By Tom D'Antoni

She's the goddess at the bar at the Bar of the Gods. The Charles Foster Kane of clubs. The Ken Kesey of drunken bus riders. And she knows every inch of every bar, tavern, club and joint in town.

Jen Lane blew into town in the late 1990s with a degree from New York University in one hand and the ability to juggle a bottle of liquor behind the bar in the other. In 1999, after working as a bartender, she founded BarFly Magazine as a pocket-sized guide to Portland's watering holes. These days it is doing very well as a web-only publication.

Best of all, she sponsors the (literally) staggering series of BarFly bus tours. You sign up, pay your money, get on the bus and Jen takes all of you to a series of bars, the identities of which you do not know in advance. It’s the most grown-up of field trips.

But just how does Jen blow off some steam when she’s not on duty?

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November 19, 2007 -- What about this bottle juggling talent? That's called "Flair Bartending," like in the movie Cocktail. You don't see it as often in Portland as you do, say, in Vegas or New Orleans. The most I could ever do was flip a bottle over my head and catch it. I could do six bottles at once. I could blow fire out of my mouth.

So where do you like to go when you go out? For fun? I'm getting too old and boring these days so I like to go to my old favorite haunts. I love the Matador. I love Dante's. I go to Sewickly's all the time, it's like my office. I love Renner's in Multnomah Village. The Tube is one of my favorites. I'm a hard core smoker, and while we still have some time left to smoke, I'm spending my time in smoking bars pretty much exclusively. I like to go to Kelly's Olympian.
Update: Of course all bars are smokefree now in Portland.

What makes a good bar? I like good service and I like a funny bartender. If the bartender is entertaining, I'll stick around even if the service isn't that great. I like a place that's pretty lowbrow….dives more than high-end. I like places where you can have a conversation with somebody...a hangout.

What turns you off? I'm turned off by crowds that are made up of the kids I hated in high school. They all went to the mall that day…Abercrombie and Fitch. The girls are wearing band aids instead of skirts. I don't have any patience for it. Other than that I'm pretty open. If the place has heart, I respond to it even if it's not playing my kind of music. If people are genuinely into having a good time, I'm having a good time, too.

What are the latest trends? For awhile it was super high-end places, which were making perfect cocktails and infusing everything and anything. Now it's going more toward neighborhood places. There have been a lot of smaller places opening. More laid back, clubby, a more divey aesthetic.

And the trendiest new area? The most up and coming neighborhood right now is SE Foster between 52nd and 82nd. There are tons of bars that have opened in the past year around there and there are more coming. Younger bar owners moved out there. There's a bunch of older taverns still there ripe for the plucking.

How did the Halloween BarFly Bus trips go? I have to get my system worked out for seven busses. The most I had ever done before was five, but seven totally blew it…450 people crowding around me starting to freak out like they were going to miss the bus…getting on a bus they weren't assigned to. Everything worked out, but it was a mess. Every bus had a different route. Mine went Southwest. We had a great time at Renner's and the Hi-Hat. The last stop was the best for me because that meant it was over. I'm going to do it all over again for New Year's Eve. They always sell out.

Have you ever won the spin at Holman's [the infamous wheel that awards discounts and may even wipe out your tab]? Twice.

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Find out more about all the bars and sign-up for future bust tours www.barflymag.com.