Denver Avenue may be Kenton’s “main street,” but the idyllic Kenton Park is the true heart of the neighborhood. As the name suggests, Parkside features patio dining overlooking the leafy adjoining park, and in cold-weather months, the bar offers the casual coziness of a friend’s living room. Local microbrews are the go-to here for most regulars, but the full bar also offers reasonably priced rotating house cocktails — and mocktails. The hunger-crushing corned beef sandwich, with a whopping half-pound of the house cured meat, is a standout.

Beer and cider are the centerpieces at Mayfly, which juggles a frequently rotating tap list with fridges full of several dozen more cans and bottles. Most brews on tap hail from the West Coast, with occasional further flung guest stars — Mayfly’s website helpfully lists upcoming offerings. Food is limited to drinking snacks like olives and pretzels, but patrons are encouraged to bring in food from other Kenton restaurants. Mayfly is all ages until 6 p.m., over 21 only later in the evening.

A recent transplant from Northeast Killingsworth, Emperor Georgiou has undertaken more than a mere location swap — the formerly English-style Lovejoy’s traded in for a whole new identity as the Star Trek-themed Emperor Georgiou’s Tea Room. The Victorian-era lace has been replaced by a retro-futuristic 1960s-inspired aesthetic, placing Trek’s core values of globalism and anti-racism at the heart of the rebrand. Lovejoy’s regulars can be assured the tea is still top notch. Book a simple Georgiou Tea Service for a quiet afternoon with a friendly captain, or reunite with all your shipmates over a decadent Uhura Tea Service, including soup, sandwiches, pastries, and bottomless tea.

In many neighborhoods, a merely competent pizza and pasta restaurant can thrive simply by providing a “good enough” carb-and-cheese fix to hungry locals. Fino vaults well above that bar, gracing Kenton with pies and house-made pastas prepared with exceptional care. The sauces make both pasta and pizzas sing, and even the simple spaghetti and marinara is memorable. The full — albeit limited — bar offers beer, wine, cocktails, and mocktails. In warmer months, dine outside along the sidewalk or on the small back patio.

If Posies is the warm, nurturing kitchen of Kenton, Kenton Club is the raucous party basement. The food is merely functional, but the drink pours are generous and live music is the main attraction in this funky, wood-paneled space. Bands play most Fridays and Saturdays with a $10 cover — pool, shuffleboard, and video poker are on hand for music-less occasions. The sprawling patio is Kenton’s most inviting.

The “and” naming trend (the Ampersand Movement?) of the 2000s and 2010s seemed intended to evoke nostalgia for an era of when things were built to last — bars, restaurants, and ice cream parlors that conjured the feeling of a cast-iron skillet or fixie. Epitomizing solid, Swift and Union is the neighborhood pub carefully designed to leave no one in the party disappointed. The kitchen prepares reliable gastropub favorites like fish and chips, panko-dusted mac and cheese, and a hearty quinoa bowl. A handsome selection of beers and ciders on tap are matched by a better-than-average wine by the glass offering. Dine in the spacious dining room or along the sidewalk on picnic benches.

Though Tiny Bubble Room does pour a couple sparkling wines by the glass, the namesake bubbles here are decidedly of the malted beverage variety. Simply on the strength of its over two dozen beers and ales on tap, Tiny Bubble Room is one of North Portland’s top taprooms. The handsome if sparely decorated bar also boasts impressive bourbon and tequila lists, alongside plenty of other spirits and respectable wine offerings. Add a spacious, covered patio with firepits, a Louisiana-by-way-of-Oregon food menu, and an enticing happy hour, and Tiny Bubble Room is far more than just an oasis for beer nerds.

Perhaps no regional Mexican cuisine gets as much love in Portland these days (apart from perhaps Tijuana’s quesabirria) as Oaxaca. The latest NoPo outpost for the land of the moles is El Yike Oaxaqueno, named for Oaxaca’s yique (sometimes spelled yikin or yike), a goat barbacoa stew that utilizes corn kernels ground into small pieces — chunkier than masa but smaller than full kernels or hominy. Difficult to find outside of Oaxaca and the California coast, yique is the crown jewel here at El Yike, but the rest of the menu is no slouch, including mole amarillo, mole Oaxaqueno, and a solid selection of tamales, empanadas, and of course the ever popular tacos.