Commercial Street Pub

Portland, Maine

Field Note

Unsurprisingly and in keeping with the rest of the state, gravity in Portland, Maine, seems to perpetually pull toward the ocean. The city’s Old Port neighborhood is the physical manifestation of this phenomenon, a convenient home for dive bar Commercial Street Pub as either pre- or post-meal destination within an itinerary that includes one of the area’s upscale seafood restaurants. But despite its tourist-friendly location, Commercial Street Pub has done well to carve out a locals-heavy, neighborhood vibe.

Commercial Street Pub’s dive bar roots stretch back to 1990, a time when Portland’s Old Port neighborhood was a bit less refined than its current state. The area hosted a string of biker-friendly bars along Commercial Street including The Range Light, Angie’s and Commercial Street Pub. This row of bars was referred to by locals as the the Three Doors of Death, a nod to each bar’s reputation at the time for a rougher-than-usual crowd. Once densely packed with bars, Old Port is today more of a mixed, family- and tourist-friendly hub, rendering the “Three Doors of Death” moniker sadly obsolete.

Commercial Street Pub’s best feature may be the Portland dive bar’s logo that can be found etched into the sign above the door. The illustrated logo depicts a potentially inebriated sea captain ejected through a broken window, sprawling over the front deck of a boat that has been crashed into a set of rocks. It is difficult to picture a more apt depiction of a Maine-sourced hangover, adding to Commercial Street Pub’s divey allure.

Commercial Street Pub’s location in one of the most tourist-dominated pieces of a city absolutely inundated with summer season tourists could have made it a hard sell for locals who by and large avoid the swam of out-of-towners crawling through Old Port. But at least on this reviewer’s visit, the vibe inside felt more in line with a local neighborhood pub than it did a refuge for lost New Englanders. The looming presence of Jello shots no doubt helps, but the ability to preserve a local, regular-heavy vibe amid sheer summer pandemonium is a testament to the Portland dive bar’s appeal.

Behind the brick exterior and weathered, Maine-appropriate shingles, Commercial Street Pub fits the bill of corner, sports-friendly dive bar well. Wood paneling, string lights and black & white framed photos hit a few classic dive bar notes, here mixed with hanging metal fish sculptures and ample screens that make it easy to picture watching a game inside. A small bit of red neon can be found behind the bar in the shape of the Nebraska Cornhuskers logo, a nod to the bar’s status as a Nebraska backers bar.

The rest of the Commercial Street Pub space is straightforward as corner dive bars go, down to the array of bar games in one corner of the structure. An L-shaped bar runs along one of the bar’s walls, the rest of the footprint filled in with assorted tables. The best seat in the house may be the rail that runs along one of the bar’s exterior windows, offering a view of Old Port and its typically heavy pedestrian crowds scrambling amid the neighborhood’s many food & drink options.