Bar of the Week: Rontoms

Weekend!Music: Ron Toms must have had a hip granny

The Portland Tribune, Nov 24, 2006, Updated Oct 30, 2009 (1 Reader comment)

Denise FARWELL / PortLAND TRIBUNE

Much of Rontom is inspired by long-ago cocktail parties thrown by the co-founder’s grandparents, but bartender Kelly Forbes and the beers on tap remind drinkers they’re in Portland in 2006.

You don’t open a bar down the street from the Doug Fir Lounge looking to duplicate its enormous stylistic and commercial success. But you can grab a bit of its overflow.

“I paid through the nose for this location,” says Ron Toms, co-founder of the roomy and stylish new Rontoms lounge on East Burnside Street.

Not that Rontoms, which opened just over a month ago, lacks a strong sense of itself. The 37-year-old Toms, a former designer with Nike, says his highest priority was creating a “welcome-to-my-home kind of feel.”

Actually, it’s not his home. He patterned the place after the “lowbrow Midwest chic” of his grandparents’ party-friendly basement.

“There’s all these kind of iconic figures I wanted to bring in,” he says. “A lot of it comes from my grandparents’ basement. They had these fabulous cocktail parties.”

To be sure, the midcentury aesthetic is everywhere. Tables and chairs in period style are arranged around a sort of sunken living room that is set apart by iron gates. Cool lampshades hang above the bar, where swiveling stools are covered in burnt-orange Naugahyde.

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