Entry No. 55 — the Portland file — filed under: dive-bar
Space Room Lounge and Genie's Too
The sign says "In Orbit Since 1959," and the Space Room has never once broken character: glow-in-the-dark murals of Portland skylines sharing wall space with aliens, Godzilla and the Predator, lit so the whole room goes faintly radioactive. In 2014 the lounge fused with Genie's Cafe next door, which is why you can order all-day breakfast under the black light and chase it with a Bloody Mary built on garlic-infused vodka — a drink Willamette Week readers voted second-best in the city in 2022. There's a wall of flavored vodkas feeding the space-themed specials, pudding shots, an arcade room with pinball, and a 3,000-square-foot heated patio with TVs and rain cover for the nine damp months. Elliott Smith drank here; WW readers named it Portland's best dive bar in 2017. The kitchen and the bar both run to 1am, which makes it one of the few places in town where a plate of eggs at midnight is the intended use.
→ Three more weird eats & drinks in Portland — never the same twice
The story
The pole sign out front is the whole thesis: a flying saucer on a mast, a martini glass ringed by an orbit, and the line IN ORBIT SINCE 1959 — with a second panel underneath still reading Brite Spot, the name this corner carried before the space theme ate it. The lounge has held 4800 SE Hawthorne since 1959, long enough to turn up as a fixture in Portland guidebooks and to count Elliott Smith among its regulars. In 2014 it fused with Genie's Cafe, the brunch place next door, which is how a 1959 cocktail lounge ended up with a kitchen that serves breakfast all day.
The interior is the part everyone photographs and nobody describes well. The murals are painted in UV-reactive pigment and lit by black light, so the room resolves in purple and green: the downtown skyline across the Willamette, and a Godzilla the height of the wall standing on the Hawthorne Bridge with its atomic breath aimed at the office towers. Aliens and the Predator turn up elsewhere. Sometime after early 2021 the outside went the same way — the building, previously painted institutional green, is now deep space with planets, a comet and a starship. Behind the bar sits a wall of flavored vodkas feeding the space-named cocktails; the Bloody Mary, buildable on garlic-infused vodka, placed second in Willamette Week's 2022 readers' poll, five years after the same readers voted this Portland's best dive bar.
What else is physically here: an arcade room with pinball and sit-down cabinets under a painted fir treeline, and a 3,000-square-foot heated patio with televisions, rain cover, fans and free weekly entertainment. Leashed dogs are welcome out there. That patio, not the Godzilla, is the honest reason the place works nine months of the year.
What it's like
You walk in off Hawthorne and your eyes need a beat — the black light lands before the murals do. Seat yourself; this is a bar, not a host stand. Booths run along the Godzilla wall, the arcade is through the back, and the patio is out the side under cover. Breakfast is live whenever the kitchen is, which is late, so a plate of eggs at 11pm is the intended use rather than a stunt. Minors are allowed only until 3pm, so any evening visit is a 21+ room. Nobody will hurry you out of a booth, and nobody is impressed by the murals anymore either: take your Godzilla photo, then put the phone away and behave like it's a neighborhood bar, because it is one. Cash tips at the bar.
The move: Get there around 10pm, grab a booth under the Predator, split a plate of all-day breakfast and two garlic-vodka Bloody Marys, then feed the pinball machines in the back room until the black light stops seeming like a design choice and starts seeming correct.
📍 Before you go Open Mon–Fri 11am–1am, Sat–Sun 10am–1am; phone (503) 235-6957. Minors are allowed only until 3pm, so an evening visit is 21+. Leashed dogs are welcome on the heated patio. Hawthorne street parking gets tight after 8pm — the side streets off SE 48th are the play.
- 📍 Portland
- 💸 $
- ⚡ Up for anything
- 🌗 Indoors
Where: 4800 SE Hawthorne Blvd, Portland, OR 97215
Hours: Added 2026-08-26 — confirm current hours before you go.
Pair it with
- The Perfume House — Fifteen blocks west on the same boulevard: an afternoon of being told to sniff carefully and say nothing, then an evening in a room lit so you can't see what you're drinking.
- Clinton Street Theater — Rocky Horror at 11pm — Ten minutes southwest, and the timing lines up — eat and drink under the black light, then take the 11pm Rocky Horror screening, two rooms that have committed to the same bit for decades.
- The Zymoglyphic Museum — About a mile east on SE Alder, and the opposite scale of strange: one man's miniature invented natural history, in silence, before you go get loud.
More weird in Portland
Good to know
How do I get there, and where do I park?
It's at 4800 SE Hawthorne at SE 48th, in the Richmond neighborhood. Street parking on Hawthorne itself tightens up after 8pm; the residential side streets off SE 48th are the reliable move. The Hawthorne bus stops at the corner, which beats circling the block.
Can we bring kids? Can we bring the dog?
Minors are allowed daily until 3pm only, so all-day breakfast works for a family lunch and nothing after that does — evenings are 21+. Leashed dogs are welcome on the patio.
Does the kitchen really run as late as the bar?
The posted hours are Mon–Fri 11am–1am and Sat–Sun 10am–1am, with breakfast served all day, which is the entire appeal: eggs at midnight are on the menu, not a favour. Hours at a bar this old do drift — (503) 235-6957 settles it before you drive over.
What's it going to cost?
It trades as a dive and prices like one — Willamette Week readers voted it the city's best in 2017. A plate of food and a couple of cocktails each is an inexpensive night out, and the garlic-vodka Bloody Mary is the drink to spend on.
What happens if it's raining, which it will be?
The 3,000-square-foot patio is heated, covered against rain, and fitted with TVs and fans, with free entertainment weekly. It was built for the nine wet months rather than for August, which is why regulars sit out there year-round.
Plan a visit & invite your people →
Further reading: Official site · wweek.com · Wikipedia
last checked: 2026-08-26