Best Beach Bars: The Oregon Coast
Best Beach Bars in Oregon
Nobody comes to Oregon for a tan. The water runs cold enough to hurt, the fog sits on the headlands most mornings, and a warm day in August is a rumour. What the Oregon coast has instead is three hundred and sixty miles of public shoreline, every inch of it legally yours, sea stacks the size of buildings, and a beer culture that takes itself more seriously than almost anywhere else on earth.
Which means the beach bar here is a different animal. Less rum, more IPA. Fewer palapas, more woodstoves and windows facing the weather. The right move is a pint of something local, a bowl of chowder, and a grey afternoon watching the Pacific do what it does. Twenty-nine of them are on this list.
The North Coast: Astoria to Pacific City
Astoria is a working river town at the mouth of the Columbia and has more bars on this list than anywhere else in the state. Buoy Beer and Fort George are both destinations in their own right, with Triangle Tavern, Merry Time and Inferno Lounge filling in the rest. South through Seaside for The Bridge Tender, Norma’s, The Pearl and Buddha Kat Winery, then Cannon Beach under Haystack Rock for Pelican Brewing, Public Coast, Warren House Pub and The Other Brother’s. Also Bay Haven at Bay City and Pelican Brewing Pacific City under Cape Kiwanda.
The Central Coast: Lincoln City to Florence
Newport is the anchor here, a real fishing port where the sea lions are loud enough to hear from the bar. Rogue Bayfront Public House sits on the working waterfront, with Georgie’s Beachside Grill, Barge Inn Tavern and the Sandbar nearby. North at Lincoln City, Pelican Brewing Siletz Bay and the Chinook Winds beachside bar. Gracie’s Sea Hag holds down Depoe Bay, which claims the smallest navigable harbour in the world. Further south at Florence, Waterfront Depot and the Beachcomber Pub.
The South Coast: Coos Bay to Brookings
This is the emptiest and best-looking end of the coast, and the one most visitors never reach. 7 Devils Waterfront Alehouse at Coos Bay is the reason to come, and it is walking distance from the boat basin. Bandon Brewing sits a few minutes from the sea stacks at Bandon Beach. Barnacle Bistro covers Gold Beach, and at the California line 101 Bar and Chetco Brewing hold Brookings, which quietly gets the warmest weather in the state.
Planning Your Oregon Coast Bar Crawl
Oregon has no private beaches. A 1967 state law put the entire coastline in public hands, which is why you can walk any of it and why the bars sit where they do rather than behind a resort gate.
Highway 101 runs the whole length and takes far longer than the map suggests, so pick a stretch instead of trying to drive it all. The beach bar map is the fastest way to work out which stretch. Dress for weather you were not expecting. Order the chowder. And do not skip the south coast just because the guidebooks do: Coos Bay, Bandon and Brookings are where the coast stops performing and starts just being itself, and 7 Devils Waterfront Alehouse is on its own a good enough reason to drive that far.
Know One We Are Missing?
Twenty-nine bars across three hundred and sixty miles is thin, and we know it. There are taverns in fishing towns on this coast that have been pouring since before the highway was paved and have never appeared on anybody’s list, because they have no website and no interest in one.
If you drink somewhere on the Oregon coast that belongs here, tell us about it. If you own or run one, get it listed.