Salty's on the Columbia River has been a landmark Portland restaurant and a locals' favorite waterfront seafood restaurant and café-bar from the time of its opening in October of 1987. It opened as the second Salty's seafood-focused restaurant in Portland. The first Salty's restaurant, Salty Pickerel's and Angus McHereford's, was located on the Willamette River near the east end of the Sellwood Bridge. It opened in February of 1978 and closed in November of 1991.

The building housing the landmark Salty's restaurant on the Columbia River originally opened as Bart's Wharf in 1961 (see photo). It, too, was known as a Portland landmark restaurant. Salty's owners purchased the building and land from the family of its founder, Bart Woodyard. Bart's Wharf had been operating for nearly three decades by Bart's son, Perry, when it closed in 1986. Salty's did extensive remodeling before reopening in 1987. A bar was added upstairs and wraparound outdoor decks with fabulous riverfront views were added upstairs and downstairs. The area is a boaters' paradise with several marinas adjacent to Salty's providing easy access to the Mighty Columbia River.