E. Kent Gordon
Age: 83
Hometown: Houston, Texas
Profession: Retired computer programmer
Bar of Choice: Novel
Drink of Choice: Old Granddad 114
In what kind of place would someone whose card reads “Man About Town” spend his time? What environment would best reward his intellectual prowess, insatiable curiosity and sophisticated taste? It’d have to be some combination of a cocktail bar, a coffeehouse, a bookstore, an art gallery and a performance venue. In Portland, it’d have to be Novel.
Set amid the grimy 600 Block downtown, Novel provides a welcome refuge for urbane urbanites like Kent Gordon, whom you’ll often find at the bar thoughtfully sipping a glass of Old Granddad 114 (kept in stock for him) and perusing the room for a suitable conversation companion.
Novel bartender River is a fan. “He’s the best,” River said. “He comes in and gets the same thing every time. He’s interesting, and he’s not annoying.”
How did you find your way into Novel?
I didn’t come immediately. They had been open for around six months before I found my way in here. I only live down the block. I’m a near neighbor, and I discovered I kind of like the place. My opinion is that the crowd here is generally young and a bit more intellectual than most bar crowds, so I enjoy hanging out here. Since it’s very convenient, I do come a lot.
Are you from Portland?
No, I was born in Houston, and I lived in Houston until I was eight years old, and then I moved to the very, very far north of Arkansas, and I lived there all the way through college, because I went to the University of Arkansas, and then I spent twenty years in Pasadena, California. Forty years ago, I moved here. They’re all very different places in every dimension you can imagine.
How did you become Kent Gordon, “Man About Town”?
Sixteen years ago, my wife died, and like all widowers, I had to figure out a new life, and I tried a bunch of things. Bars and restaurants seemed to be the best solution to my problem. I make friends with people at bars and restaurants fairly easily. I was finding myself writing down my information on scraps of paper for people, and I said, “My God, I just need something to hand out.” Several people had said to me the phrase “Man About Town” before, so I looked up the definition and said, “Hmm, I can live with that. That’s what I’m going to put on my card.” The card was a very successful move.
What are some other things you tried?
Well, my wife and I were fairly well connected with the art scene here, so I thought art openings and events where I had a social circle. But those things happen a few times a month, at best, and I wanted something to do every night. I also tried the elder college at USM, taking classes for five years, and I made some friends there.
What subjects did you study?
Random ones, but I remember best a course on dying, which is a relevant thing for older people. The description of the class was: “This course is about dying your death.” [Laughs.] I learned a lot, especially on the legal aspects of preparing for death.
Do you have a routine when you go out?
My general evening routine is to sit at the bar of a nice restaurant and have dinner. The five restaurants that I regularly go to are Fore Street, Street and Co., Scales, Solo Italiano, and Evo. I’ve learned to appreciate food put out by the best restaurants. For alcohol, though, I don’t spend any more money than I have to. It’s not worth the price. When I try new places, I’m usually disappointed. I’m pretty particular about what I eat. Sometimes I hang out at the bar at the Cumberland Club. Often I’ll end up here at Novel. I also pay attention to the local music scene. I haven’t missed a Monday Funk Night [at Portland House of Music] in two and a half years.
As a professional regular, who are some interesting people you’ve met along the way?
There is an infinite list there. [Laughs.] I can tell you that the bar at Fore Street is the best for meeting fairly interesting people, and the barrier to getting into a conversation with them there seems to be much lower than most other places. I know the front of the house staff in most of these good restaurants, too.
How do you approach making friends with strangers at a bar?
The first thing is to get a conversation started. If the person is talking at all, even to the bartender, I can learn something about that, and you just find an excuse to say something to the person, and they’ll either respond or they’ll ignore you. I don’t bug people that want to be ignored. But if I get any kind of response, it doesn’t take long finding your way to an interesting conversation. At least, it doesn’t take me very long. I can talk intelligently on a huge variety of topics, so I can almost always find something that I can talk to a person about and that they want to talk about. I like conversations. I don’t like one-sided things and I get really annoyed at somebody that tries to talk all the time.
It sounds like you have a lot of friends. Did you try to date after your wife passed?
You know, I thought I did a pretty good job of marriage. We were married for thirty years and it didn’t take me long at all to figure out that I wasn’t going to find another person exactly like my wife, because I had an interesting wife. I wasn’t going to settle for somebody that wasn’t interesting or equally interesting in their own way, and it looked to me like the odds of finding that were just vanishingly small. So I did it the other way.
I go out with a wide range of women, including one of the bartenders here. I take them out to dinner, especially young women, [and they] find that going and having dinner at some fine restaurant that they otherwise wouldn’t even know about is kind of interesting. And I don’t hang out with losers.
Know an interesting bar regular? Send them our way at theregularsmaine@gmail.com.
