Spaceroom Lounge and Genie’s Too

As a first timer to Spaceroom/Genie’s Too, let me say I was not at all disappointed. I bellied up to the bar on the Space side, and was greeted by the sweet sounds of Junior Wells on the jukebox and the equally as sweet in demeanor bartender Julie. I ordered a habanero infused Bloody Mary which was very good, and a breakfast sandwich with O’Brien potatoes that were both very tasty! A great introduction to a chilled out bar and breakfast spot that I will most definitely be returning to in the very near future!

Really good french toast and no wait. Great service and clean! Good solid breakfast spot without a wait!

Fantastic breakfast. Typical diner coffee, so don’t expect too much there. Got the bacon omlett and it was great. Brother got the traditional breakfast and he thought it was good. Decent place to grab a bite

Good food! Their food is pretty cheap and good quality. I really like their French toast and everything they have is delicious! This place is the like the original Genies. I happen to like the other place better. But I have no complaints for this place. Love it!

Enjoyed my first time here this morning. Was with my children having an early Birthday Breakfast. First, I gotta give a shout out to our waitress, Keni T (MASTER), which is what was to the right of her name, and for Taking care of my little KnuckleHeader, she is All That! My daughter is allergic to every nut on the planet, plus sesame. The Master, Keni T, not only listened to my concern about this regarding her food, she also made sure all of the other food ordered was prepared with the same care So Much Thanks Miss Keni.
So, the Genie’s side of the house is a bit smaller than the Division St location. However, the bacon, which is the star of most all other reviews, prevailed once again! It was right where it should be on the scale of floppy/​soggy to crispy/​firm. The melt in your mouth French Toast (Which can be eaten all by its lonesome) is quite complimentary to the bacon or vice versa. My medium fried eggs coulda been a little warmer, but still good. I like to take a chunk of the French Toast with a little syrup, and sop up some of the oozing yolk with it, home run! The little one was tickled to death about how good the French Toast was, so seeing her happy is always a plus.
I like the fact that this location honored my free Birthday Grown-​Up Drink. I did take a peeky peek on the Space side and the lounge looks like a spot where I could sit and chill while sippin on some YAC or any other drink of my choosing. So, yes, I’ll be back. Jus like the big hard to stop metal dude!

This is a great place for a no-​wait brunch on a weekend morning. There aren’t many bells and whistles but they have great specials and even though the menu is much simpler with less options than the Genies on Division, it’s good food for great prices in an awesome neighborhood with no hassle. I

Sad, because I love the original Genie’s. Two stars because the cowboy-​surfer music was rocking. Food was terrible, service nearly nonexistent, and the bathroom’s greasy floor and dead-​soul vibe made me want to cry. Good luck, Genie’s 2, I wish you well. Won’t be back.

You know that type of restaurant that you go to and you eat some really good food and by the time you leave, you have a much larger food baby than you originally expected??? Yeah, that is exactly what happened here at Genie’s Too.
My plan was to head home from work and stop somewhere for breakfast. My usual is to go home, pop a Henry Higgins bagel in the toaster oven and slather it with cream cheese. I wanted to eat out, and just as I’m getting ready to leave work, Vinnie B. sends a message out on Unilocal that he’s in the Pearl and wants to meet up with anyone for breakfast. So I told him if he wants to come to Hawthorne, I’ll eat with him.
An hour later we are sitting at a table with spaces shuttles, rocket ships, space stations and aliens all over it covered by a cracked piece of glass. Vinnie got a mimosa and me, some oj.
The menu has plenty of options. Bacon omelet, cheese steak scramble, eggs Benedict, huevos rancheros and white chocolate chip and hazelnut pancakes. There was no shortage of choices. After looking over the menu we both decided on the huevos rancheros, his with avocado, mine with chorizo and he ordered a side of bacon… because, bacon. He also had heard really good things about the bacon here.
The one thing to really know about huevos rancheros is that really should be on a crispy tortilla otherwise you lose an added texture and all that food piled on it will just make it soggy. Here at Genie’s Too, it is, and its got black beans and home made ranchero sauce and chorizo and two beautiful sunny side up eggs that ran its glorious yolk all over the place. The potatoes O’Brien were also a welcome item to this plate already crammed with much to consume. The meal was great and neither of us finished because they give you a huge portion, although both of us made valiant efforts. As for the bacon? Where was it? It was late to the table, and at $ 3.75 a side it better be amazing, right? Well out come three strips of stuporkulous meat, each over an eighth of an inch thick all in its meaty excellence. After eating the majority of our huevos, we mustered up the ability (like we were gonna leave bacon, come on) and ate the pork perfection. This bacon is worth it alone. It. Was. Amazing.
Genie’s is an good little spot and I pass it several times a week, usually there’s not many people there and I guess one could call it a hidden gem because you certainly don’t have to wait in a line to get in, but you all must get there at some point. You won’t be disappointed.
Enjoy!

I am a fan of Genie’s original location so I was looking forward to trying their new spot, Genie’s Too.
First, I didn’t mind the «divey”-ness of this location. I have been to the Spaceroom before so I expected that.
Unfortunately, the food did not live up to the original Genie’s quality. The potato cakes were burnt and needed seasoning — they were bland. The sausage gravy couldn’t compensate for it either — it was also bland and lacked seasoning and flavor. The french toast was good.
The service person was very nice but delivered our orders with mistakes which had to be corrected — she corrected them promptly but it wasn’t that busy so I am surprised the mistakes occurred in the first place.
I will definitely return to the original Genie’s but I doubt I will be back to the Spaceroom location.

Unlike other reviewers, we go here for the dingy, dicey, old school digs that we grew up with. The greasy fried bar food and good, fun, strong drinks. Sadly, recently they changed the menu from dive bar munchies and good drinks to a menu that is trying a bit hard and missing the mark and drinks that are only mediocre and mostly juice. We ordered the chicken strips which were way over cooked and missing the chicken. Also had the BLT, which kinda tasty but again, trying too hard. Some things you just want to be normal… why change something so simple as a BLT? To top it off, although really nice people, the service was super slow. No one bothered to come over to our table for awhile and when they did they didn’t bother to bring menus until we asked… not even the fun drink one. We used to go here pretty frequently but I’m not sure we’ll be back any time soon.
PS: I hope they’ll consider bringing back the bar munchies at least. I miss the mini corn dogs.

The servers are friendly in a delightfully peculiar way. The side of biscuit and gravy for $ 3.50 is a steal. May I recommend the hash or chicken fried steak too?
They are great with making up mixed drinks out of suggestions or a menu. I highly recommend this place.

Probably the worst breakfast I have had all year. I ordered a veggie scramble which turned out to be all onions and spinach with a small dab of egg mixed in. The potatoes were dry and were probably left over from yesterday’s batch. Even the toast was stale! Ugh. Don’t even get me started on the atmosphere which was dirty and grimey. Okay I realize it was the space room but damn could they have given it more than a replacement of chairs and a paint job.
Last but not least the service was super slow. I was the only person in there and it still took close to 25 minutes to get my order .who else was tying up the cook???

Service is top notch, food is mediocre.
About 1 year ago was our last visit to the original Genies. We use to be a Regular pre 2008.
This visit reminded us why it had been so long.
My wife got a veggie scramble that barely had egg in it. Like hints of egg. The portion was small.
Our waiter could see how this would be annoying and brought a scrambled egg to add to her stir fried veggies.
They put my veggie sausage Eggs Benedict on some kind of odd flat pastry thing. It was better in the past.
The Potatoes O’Brien on both our plates lacked seasoning. Appeared to be potatoes out of a frozen bag.
Coffee was at least good.
With Jam just a less than 10 min bike ride further West, I cannot see why we would bother unless a wait just is not an option.

Bear with me, because I’m gonna start with tearing into the not-​so-​good parts and end with the awesomeness.
THE AMBIANCE: Dirty. Divey. Dingy. Old. Outdated. Ugly. Alien everything. I get that they might go for the whole 1970s velvet blacklight painting thing, but one can do that as well as have new tables and booths, and clean flooring, and a fresh coat of paint on the walls. It’s not that hard.
THE WAIT: To get a table we had to walk up to the counter in the main room (on the opposite side as the door) and then were told we can’t wait there for the table that we have to wait in the portico, a 3-​foot by 4-​foot room with a bench for 2 adults and a swinging door that might hit you… that smelled gross. We almost left. The empty table sat dirty for over 5 minutes because the girl didn’t clean it right away to seat the new guests (she disappeared completely)… who were going to be paying for food. I guess turning tables isn’t that important. They must do too well for themselves to be able to snub paying customers.
THE DRINK: I had a spiked blueberry lemonade… That was great! Awesome vacation morning drink. Really good and I could have had 6 more easily… if it wasn’t 11 AM and I wasn’t with my kids.
THE FOOD: Really freaking delicious. Worth the wait. Worth the atmosphere. Classic breakfast food choices. And good to the last scrape of your fork.
THE SERVICE: Other than the hostess/​busser/​coffee runner (who we didn’t see again after being seated), our server was fantastic. She was friendly, knowledgeable, and just plain out cool. Our food was served timely.
The adjoining bar seemed to be hoppin’. People were going in and out of there like crazy. A lot of people get their drink on early in Portland, I’ve noticed.
I’ll say I’d return again. I do tend to get queasy when I think of the filthy floor and that awful entry portico though. It probably sways a lot of first-​timers from eating there. We were starved, and the other options in that part of town weren’t really our style. Then again, neither is dirty. But I’m glad we stuck it out in the smelly portico to get to the good part. It was worth it. I just wish they’d clean up a bit. I’m sure that cleaning wouldn’t make the regulars go away.

Decided to do carry-​out on a cozy, rainy morning. I called in the order, which went well enough (the first thing I requested on the menu the girl said wasn’t something that was served), and was told my order would be ready within 10 minutes for pickup. I walked over about 15 minuets later and meandered into a state of chaos. Waiters and waitresses running this way and that, seemingly without a purpose. My first impression proved to be correct as I waited at the pickup table. Dozens of waiters and cooks bustled past me without any sense of acknowledgement. I noticed my order was waiting on the table across from me. Time passed and I was asked 5 or 6 times if I had an order to go, to which I replied yes. This was going nowhere. Eventually someone asked me if I had paid yet, she took my card and came wandering back about 6 minuets later. I paid, tipped, and waited some more. Finally, exasperated with the whole experience, I asked if my order was ready to go or not, a confused look and a sigh later from the waiter, I was given my bagged food and I was out!
We had an order of biscuits and gravy and a veggie scramble. Both of which were mediocre and slightly cold.

It was Thursday morning at 10:30am. My girlfriend and I had tied one on the night before and needed a good breakfast. Having been to the original Genie’s with good results we thought we would give the newer incarnation a try. From the moment I walked through the door I had a bad feeling. There was one table and no employees in sight. We meandered into the dark as night bar area and looked around before deciding on a table in the main dining room. Sinatra tunes obnoxiously blared from the speakers as we sat and looked over the minimalist breakfast menu.
The waitress came over with some water and hustled back to the bar. The glass my girlfriend got hard something gritty on it but we let it slide.
I ordered the brioche French toast and a side of bacon, the lovely lady across from me decided on a biscuit with gravy a scrambled egg and a side of bacon. We sat and chatted and lamented our decisions from the night before. When the food arrived everything was deceiving normal. I took a bite of the French toast and couldn’t shake a strange sourness not like a sourdough but almost like a buttermilk batter gone wrong. I dumped my maple flavored corn syrup on top of the toast hoping to moisten the dry wasteland of a breakfast I had just entered. I took another bite and the contrast of the extremely high temperature of the syrup highlighted the barely warm brioche. The biscuits and gravy tasted OK but was also not hot and was very difficult to eat as the biscuit simultaneously crumbled and got soggy under the overly seasoned gravy. A bite was similar to eating biscuit cereal with gravy as the milk. The bacon was cold and so chewy I could barely eat it although it did make me think I might like bacon flavored gum. The waitress was very nice and she did the best with what she had.
The moral of this story is that you should not go to Genie’s Too for food. Maybe a cocktail to reminisce upon the drunken days gone by carousing the Bermuda triangle but never for food. It took a rough morning and rather than fill us with good food and a new outlook on the day, it left us hungry and grumpy and wishing we had gotten an egg McMuffin and a gas station coffee.

Nothing to write home about. The food was ok, nothing awful, nothing wow. The service was friendly and efficient.

Love the bloody Mary’s here. A while list of different flavor and infusions. Excellent Huevos rancheros are excellent.

I called them about a hour and a half ahead if bringing in a party of fourteen, yet they had no problem getting us seated just as we all started to arrive. The service was excellent and very attentive. Everybody got their food in a reasonable amount of time, even though the restaurant was quite busy with other diners, besides our large group. Everybody seemed to enjoy their food, especially the folks who had any of the Benedicts or the Bloody Marys (mine was the house special, spicy and delicious). I highly recommend Genie’s Too if you want great food, attentive and friendly service, at a fairly reasonable price. Genie’s Too is another great addition to the wonderful and fun Hawthorne District.

Breakfast served 7 days a week from 8AM to 2AM. My kinda place.
I held off reviewing the new Genie’s after our first meals there were less than stellar. Good news: Opening week wrinkles have been ironed out, and breakfast today was pretty great!
We ordered several items to share. The Classic Benedict and O’Brien potatoes hit the spot, with from-​scratch Hollandaise sauce and cooked-​just-​right potatoes. We added a side of bacon, to find out if it rivaled the amazing bacon at «Genie’s One.» Yes, Perfection! (Tip: order it extra crispy.) Next, a side of biscuits and sausage gravy – an ample portion at a very reasonable price. The large biscuit halves were griddled, with a crusty exterior and flaky, buttery center. The gravy had an irresistible bite, with lots of black pepper, and bits of sausage punctuated with anise. So good. I briefly hesitated ordering a cup of coffee, already caffeinated and recalling how truly awful the coffee had been at the predecessor diner, until I heard the coffee grinder buzz and the scent of fresh ground beans overtook my resolve. We investigated and determined it was from Oblique Coffee Roasters, and I ended up downing 3 cups before I had to cut myself off.
Genie’s Too retains many of the positive qualities of the old Brite Spot, including favorite server Mark, sci-​fi themed tables, and Space Room cocktails (morning fish bowl, anyone?). But now, with much better food, excellent locally roasted coffee, a fresh coat of paint and more customers. A welcome addition to the neighborhood, for sure. Count us among the new weekend regulars.