Portland Hunt & Alpine Club

Portland Hunt & Alpine Club opened on Market Street in the Old Port and became, fairly quickly, the bar that people cite when they argue Portland punches above its size for drinking. The aesthetic is Scandinavian — pale wood, clean lines, a snack menu heavy on smoked fish and rye — and the cocktail programme has been nationally recognised for years.

What matters here is that the non-alcoholic drinks were not left out of that seriousness. The Paper King combines Thai tea syrup with pineapple and lemon, then lengthens it with Stappi, the Italian red bitter soda. Thai tea brings tannin and a slightly astringent, spiced sweetness; pineapple and lemon handle the fruit and acid; and Stappi does the job that has no substitute — actual bitterness.

That choice is the whole signal. Bitterness is what makes a drink taste designed for an adult palate, and it is the single hardest quality to achieve without alcohol, since most bitter elements in a bar arrive dissolved in spirit. A bar that stocks a bitter soda specifically so its zero-proof drinks can have a spine has thought about the problem properly rather than reaching for another juice. It is notable that Arcadia, across town, arrived at the same solution independently — Stappi has quietly become the marker of a Portland bar that takes this seriously.

Hours are generous by Portland standards: from 3pm Tuesday through Friday, from 2pm at weekends, running to midnight on Friday and Saturday, closed Mondays. It sits within a couple of minutes' walk of Via Vecchia and Andy's Old Port Pub, which makes the Old Port the most practical neighbourhood in the city for an evening where not everyone is drinking.