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This one's a heart-warmer. Way out in Lents, at the corner of Southeast Foster Road and 92nd Avenue, sat a bar named Riley's where old men drank piss-water beer and fed their SSI checks back to the state through video lottery machines. It was, by all accounts, a terrible bar, and so a perfect target for Erin Wagner. Wagner is like an honorary McMenamin sister, except instead of refurbishing character-rich historic buildings, she turns East Portland's most stabberiffic alky dives into neighborhood treasures. Her previous work includes Mount Scott's best bar, the Lion's Eye, which took over for Becken's Winning Hand Tavern after the bar's namesake publican was busted for selling meth on the premises. Last September, Wagner turned Riley's into The Eagle Eye (5836 SE 92nd Ave., 774-2141). The Eagle Eye is an awesome tavern. It's awesome in Lents, and it would be awesome in Buckman or Multnomah Village. True, it's still growing out of the rec-room stage—it's spacious with big windows and a drop ceiling that's been painted to look like tin paneling—but there's a smooth pool table and tap lines so clean that Riley's patrons could get dialysis through them. Beer and liquor are local, the clientele is friendly and there's karaoke, trivia and open-mic nights to entertain anyone trying to break free of video crack.
WWeek 2015