiors showcasing an embarrassment of purposeless signifiers (vintage newspapers, stacks of vinyl, clarinet, pot-bellied stove), the space can seem like a satire of a grad-student Tinder profile.

[8] Willamette Week said the main floor had "flickering candlelight, walls filled with vinyl and a steady stream of DJs who create the vibe of a hip after-hours party at a rich friend's parents' house...

"[9] The newspaper also said, "Most nights feature a DJ on the main level, where craft cocktails and shelves of pulp fiction books and vinyl set a comfortably cool vibe.

To bust a move, head downstairs during a live show for an intimate, sweaty basement party every time the hip-hop, indie-rock or dance act takes the stage.

[6] Owner Ray Morrone opened The Liquor Store in February 2015,[11] following the closing of the Blue Monk in 2014. Cooper DuBois was one of the bar's investors.

[11] In 2016, the venue hosted an acoustic show by Fred and Toody Cole,[14] electronic artists Copy and Symbion Project,[15] and a sixtieth birthday celebration for Wipers drummer Sam Henry.

Rossi said of the series, "I approached the Liq, which was in my mind because they have a great live music program and it used to be the Blue Monk, which was a jazz club I used to go to back in the day.

But on weeknights, the homey upstairs bar joins with Aalto Lounge across the street to create the best living room/den combination you'll find outside a Hillsdale split level."

Liquor Store may be so packed that a wall of young, hip revelers actually calcify into an impenetrable shield around the bar, glued together by cigarette smoke.

Maybe it's the upstairs DJ spinning selections from the hundreds-deep wall of vinyl ... or the house gig eternally raging in the basement venue, but something at the heart of this cozy-but-not-too-cozy everyman bar and sometime-nightclub encourages debauchery.