Family Friendly Bar Arcade in Portland: A Parent's Guide to The Back Patio

Finding a place in Portland where the adults can get a real pour of craft beer and the kids have something to do besides sit and wait for the check is harder than it should be. The Back Patio in Cully was built around that exact problem. Minors are welcome in the dining room and on the garden patio until close, every single day, which means you’re not racing a 7 PM cutoff or hoping the hostess looks the other way.

This isn’t a bar that tolerates kids. It’s a bar arcade and food cart pod where families are part of the regular mix, right alongside the trivia crowd and the after-work pinball regulars.

Why It Works for Families

The layout does a lot of the heavy lifting. The garden patio has room to spread out, fire tables and heaters for the colder months, and string lights that make even a Tuesday night feel a little like an occasion. Kids can wander between the cornhole boards and outdoor foosball table while parents keep half an eye on them from a patio seat with a glass of wine or a pour from the taphouse.

Because the space is first come, first served with no reservations, there’s no pressure to plan around a strict time slot. You show up when nap time ends or practice lets out, and you find a spot. The whole setup lives on the patio page, which gives a sense of the layout before you even walk in.

Something for Every Age at the Arcade

Inside, the draw for a lot of kids is the arcade itself. There are nine pinball machines, including Iron Man, Pokemon, The Simpsons Pinball Party, and Earthshaker!, running at fifty cents to a dollar a play. The vintage cabinets are an even easier sell for small budgets: Donkey Kong, Super Pac-Man, Asteroids, and Defender are all a quarter a game, which means a few dollars in quarters can buy a genuinely long afternoon.

Older kids and teenagers tend to gravitate toward Golden Tee or a pinball rematch, while younger ones usually end up at the board game library or outside at cornhole. The full rundown of machines and pricing is on the play page, which is worth a look before you go so you know how much change to bring. A regular family pattern we see on slow weekday afternoons is a parent working through a single pinball game on Fish Tales while a kid racks up quarters on Super Pac-Man two feet away, both of them perfectly content to stay another hour.

Food That Covers Every Picky Eater

A bar arcade is only as family friendly as its food options, and this is where the rotating food cart pod earns its keep. Saucy Beast handles burgers, Wanda’s Thai covers noodles and rice dishes that tend to win over even cautious eaters, and Joshua’s taco truck rounds things out for anyone who wants something quick and handheld. The in-house kitchen adds Meat & Cheese boards, Salmon Lox, and Pretzel Sticks for grazing between arcade rounds.

Because the carts rotate, it’s smart to check the food page before you head over if your group has a strong preference for the night. Parents get actual options too, not just kid-menu leftovers: the taphouse pours rotating Pacific Northwest beer like Rosenstadt Dunkel, Boneyard RPM IPA, and Pfriem German Pilsner, plus wine, sake, cider, NA beer, and kombucha, all listed on the drinks page. It’s one of the few spots in Cully where a parent can get a serious pint and a kid can get a decent burger without anyone compromising.

The Dog Friendly, Kid Friendly Combination

The garden patio is also dog friendly for leashed, well-behaved dogs, which means a lot of families end up there with the family dog in tow along with the kids. It’s a combination that works better than you’d expect. Dogs stay leashed near the table, kids run laps around the cornhole boards, and nobody’s fighting over a tiny patch of sidewalk seating.

Events Worth Building a Visit Around

Beyond the daily arcade and food cart routine, there’s a weekly schedule that gives families a reason to make it a standing plan. Vinyl Night runs Monday evenings from 6 to 8 PM, Rip City Trivia happens every other Tuesday, and there’s live music on Fridays and Saturdays along with monthly bingo. None of it requires a cover charge. The full calendar lives on the events page, and it’s a good one to bookmark if you’re the type of family that likes a reason to leave the house on a Monday.

If your family or group is outgrowing a regular visit and you’re thinking about a birthday party, the garden patio can be booked for private events running from 15 to 80 guests, including birthday parties and holiday gatherings, through the private events page. For families organizing something bigger, like a multi-family birthday bash or a class celebration, it’s worth asking about the planning side too. If you need help with invitations or an event page for a larger gathering, our friends at Agentic PNW work with local spots like ours and can help pull that part together.

Getting There

The Back Patio sits in Cully, just off NE Sandy Blvd at the Cully and Prescott five-way intersection, right across from the Albertsons shopping center. TriMet line 71 stops steps away, so it’s an easy option if you’d rather not deal with parking during a busy weekend. Hours run noon to 9 PM Monday through Thursday and Sunday, and noon to 10 PM Friday and Saturday, open all seven days. For anything specific to your visit, the visit page has directions and parking notes, and the families page is built specifically around what to expect when you’re bringing kids.

Planning Your First Visit

If this is your first trip, bring quarters even though some of the machines take other coin denominations, check what’s rotating through the food cart pod that day, and don’t feel like you need to rush. The whole point of the setup is that there’s no clock running on you. Grab a patio table, let the kids loose on the arcade side, and order a round from the taphouse once everyone’s settled in.