Vice Beer celebrates Grand Opening
Vancouver, Washington's newest brewery Vice Beer soft opened back in August to much fanfare, but some final things to get done and kinks to work out. This weekend they celebrate their fully armed and operational Grand Opening with special guests, Rosetan & DJ SlimKid3 of The Pharcyde, in a jam-packed Halloween weekend party. Vice Beer is co-founded by New School contributor Michael Perozzo, with a flair for 80’s and 90’s cultural touchstones and very modern day American beers.
Vice Beer and partnered food truck, El Viejon, will celebrate together beginning at noon on Saturday, October 29th with a ribbon cutting by the Hispanic Metropolitan Chamber and afternoon on-site interviews of the El Viejon team by the local Univision station. The festivities continue into the late-evening with DJ SlimKid3 spinning in the brewery from 8PM-11PM. SlimKid3 rose to fame in the mid-90s as a member of hip-hop trio, The Pharcyde.
On Sunday, the party rolls on with photobooth all-stars The Couve Booth providing complimentary keepsake photo strips from 5PM-8PM, alongside live music by a band making recent waves from Seattle to Vancouver - Longview's progressive ambient stringed trio, Rosetan. Live music beginning at 6PM.
Vice Beer has been open for business since August 12th with spot openings of El Viejon most days. This celebration is to mark the Grand Opening as the coming to fruition of both Vice Beer and El Viejon operating as the owners envisioned early on. They'll also celebrate their recent Bronze Medal finish for Fresh Hop American IPA at the Washington Beer Awards announced October 13th - the most-entered category of the fresh hop competition where Seattle's Cloudburst took Gold and fellow Northbankers, Grains of Wrath, were awarded the Silver Medal.
"Back in August, when we soft opened, we were excited about what we were doing, but we knew we weren't yet able to fully offer everything we'd envisioned." shared co-owner Bria Perozzo. "We knew it was time to get the doors open to start seeing some dollars come in to get to the next stage. And now we're so thrilled that the next stage is here!"
El Viejon had some early struggles with getting a food truck licensed in WA State - a process that can take 8-16 months depending on the waiting list at WA State's L&I Dept. This was a list El Viejon owner, Eldy Prado, couldn't wait for any longer. After operating for 8 weeks under a "Booth/Tent License" in Clark County, Prado purchased a 2nd truck already certified with the state and is now open every day Vice is open (Tuesday-Sunday) until 9pm.
"I'm excited to be open every day serving the full menu we dreamed of for El Viejon," said Prado. "We've still got the quesabirria, the tacos, and the burritos, but now the full kitchen allows us to serve our mariscos (Jalisco-style seafood), shrimp empanadas, and massive Coctel de Camaron (Mexican shrimp cocktail)." And watch for weekly specials like Birria Ramen and burrito bowls.
Vice Beer has filled out their taplist and installed LUKR side-pull faucets to pour their Mille Czech-style Pilsner and Polotmavy 13° Czech Half-Dark Lager. They'll also tap 4 new offerings during the 2-day event. New tappings include: Lord of the Gourds (an imperial pumpkin ale collab with Ben's Bottle Shop), Are You Afraid Of The Dark Imperial Stout, Pumpkin Frappuccino (an imperial pumpkin coffee stout served only as an iced slushee), and Don't Sweat What You Heard (a new thiol IPA collab with Fortside Brewing).
Enjoy the festivities on October 29th from NOON-11PM and on October 30th from NOON-9PM.
Vice Beer's fully operational hours are:
Tuesday-Thursday: 4PM-9PM
Friday & Saturday: NOON-10PM
Sunday: NOON-9PM