Saraveza’s Bad Habit Room pivots to Tavern-style Pizza concept as Far Cry HiFi listening bar takes over
Saraveza’s Bad Habit Room is pivoting to operate exclusively as a Tavern-style Pizza concept while their former N. Portland space is becoming a Hifi listening bar playing jazz and experimental music called “Far Cry”
N. Portland beer bar and pasty tavern Saraveza opened a secondary concept called the Bad Habit Room in the back of their shared building with red e café roasters below upstairs apartments. For years the Bad Habit Room was a popular weekend brunch spot in the Humboldt neighborhood while hosting private parties and operating as an expanded annex for Saraveza events. But as with many things it never really came back after the pandemic kept the space closed for years.
The Bad Habit Room reopened as a Speakeasy-style cocktail bar and small plates restaurant with serious loungey date-night vibes in 2022. When that concept didn’t fully take off they shifted to more casual service with Tavern-style pizza and a late night arcade. On Thursday, March 4th, Saraveza announced Bad Habit would close as of April 1st, but in a surprise twist the space will become a vinyl Kissa lounge and the Bad Habit brand will live-on as a Tavern-style pizza concept that is currently running the kitchen at Living Haus Beer and for Saraveza.
Chef Jacob Flanagan developed the Bad Habit Room’s Tavern-style Pizza in 2022 when the thin, crunchy, bite size “party cut” style of pizza popularized in dive bars of the Midwest and East Coast was just beginning to gain traction locally. The pizza has proven popular enough that they now serve it regularly at Saraveza, and the concept will now continue outside the confines and keep the Bad Habit Room brand name alive.
Far Cry hifi listening bar is created by Colin Anderson, a name that may be familiar to followers of Portland’s indie rock scene as a founding member and drummer from The Shaky Hands, a now defunct band that had great success with Seattle indie label Kill Rock Stars. “The Shaky Hands happen to be Portland's best rock band,” wrote Willamette Week in 2008. “Original drummer Colin Anderson left the band earlier this summer, forcing the Hands to retool their songs and their sound—no easy feat considering Anderson's versatility and importance to the new record, where he seems almost psychically linked to singer/guitarist Nicholas Delffs and the rest of the band” said Michael Mannheimer in review of their album Lunglight.
Image from the former Bad Habit Room
Anderson is taking inspiration in the famous Jazz Kissa bars popularized in Japan to create a vibey ambient atmosphere at Far Cry that emphasizes intentional, meditative listening with a layout built around speaker placement, and minimizing noise. The musical tastes will emphasize Jazz, but swerve into experimental ambient, post punk, electronic music and other hybrid genres. The inspiration for the name “Far Cry” is referencing a 1962 album of the same name by Eric Dolphy, not the popular video game.
“I’m shooting for an environment that isn’t for everyone, but will hopefully be fully loved and embraced by the kindred spirits that are passionate about exploring and engaging with unconventional music. The seekers. I have always loved the strange, unique businesses I’ve visited in larger cities, and I’m aiming for this to be along those lines,” says Anderson.
Anderson grew up in Mendocino County, in a really small town called Philo. His father was a carpenter and cabinetmaker, and that is where Anderson picked up the trade that he has been working in for the past 18 years as a carpenter and cabinetmaker. He will be personally designing and building all of the seating and tables, with the layout built around speaker placement, and minimizing noise. With some experience working in the industry as a prep cook at points, Far Cry will be his first transition into the bar business.
“The goal for the atmosphere is inviting and comfortable, while being emotionally and intellectually engaging. I want people to feel at home. I’ve been collecting art and objects to fill the space over the last few years, and am going to try to make the space feel lived in from the get go. The focus is music, so the goal is to keep talking at a lower level, so as not to compete with the tunes. A hard concept for many Americans, but seems to work in Japan!” says Anderson.
Anderson has been building an impressive” sound system over the last 5 years that will come into play at Far Cry. Most of the gear in the bar will be vintage Hifi, from the era when listening to recorded music was central to most homes. Some of the special pieces are:
Turntables-Garrard 301, Garrard 401, thorens td-124(all classics, from the 50s and 60s)
Preamps- Dynavector dv-3000 gold, pass labs xp-30
Amps-Dynavector dv-8250
Speakers-electrovoice Georgian 400, Altec model 19
Tonearms- Dynavector dv-505, SME 3012, Sorane sa 1.2
“I will be building out sound treatment for the space, to increase clarity, and reduce unwanted reflections. I’m very happy with the sound of my system, and the sound profile is personal to me, so I feel that hiring someone to tell me how it should sound would be counterproductive,” says Anderson.
Bad Habit Room was never a craft beer bar, but always had some good beers and a very respectable wine list, cocktail menu, and small plates. Far Cry will do something similar with the bar program with a curated wine list, and great cocktails at multiple different price points to make for both affordable and higher end options.
Will Stenberg, a working Hollywood writer, musician, and longtime childhood friend of Anderson, will head up the curated bar program at Far Cry and writes, “Far Cry will be a funky, eclectic, bohemian space, far removed from the modern world of tech lords, AI, and mass consumption, where people can come together, put down their phones, enjoy cocktails and listen to records on world-class speakers: records that celebrate the messy, imperfect, beautiful best of humanity.”
Far Cry HiFi listening bar founder Colin Anderson
Far Cry HiFi Bar plans to open in July 2026 at 5433 N Michigan Ave, follow along at @farcryportland.