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Tuesday, September 25, 2007
Drunk The Standard
Posted by on Tue, Sep 25 at 3:29 PM
Former Club 21 bartender Reed Lamb’s new East Burnside bar, the Standard, had its grand opening over the weekend.
And it’s great. I’ve been hearing about the place for a while (Amy wrote about some of the resistance he faced from the neighbors here), and looking forward to it, but I was still taken aback by what a nice job Reed has done (I guess on some level I expected an extension of the Club… though I believe he did poach some of his staff from both Club 21 and the Blue Diamond).
It’s a big, well-designed space with lots of striking details: a fractured, piecemeal mirror behind the bar; a glass-encased bartop glinting with a mosaic of bits of CDs that have been microwaved, broken, and tinted; a tattered American flag against one wall.
Pool, shuffleboard, Silver Strike Bowling, a decent jukebox, a huge patio with umbrella-covered picnic tables, smoking indoors and out. There’s a comfort-food heavy dinner menu (crockpot stew, scalloped ham and potatoes… like rontom’s, minus the pretensiousness. [No offense rontom’s, I’ll see you later tonight]).
Cell phone photos after the jump.
Check it out for yourself, 14 NE 22nd
Comments
I have mixed feelings about this place. Love the fact it is a block from my house, but the space is not comfy. Somehow shoving a dive bar inside an industrial space doesn't create a real decent feel. My main complaint was the halogen light in the kitchen that blared down onto the bar and my face. Ouch.
Dive bar is right. Pretty bland.
Dive bar is right. Pretty bland.
As far as "not trying his hardest", he's obviously not. Opening a biker/dive bar on a quiet residential street is not my idea of pleasing the neighborhood. We can only hope that once this place can't have smoking there won't be anything valuable about it and it'll wither away. I think if Mr. Lamb wants to stay he really should try a little harder.
Dark, garage like atmosphere, bad ventalation, canned music and snacks that tasted like something scraped off Burnside.
Standard fare. There's nothing original about this place.
Oh yeah baby! Just what the neighborhood needs--another cookie-cutter bar catering to the oh so "creative class" who've tired of Beulahland, Red Flag, Ron Toms, Bonfire, Club 21, basement pub, etc.
The Standard is a perfect name.
Almost forgot. This place is not a "dive" bar. A dive bar isn't created, it happens naturally, and the atmosphere is made by the people there, not the other way around.
Shuffleboard---check
Pinball---check
Shitty beer---check
Juke filled with crappy indierock and some token country, hip-hop and irony picks-----check
customers mainly 21-35 aged members of the tattooed, fixed-gear bike ridin', PBR swillin', thrift store plaid shirt wearin', indie-rock lovin', furiously smokin' set----check
It must be a dive bar!
I don't think so.
Went there the other night. It seemed fine. I don't get it though? I wouldn't call this a dive bar (try Chin Yen up the street for that). I mean its wasn't a McMenimins either...saw lots of folks from the neighborhood there though.
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My favorite part is the sign on the wall imploring people to be quiet as they come and go—it's the usual "we've got neighbors, please be polite" sign that you see at plenty of friendly bars, but this is the largest version of that sign I've ever seen. No neighbor can say Reed's not trying his hardest.