(PDF via Scribd)
Love it or hate it, it’s Tour de France season! That means pubs and cafes throughout Portland are showing the big race so those of us without cable can catch all the action with fellow racing fans.
Below is a list of viewing locations in no particular order. If you know of a great place to watch the Tour and it’s not listed here, please add it in the comments. Thanks… And let’s just hope there’s more drama in the racing than in the crashes and doping scandals.
Bike Gallery – Live at three locations
Bike Gallery is opening the doors of their downtown, Woodstock, and Hollywood locations at 6:30am Monday – Friday. Tour fans will be treated to free coffee (from Nossa Familia) and pastries (from Lovejoy Baking). Full schedule and location details here.
Migration Brewing (2828 NE Glisan Street)
This looks like an awesome place to be. Five local companies have come together on this one. Migration Brewing is hosting and Yakima, Chris King, Velofight, and Double Mountain Brewery are providing prizes. Velofight is a fantasy league. People that registered a Tour de France team by July 3rd (sorry I didn’t post this sooner!) root for their team and win daily prizes based on how they perform. Viewing parties are from 5:00 – 8:00pm on select stages only (July 3, 10, 11, 13, 16, 18, 19, 20, 22, 24, 25). Download event flyer (via Scribd).
St. Honore Boulangerie (2335 NW Thurman)
St. Honore has been showing the Tour live for years now and it’s a great spot to watch the action live with some of the best baked treats anywhere in the city. More info at their Tour de France page.
(Photo: Fred Lifton)
‘La Musette’ at Grochau Cellers (2621 NW 30th)
This special, 3-day event has returned for the third year in a row. During the Tour’s final weekend (7/23 – 7/25), Grochau Cellers will host a special, multi-course meal along with specially chosen wines. Each night the dishes, cheeses, and wines will be inspired by the towns along the route of the Tour. Top local chefs and John Grochau (the man behind ‘Commuter Cuvee‘) will help make this a memorable feast. Reservations and more info at the La Musette website.
Apex Bar (SE 11th and Division)
Apex is the new beer bar with a patio that bike lovers are raving about. Owner Jesse McCann says they’ll have the TVs tuned to Versus during their regular hours (11:30am – 2:30am) and “will probably open early for some of the more critical mountain stages.” For the killer Stage 9 on July 13th, the Hopworks Beer Bike will make an appearance for a new HUB beer release.
Paddy’s (SW 1st and Yamhill)
Paddy’s promises good times while their new 144-inch HD projector brings the Tour action as up-close as you can get without booking a ticket to France.
Oblique Coffee Roasters (SE 30th Pl and Stark)
John Chandler, owner of Oblique Coffee Roasters says he’ll be showing every stage live and will replay them throughout the day. Oblique gets bonus Tour spirit points because the shop’s 1891 Victorian storefront is painted Bianchi celeste.
The Globe Bar and Cafe (2045 SE Belmont)*
The Globe just opened a few days ago, but they’ve already got their priorities straight. They’re open at 6:00am at 8:00 am each morning of the Tour for your viewing delight. Who knows, you might get lucky and run into the famous cycling writer/photographer/journalist Heidi Swift, who’s been known to frequent this joint.
I know there are many more viewing locations than the ones listed above. If you’ve found a fun place to watch, chime in below. I know there are also a lot of Internet/TV/phone viewing options as well, so advice and recommendations about those would be helpful too. Vive le Tour!
Thanks for reading.
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Any places west of Portland to enjoy the race? Think Hillsboro way? Getting to downtown or even east Beaverton is not easy for us westerners…
I have been told that Oblique Coffee Roasters will be showing all the tours – even the 3:30AM ones. They were/are an incredible spot to watch the World Cup matches (it must take a lot of patience to host a bunch of football fans that early in the morning). I highly recommend supporting this place!
Thanks for the reminder Sarah. I had them on my list but mistakenly left them out of the article. I’ve added them. — Jonathan
Just out of curiosity, is there a women’s version of the Tour de France?
Women’s Pro cycling has a pretty full schedule in Europe and in the US. The women’s Giro d’Italia started on July 2nd and finishes on the 11th.
eat, an oyster bar has it on. It’s almost busy, but there’s plenty of room at the bar.
Thanks Armando. I love EAT
If you are going to the Bike Gallery downtown location, go to the side service door entrance. It looks like they are closed with the gates not open at the front doors… lots of delicious pastries there this morning!
Tried to go to Globe this morning around 6:45 and no one was there and the lights were off.
I think that in the future, if places are going to say open at a certain time and there needs to be more to that, then it needs to be listed. I showed up at Bike Gallery DT at 6:45, looked closed. If they would’ve told you that you needed to go in the service entrance, then people would know. I did look through the window and didn’t see anyone, so I moved on to try and find it on. I tried several places on the list, yet all were closed.
Might try Globe tomorrow, or I might just buy the Versus online option.
Migration will be playing the tour during our hours of operation with the only exception being during the final few games of the world cup.
Why are there no people of color in the Tour?
@Shawn
I’m sorry The Globe wasn’t open when you stopped by.
My apologies. I’ve been opening and closing the restaurant as we get it up and running. I overslept that morning. We were open by 7:15 and had some people watch that morning. It won’t happen again.
We are closed today due to a family emergency.
Thanks to everyone for your support so far.
The Bike Gallery in Hollywood is also showing the Tour on the weekends, not just Monday-Friday. Seriously yummy pastries, too!
Radio Room’s new daytime cafe, called Bingo Masters Cafe, will be showing all Tour de France stages (except of World Cup being shown this weekend). You can get Ristretto coffee, breakfast, lunch and even adult beverages. Plenty of bike parking and remember to check out the new mural on top of the entrance we call “Dreamy Bike Love”. 1101 NE Alberta Open 7am-3pm, then transforms into Radio Room 3pm-midnight.
I’m studying abroad in Paris and loving the bike culture! I looove the Vélibs but I can’t believe how poorly they are treated…Especially in the land of the Tour de France :/ Thought this was an interesting read-
http://offtherockpress.wordpress.com/2010/07/01/hows-about-walking/
The radio room swore to me last night they would be open at 7 am this morning to watch the tour de france. Once again I showed up to locked doors and lights off; luckily Black Cat cafe let us turn it on.
I guess I just have bad luck with these businesses.
@Shawn, I’m not sure why someone told you Radio Room would open at 7am this morning. Our hours have been set for some time. We are open M-F 7am-3pm (We call it Bingo Masters Cafe) and then from 3pm-2am it’s Radio Room. Every weekend we are open from 9am-2am (brunch). We have shown the Tour every morning at 7am except on weekends when we open at 9am. So sorry for the confusion. If you try us again you can get a free 16oz coffee of your choice (latte etc.) if you bike there (and if not, tell them Mary said you get a free coffee because of the confusion). Please don’t give up on us. We do make mistakes, but we sure try to learn from them.
M a r y
Marcus,
…yes to see the real woman’s Tour de France…just buy a nice crunchy warm pan de beurre avec le cafe and sit yourself down at a Paris cafe any fine morning and watch the majority of the bike traffic ride in skirts delivering kids to school or picking up daily groceries…my memories of Paris at the 2003 Velocity conference. Time to order another coffee and sit back…;-)
Any plans to update this list for 2011?