Ecliptic Brewing ‘Moon Room’ has Closed
After months of frequent closures and spotty business, Ecliptic Brewing’s second location the ‘Moon Room’ has closed for the forseeable future. Having opened in November 2021, the Moon Room functioned as both an inner southeast Portland outpost for Ecliptic’s northwest ales, lagers, and fruited sours, and as a production expansion that would focus on lagers and small batch canning.
Moon Room is in the former site of Base Camp Brewing in a busy beer corridor just blocks from Cascade Brewing Barrel House, Loyal Legion Beer Hall, West Coast Grocery, Rogue Eastside Public House, and Revolution Hall. The neighborhood is rife for a great night life, but has been plagued by street camping, and sketchy parking options. Ecliptic Brewing and Base Camp Brewing did everything to make the space pleasing, including a walled in beer garden lined with bamboo that made it a little oasis, and an elevated taproom with a view to the west hills and beautiful sunsets.
In internal discussions it had been clear for a long time that sales were lagging at the Moon Room. Compounding problems was a series of electrical issues at their on-site food truck that functioned as the kitchen for the taproom. One early on decision was to make the Moon Room a full liquor bar with an emphasis on Gin, but when you add in spirits you are required by state law to provide 5 hot menu items. So when the food truck couldn’t open for hot food, you cannot open the taproom either. Choosing to make the Moon Room a 21+ only space in stark contrast to the family friendly N. Mississippi pub also was also a divisive decision. The final nail in the coffin was staffing shortages, Ecliptic had been struggling since the beginning to keep enough employees at both of their locations.
In an internal memo to employees Ecliptic Brewing writes, “2022 has been really hard on the restaurant business, not just for us, but industrywide. Lately it has been next to impossible to keep our restaurants staffed, and we have been closing the Mothership or Moon Room taprooms frequently for months. This is not good for our guest or employee experience. Additionally, last weeks' 100-degree weekend showed some mechanical issues at the Moon Room that need to be addressed for a good working environment.Because we are having a hard time keeping two places running and staffed correctly for success, we have decided to focus our restaurant resources at one location - the Mothership - and the Moon Room will close until further notice.”
The Moon Room may not be completely gone forever. The brewery is of great use for flexibility and expansion, and the taproom and beer garden are perfectly kept so as to reopen when the climate is more appealing for such a space. Ecliptic is currently exploring the possibilities of turning it into an event space where they can book outside groups, or host their own private parties. Ecliptic is folding all Moon Room staff into their main mothership brewpub on N. Mississippi Avenue. The last day at the Moon Room was yesterday, Thursday, June 30th.