Bar Alla Bomba Small Venetian bites and cocktails with a strong one

Look out, Lou Diamond Phillips movies that don't serve you any food, because Bar Alla Bomba just opened as a cozy two story joint (intimate booths upstairs, window seating and Italian films down) by a Venice-obsessed booze-lover intent on introducing Portlanders to the wonders of cicchetti.

While Cicchetti sounds like the name of a hard-nosed but earnest Jersey cop who one day woke up on the wrong side of the law, it's actually a shareable Italian bar food, which at Bomba means $2-$6 plates of small bread slices generously topped with beef shoulder & black sauce, baby octopus & herb butter, and a mound of prosciutto & hard-boiled egg. Bomba's also PDX's only joint specializing in Tramezzini: flatbread-based "savory Swiss cake rolls" that're anything but flavor-neutral when stuffed with fresh mozz, goat cheese & prosciutto, though you can also grab thick paninis stuffed with boar sausage.

The "Bar" part of the name's equally ambitious, with a wide selection of wines & liqueurs, rotating local taps, and a cocktail list as long as The Divine Comedy that includes the absinthe-y Monkey Gland, the Filmograph w/ Cognac & Kola tonic, and other well-priced drinks you don't have to be Richie to enjoy.