Vice Beer and El Viejon serve up breakfast with a side of nostalgia
Vice Beer in east Vancouver, Washington has been serving up pop culture nostalgia and trending beers since 2022. Recently they upgraded their patio, got a new head brewer, signed a partnership with Atari, and started serving beers with a side of breakfast and fresh coffee to pair with their mimosa sour and house micheladas. Pfew!
Bullet points: New patio, more seating, new AM drinks, new El Viejon breakfast, New El Viejon Weekend brunch, new El Viejon sushi, new El Viejon menu items, new pour-over coffee program, launching 4 new beers with Atari on September 4th, celebrating 4 years on September 25th.
Vice Beer: 705 SE Park Crest Ave, Vancouver, Washington, now open at 9am daily.
El Viejon expansion under new covered patio structure
Eldy Prado is the founder of El Viejon. Born in the state of Nayarit, Mexico, Chef Eldy Prado's passion for cooking was ignited at a young age while working alongside his mother in their family food business. With nearly 30 years experience cooking for other people, Eldy opened El Viejon.
El Viejon has earned a reputation for authentic Mexican tacos and seafood that pairs well with craft beers. El Viejon launched with Vice Beer in August 2022, and they have grown alongside each other: Vice with a second downtown Vancouver taproom called ‘A Little Vice’ and El Viejon with new kitchens or food trucks attached to popular brewery taprooms like Fortside Brewing, Brujos Brewing, and briefly Gigantic Brewing’s Hawthorne pub.
Vice has finally completed a new 64-foot-long all-weather patio first promised in a New School article in September 2025. The permanent structure provides a shady place that keeps the rain out but lets the light in the warmer months with misters for extreme heat and a warm and cozy spot in the colder months where people can gather.
“It was over a year ago that I last talked with New School about these plans as well as our cellar capacity expansion that happened in June of 2025. To witness it all finally coming together and falling into place is super exciting,” says Vice Beer co-owner Michael Perozzo.
The patio is built around El Viejon’s new state-of-the-art 22’ kitchen trailer that forms a convenient wall enclosure to the parking lot and business park where the brewery is located. With tropical plants, picnic tables, turf, and partial walls and a permanent wood cover now decorating the face of the taproom, you can almost trick yourself that you are enjoying Mariscos and Cervezas on a patio in San Diego.
Weekday Breakfast and Weekend Brunch
El Viejon’s new and improved food truck means faster service times and room for the full menu that owner Eldy Prado has always dreamed of — Breakfast tacos and burritos, weekend brunch, Senora (ribeye) tacos, nachos, Birria ramen, more mariscos and Sinaloa-style sushi!
“I worked as a cook making breakfast and brunch for more the 20 years. Breakfast items are some of favorite foods,” says El Viejon owner Eldy Prado. “For the last two years, people ask me about breakfast burritos and tacos, but because of the short space on the old truck, we never got the opportunity to do breakfast. That's why I built a new trailer to have the space and equipment to execute a breakfast menu.Now we are ready to serve breakfast all day!”
Murray’s Breakfast Burrito…$14.99
Flour tortillas, mixed cheese, scrambled eggs, with choice of meatt, mixed peppers and onions, golden brown tater tots, chipotle aioli and avocado
AZ Breakfast Tacos…$3.99
Flour tortillas, mixed cheese, scrambled eggs, with choice of meat, mixed peppers and onions, chipitole aioli, avocado and a side of house salsa. Taster tons on side.
NW Breakfast Sando…$14.99
Grilled Portland bakery sourdough bread, chipotle aioli, mixed cheese, scrambled eggs, with choice of meat, mixed peppers and onions, pico de Gallo and sliced avicadi, Tater tots on the side.
Choice of Meat
Bacon, ham, pork sausage, chorizo, carne asada, pollo asodo, grilled veggies.
El Viejon is open with breakfast food all day every day at 9am, but on weekends they are executing new brunch food specials that go above and beyond, truly elevating your weekend plans.
“I love brunch, but is something different,” says Prado. “I really appreciate the loyalty of my customers and I wanted to do something different every weekend. I love to have challenges as a chef keep me sharp and busy.”
El Viejon has launched a new weekend brunch that serves unique items each weekend that are not regularly on the menu. Recently this included Chilequiles Verde, Birria Eggs Benedict and El Viejon’s own spin on Hievos Rancheros. Brunch is served 9am to 2pm on Saturday and Sunday only.
Vice wasn’t going to let El Viejon have all the fun outside on the patio, and they are both now opening at 9am all 7-days a week. In accordance they have expanded drink offerings to include things like mimosas, Bellinis, Brass Monkeys and Micheladas with a house-made climato by El Viejon and all of them are available to close.
If you are going to have breakfast, you should probably also have caffeine.
Vice developed a pour-over coffee program inspired by Philz Coffee of the Bay Area with a rotating roasts taproom-style twist. Coffees are sourced from around the world by roasters in high-acclaim like Proud Mary, Tiny Footprint; and also locally from Irrelevant, Transcendence and Kafiex. No sugary offerings. Purely 3rd wave coffee with all natural enhancements and garnishes. Coffee lovers dress their bean juice with add-Ins like heavy cream, oat milk, coconut milk, raw sugar, raw honey or fresh mint leaves. You won’t find syrups or an espresso machine. Everything is poured to-order on a Chemex brewer flask. Nitro Cold Brew coffee by Relevant Coffee is also on tap with a few house specialties like the Mint Condition - a creamy muddled mint delight, the Buzzworthy - an oat milk and honey concoction, or the Miami Mocha with Ghirardelli chocolate & cacao, cream, and a splash of coconut milk. All coffee beverages are available all day from 9am to close.
Atari collaboration beers:
Another one of the projects teased in a New School Beer article last September was a potential for collaboration beers with retro gaming icon Atari. In May of 2025, the founder of Night Dive Studios and current Atari exec, Stephen Kick, joined Vice as an investor and advisor to help bring many of these projects to life.
“We’re stoked that our collaboration with Atari is finally taking shape!,” says Vice co-owner/founder Michael Perozzo. “While we are not at liberty to reveal the can art just yet, Atari has commissioned an accomplished artist in the video game industry to create labels for 4 beers.”
Original Bug Battle Hazy IPA - inspired by Centipede
One-Button Joystick WC IPA - inspired by the original video game controller that started it all
Gemstone Sour - A raspberry lemonade tart ale inspired by Bentley Bear’s adventures in Crystal Castles.
Sunken Treasure - A S’mores Stout celebrating Atari’s retro remaster studio, Night Dive Studios!
These beers will all release for the first time at PAX West - the nation’s largest gaming convention. There will be a special afterparty hosted by Atari with games to play and beers to enjoy before the public launch at Vice Beer’s 2 taprooms and in cans to over 40 states thanks to a partnership with Tavour. Beer nerds will be able to score 4-packs from Atari.com via a portal powered by Tavour or from the Tavour app directly.
Vice Beer (left to right): Michael Perozzo, Phil Pesheck, Paul Linthacum
New award-winning Vice head brewer
Vice Beer’s former head brewer Aaron Copelin recently took over as head brewer of Great Notion Brewing, and Vice Beer was lucky to snag acclaimed brewer Phil Pesheck to take the reins.
“We’re stoked to have Phil Pesheck on the team. His reputation preceded him as the 2020 Alpha King and we’d heard his beers’ names called out at GABF and World Beer Cup a number of times in the last 5+ years,” says Michael Perozzo. “Our top focus is to continue that winning tradition with world-class IPAs, lagers and an eclectic array of styles to keep beer fun.”
Pecheck joins assistant brewer Paul Linthacum who has been there since the beginning of Vice’s year-old cellar expansion project.
“We’re really excited about his expert palette (coming from a classically trained chef background) and his passion for pushing the envelope for innovations and flavor combinations,” adds Perozzo. “Now we have the capacity to make more beer, the space for more people to enjoy our beer, and the team and talent to make really great beer. We couldn’t be more excited as we prepare to turn 4 years old in September.”
Vice Beer & El Viejon 4-Year Anniversary
On September 25th Vice Beer & El Viejon will celebrate 4 years together with a weekend-long bash that features live music, DJ’s, custom hats, merch drops, a tattoo pop-up, and a special 4-brewery collaboration series.
To commemorate 4 years, Vice has invited some of their most influential friends from each west coast state for a 4-way IPA, if you will. Trap Door, Great Notion and Original Pattern represent individuals who have been friends from the beginning.
“They’ve each had a real impact on how we do things and they each have the type of people we go to when we need to troubleshoot an issue or just want to throw down a rad collab,” adds Perozzo.
Anniversary beer “4-Player IPA” will be released in at least two styles: West Coast & Hazy. Vice is also flirting with maybe pushing that to include a Double Westy and a Double Hazy as well depending on how fresh hop season gets underway.
Vice Beer, 705 SE Park Crest Ave, Vancouver, Washington