It’s Thursday night. You’re old enough to drink and young enough not to have to worry about trucking off to the office at 9a.m. Friday morning. The only problem is that that rent check you just wrote for your new apartment just cleared out whatever was left in your bank account, and you’ve got almost no money to spend. Can you still go out and have a good time with your friends?
Hells, yeah! Here are three places to go for cheap food, great music and no cover charge:
1. Portland Lobster Company
180 Commercial St.
It’s hard to beat looking out over Casco Bay as late afternoon turns into early evening with a cold Corona and a red and white paper basket of the Portland Lobster Company’s freshly fried Old Port Onion Rings ($4.49).
The crowd that gathers at the picnic tables under their weathered white tent is one of the most diverse in town, with everyone from tourists to young professionals grabbing a beer after work in a downtown office building to middle-aged couples enjoying a dinner out with their kids. While the music on their deck is never all that edgy or experimental, the classic rock bands and singer-songwriters that play there live seven nights a week during the summer are some of the best in town.
Their good-humored vibe borders on tacky, with strands of glowing orange plastic lobster lights hanging up over the bar, and there aren’t usually very many young twenty-somethings, but it’s definitely still worth checking out before they close up for the season.
2. Empire Dine and Dance
575 Congress St.
According to local legend, this popular nightspot was originally built toward the beginning of the last century as “The Empire Dime-a-Dance,” a brothel where sailors could pay a dime to dance with local women. In 2007, the Empire re-opened with new management and a slightly different name and has since become the biggest cultural hotspot in Upper Congress, the hip neighborhood of galleries near the Maine College of Art.
Their Happy Hour special (a can of PBR, a shot of Evan Williams bourbon and a school lunch style hamburger for $5) is a constant source of enjoyment for Portland’s hungry, thirsty and economically squeezed. Those with a few more dollars to spare will find many enticing options among their wide range of high quality sandwiches and entrees and extensive wine and beer lists.
While there is often a DJ spinning indie rock or a handful of jazz musicians jamming in their downstairs dining room and bar, the real action at Empire happens upstairs in their massive dancehall. To see Empire in all of its glory come by on Tuesday night when the space fills to capacity for the weekly “Battle of the Titans” series, in which local musicians square off against each other and perform covers of classic songs.
3. Una
505 Fore St.
Surrounded by parking lots on the edge of the Old Port, Una gives the impression that it would like to be a portal into the kind of refined, urban scene you’d find in big city cocktail lounge. It isn’t. It is, however, a magnet for well coiffed gangsta rap fans who buy faux designer t-shirts at the South Portland Mall and spring for $9 martinis to impress their peers.
But the lounge does have one saving grace. On Thursday nights, the spectacular reggae band Royal Hammer takes the stage. For seven white guys from Maine, these young musicians really know their stuff. Drummer Gary Gemmiti and keyboardist Pete Dugas groove comfortably through the complex swung triplet feel that defines reggae’s timeless sound. On vocals and guitar, Mike Taylor sings with an authentic intonation and pronunciation that reflects years of careful listening. Filling out the bands sound, the tightly syncopated horn trio, which features Ryan Zoidis of the nationally renowned Soul Live, adds a funky flavor that it’s hard to prevent yourself from dancing to.