Newport, Oregon has a working bayfront that smells like the ocean because it actually is the ocean — commercial fishing boats, canneries, and a stretch of bars that exist for people who work on the water as much as for people visiting it. The Sandbar fits right in. Sitting on SW Bay Boulevard with direct views of Yaquina Bay and the activity of a genuine Pacific Northwest harbor, this is honest waterfront drinking: cold Oregon beer, seafood that arrived locally, and a crowd that includes as many crabbers and fishermen as tourists. The bay lights up at sunset in a way that no filter improves. Newport does not try to be Malibu, and neither does the Sandbar.
