Tuesdays at East Burn

My significant other's mother is visiting us this week, and in the spirit of showing her everything that our town has to offer we decided to bestow our patronage on a pub new to us. I had been hearing about East Burn, located at 18th and E. burnside, for some time (notably from the aforementioned significant other) and only recently discovered that they offer $2 pints on Tuesdays. Yes, $2 for any beer on tap, all day long. It should be noted that beers with high abv (alcohol by volume) percentages are still served in a 10 oz. glass, but as these beers often run upwards of $5 at most locations around town this remains an incredible once a week deal.

Aside from the outrageously low beer price for the three of us for the evening, the establishment is wonderful in a number of key ways. I did not eat much of the food, but what I did see looked and smelled great and was for the standard food rate around town (about $9 for most of the food items such as burgers). We did order the trinity fries- a $6 large bowl of sweet potatos, russet potatos, and fried leaks served with a tomato Aioli. These were ridiculously great, and filling to boot.

The decor is standard hip coloring and plentiful art with some nice individual touches that set the room off nicely. They do need to work on thier window coverings, as while the sun was lowering the large windows they have facing west bathed the main dining area in sharp light that made looking across the table impossible. The tables are all covered in butcher paper, with shot glasses of crayons available on each table for aspiring artists to decorate as they imbibe. I doubt that my art will make it on the wall of masterpieces of the crayon art that they have outside of their two single person occupancy bathrooms on the main floor (seriously the first time I have had to wait in line for a men's room in quite some time).

As for beer they have a quickly shifting line up that includes some duds and quite a few good selections. I started out with a 10 oz. glass of Deschute's Black Butte XXI, brewed in honor of their 21st anniversary as a brewery and slightly different in character from the previous year's Black Butte XX. This year has a larger coffee profile and slightly less chocolate to the flavor while still retaining the warming effect of the previous. While not as complex or stunning as Deschute's Abyss it remains a beer worth purchasing to cellar. My expectation is that in two years it will have matured in to a marvelously tasty beer ripe with mulltiple flavors.

My significant other's mother had Firestone Walker's Union Jack IPA, a strong entry in the citrus forward IPA range which I generally prefer to Firstone Walker's other IPAs, the style for which their brewery declares their "passion" for. A fine beer and superior to much that you will get as standard IPAs around town but pales in comparison to other citrus forward IPAs such as Laurelwood's Workhorse or Amnesia's Copacetic.

Other beers sampled: Upright Brewing #7 (farmhouse golden, superior for it's class and well worth drinking), Humboldt County (Hemp Ale- a pleasant but underwhelming brown, Red Nectar- an enjoyable Red ale with a slight pine edge to the citrus nose of the beer)