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featured in the November 2nd, 2007 issue of Just Out

A Vault Full of Q-Ts

If there's one thing that Vault Martini Bar needs, it's a little more gayness. That's why its owners, Kenny Stachovich and Casey Hopkin, are starting up Q-T, a queer cocktail party on the third Tuesday night of each month. Hopkin and Stachovich, an out gay couple, opened the upscale martini lounge located in the heart of the Pearl at 226 NW 12th Ave about 3½ years ago and have imbued it with plenty of good taste, in more ways than one. The staff are among the friendliest serves in Portland; everything is candlelit and intimately arranged, with one table's seats melting into the next. It's the kind of vault you want to be locked in all night long.

Speaking of good taste, both the food and drinks are delicious, and there are a lot of them to choose from: Vault offers one of the most creative and extensive specialty cocktail menus in town, separated into nine different sections. (The "sweets" section alone is divided alphabetically into two parts.) Stachovich wrote the drinks menu, in which the name of each liquid confection is followed by a whimsical quote, mantra or bit of poetry.

"Some of them are selected from songs; some are quotes from books I love," he clarifies. "A lot of it is just the insanity going on in my head." The centerpiece of the bar's décor is a huge, gorgeous painting that replicates the "lilly dancer" from the cover of Lullabies, a 1982 EP by the phenomenal are band Cocteau Twins. "We designed the whole bar around that painting," says Hopkin. "The Cocteau Twins are my favorite band ever, but most people don't even make the connection."

Stachovich says Vault draws a fairly typical Pearl District crowd. "There are the girls who want to be Sex and the City-ish, in their mid 20s to mid-30s," he says. "We host a fair share of bachelorette parties. We sometimes get middle-aged men looking to pick up young women, too. And we do get fairly steady of gay boys who come in, too."

Not surprisingly, this is the clientele he'd like to see more of, which is the rational behind Q-T. "There's nothing like a table of hot gay guys to help raise the bar," he laughs. "I may be biased, but I do find that gay people are fun and easy to serve." Q-T will feature its own specialty drinks menu, and the bar plans to donate $2 from each drink ordered to charity, starting with Basic Rights Oregon.

Visit vault-martini.com for the full menu of both drinks and food.

Clear the Air
Smoke free spots in Portland

. If you like your martini with a bit of reckless abandon, Vault Martini Bar (226 NW 12th Ave, 224-4909, vault-martini.com), with its chic location in the Pearl, knows that going smokeless doesn't mean you're without your flaws. Here, they sell eight 'tinis that appeal to or inner Hyde; one for each deadly sin and one called "The Original Sin," with Apple Pucker, gin, champagne, fresh lemon and lime.