Gigantic Brewing Robot Room opens in NE Portland
Gigantic Brewing has opened their second location the Robot Room in the new Rocket Empire Machine micro food hall on northeast Glisan St.. Gigantic opened their first and only prior location in southeast Portland in Spring 2012 but found an opportunity to become the anchor tenant in Guerilla Development's new building too tempting to turn down.
Guerilla Development Co. is the same group known best for the colorful Dumbbell building on MLK and E. Burnside, and similar micro food halls the The Zipper at 27th and NE Sandy and The Ocean at 23rd and NE Glisan. The Rocket Empire Machine is a bit different in that it's structured to subsidize small businesses and counter gentrification with a staggered leasing plan. Read more about that here.
Gigantic Robot Room is a satellite bar in the center of the Rocket Empire Machine building shared by an eclectic group of restaurants. Surrounding them is the just opened second location of Tierra Del Sol who has operated a popular food truck serving Oaxacan-style cuisine at the Portland Mercado. The second location of The Pie Spot will open on-site in the corner space on August 12th. And following soon in their footsteps will be Sea and River Sushi, and Alleamin African Kitchen.
Gigantic Brewing envisioned the Robot Room as a neighborhood beer spot in the same up and coming area that co-founder Ben Love resides in. The pandemic has put a damper on things, delaying the build out of the space from a planned Spring opening and limiting the service model temporarily. The small taproom footprint makes serving draft beer a risky proposition in the age of social distancing, so the Robot Room will only be selling bottles and filling growlers for to-go sales from noon to 8pm for the time being.
A selection of 14 bottled beers ranging from the flagship Gigantic IPA to more specialty limited releases like Fantastic Voyage brett saison with pinot noir or mandarin editions are for sale in to-go 500ml bottles. For the time being there are no draft lines setup, and therefore no growler fills or anything but bottles.
The four food providers and Gigantic Brewing plan to eventually open a shared courtyard area for outside seating with a center fire pit, but so far everything is to-go only as the pandemic continues.
Gigantic Brewing Robot Room / Rocket Empire Machine - 6935 NE Glisan Portland, OR.