Kooks Sports Bar Will Open in North Portland

A new sports bar called Kooks will open in the space that was most recently home to the Portland Pickles Public House on North Mississippi Avenue. Another venture from Stephen Chao and his wife Vy, as well as Chris Mateja, they look to open their doors in early February for your convivial sports watching needs. I do love me a good sports bar (mostly to watch baseball, but it’s great to catch tennis, too), so I’m definitely curious about this place.

The existence of Kooks crossed my path over the past couple of weeks, and I was looking forward to diving deeper into my research on it. So I was happy to get an email from Stephen/Steve Chao essentially giving me “proof of life” of the business. He directed me to Chris, and he was kind enough to answer some questions I had.

A Little About Chris

I know more about the Chaos from previous research (they have had their fingers in many awesome pies in the metro area), so I asked Chris about his his time in food/beverage/hospitality. “I’ve been working in the industry for 30 years now,” he explained. “I’ve worked at bars and restaurants of all kinds.”

He continued, “Here in Portland, I’ve done more of the craft cocktail thing; I was at Kask for a few years before the pandemic hit and they closed. Then I opened a little cocktail bar in 2021 called nightingale.” Nightingale closed and its former space is currently home to Too Soon and the Kask space is now home to Dolly Olive.

Why … Kooks?

If you’ve been reading this site for a while, you know I love a good name origin story. “Kooks came up while our chef and myself were putting together the skeleton of the business plan for the space,” he explained. “We were listening to music and the song ‘Kooks’ by David Bowie came on and we just thought ‘kooks, that sounds fun!'”

He continued, “Being a sports bar, sports fans can get kinda kooky; and this being Portland, kooky is as kooky does. We just found it fun and it stuck.”

The Kooks Space and Location

I would think that going from sports bar to another sports bar would mean a less cumbersome transition; and it sounds like it was, for the most part. Chris tells me they “de-pickled” about 98% of it (keeping a few homages to the Public House) but the sports bar core is still there. “The Pickles Public House was a sports bar, as is Kooks, but a different vibe for sure,” he remarked.

As he and his staff have worked on the decor, he describes it as “a familiar sports bar feel (lots of pictures and memorabilia, etc), but with slightly more artistic and vintage leanings.” Plus there will be a lot of “classic” stuff from his childhood in the late 80s to 90s and more design-forward sports artwork.

And as far as why this location, “The location was available and we got a good deal to take it over,” said Chris. “It just sort of fell into our lap, honestly.”

Food and Drink

Their goal is to price their food and drink “to be as neighborly as possible,” he said. They will also do happy hour and industry/neighborhood discounts.

Food

Look for fairly straightforward classic pub grub—but all done from scratch and, as Chris describes it, by a team who are “more chefs than line cooks.” “The hummus is better than any you’ve had, and the Kooks dog (with potato skins, whole grain mustard and sweet pepper relish) is killer!” he said.

Other options include classics like smash burgers, wings, and mozzarella sticks. And then there’s the falafel wrap, fried cauliflower, and poutine. “We want to offer our guests a very well rounded selection,” said Chris.

Drink

He describes their bar program as “classic, but a step or two above basic.”

He explains: “For instance, we’ll have all the usual suspects when you think about tall boys and local craft beer. That will be accompanied by a small cocktail menu with a few higher end twists on classics.” Some of the dinks include:

The “Clever Sports Pun”: a roasted poblano and pineapple margarita.
The Kooks daiquiri: Mezcal and funky rum split.
A curated beer and shot combo menu: “Jabroni Negroni” and “High Life & Campari.”

TVs and Games

The bar will sport 11 TVs and he is bringing on the most extensive TV package so they show just about any game/match in any sport. He adds, “So that we’re not strictly relying on the sports fans, we will also have two pinball machines, two pool tables and an arcade game or two.”

The Days and Hours at Kooks

They are having their soft open this Saturday, February 1 with a grand opening on Thursday, February 6. The first month or so they will be open Wednesday through Sunday. Here are the hours:

3pm to 11pm, Wednesday and Thursday
noon to midnight, Friday and Saturday
noon to 11pm Sunday
Minors are allowed until 8pm.

Starting Monday, April 7, they will be open 7 days a week, open at noon everyday, closing at 11pm Sunday to Thursday and on midnight Friday and Saturday.

“We think that Kooks will stand alone, specifically as far as sports bars are concerned,” remarked Chris. “Our motto, if you will, is ‘A place to be a fan.'”

Many thanks to Chris and Steve for sharing this information. Best of luck to the team as they prepare for their soft opening!

Kooks [opening February 1, 2025]
3932 N Mississippi Avenue, Portland
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