Had a couple beers at East Burn last night, the new restaurant and bar in the old Nocturnal Space. I headed straight to the bar downstairs, so I don’t have many impressions of the upstairs; just noted that it’s a semi-fancy dining room, with a formal-looking bar at the back end.

Downstairs, all rec room style, is a small non-smoking lounge area with a bar, two skeeball lanes, a toy racecar track, a bunch of Trivial Pursuit games (and an Etchasketch upon which I inscribed a pretty impressive bunny). Two flat-screens were hooked up last night, just in time to catch the tail end of the Blazer game (!), and there’s talk of Guitar Hero tournaments to come. Outside, there’s a covered patio with heaters and swing-seats for smokers.

There are 6 or so taps downstairs and more upstairs, for a total of 18 beers on draft, and an extensive list of bottles too—I’ll list the beers on tap (and the food menu) after the jump. $4.50 a pint during regular hours, $2.75 during happy hour, which runs until 7 pm. (Not sure when it starts, anybody got contact info? I found a number online but it seems to be incorrect).

Assuming this place lasts long enough for the newness wear off, it could be a good addition to the neighborhood. I chatted a bit with the owners and bartender, all of whom are super nice; sounds like the staff was heavily involved in designing and building the place, everyone seems very enthusiastic and optimistic.

There are some kinks to work out, of course… Downstairs just needs to be lived in a little bit, and they could do some work on the insulation as well (skeeball is loud). I also expect that they’ll do some tinkering with the menu—I haven’t tried the food, but at a glance, prices seem a bit steep (dinner, OK, but there’s only one menu, and for lunch it’s spendy), and they need to get a few lower priced items at least on a bar menu.

1800 E Burnside, 11 am-2:30 am, 7 days a week, lunch and dinner, plus brunch scheduled to start next weekend

Beers on tap: TG IPA, Caledera Dry Hop Orange, Mirror Pond, Roots Heather Ale, Ninkasi Total Domination, Full Sail Vesuvius Golden, Laurelwood Tree Hugger Porter, Willamette Espresso Stout, Langunitas Pilsner, Amnesia Pale Ale, Hub Red Ale, Mactarnahans Amber, Czechwar, Jubelale, Lomboc LSD, Miller High Life, Double Mountain Kolsch ("coming soon", it says) Rouge Half-a-Weizen