EUGENE, Ore. — Eugene brewer Falling Sky hopes to open a “classic” pub and pizzeria next year in the remodeled Erb Memorial Union at the University of Oregon.
The university is seeking approval Monday from its Board of Trustees to bring Falling Sky aboard. A six-member committee of the board must approve university contracts that exceed $5 million or extend beyond 20 years.
The proposed Falling Sky contract is for 25 years, with renewal in five-year increments. The pub would open in fall 2016.
“It looks like things are going forward,” Falling Sky co-owner Rob Cohen said. “They tentatively chose us.”
The university was seeking a place at the heart of campus where people would like to meet and celebrate, according to planning documents. Falling Sky pledged it could make such a place, Cohen said.
“We want to build a community space. That’s what were most interested in.”
Cohen and co-owner Jason Carriere have a track record of creating social hubs. In 2012, they opened the Falling Sky gastropub off 13th Avenue, and they followed that in 2013 with the Pour House Delicatessen south of the Whiteaker neighborhood’s brewery blocks.
University folk flock to the two establishments, especially faculty and graduate students in the sciences, largely biology, chemistry and physics.
Aside from the Falling Sky contract, the Board of Trustees committee also will review contracts for putting a Chipotle, a Panda Express and a Starbucks at the EMU. Plus, the university is preparing to sign with Joe’s Burgers of Portland, which already is flipping patties at Oregon State University.
The EMU food court will have as many as eight food vendors, director Laurie Woodward said.
University Dining plans to add a grocery-market that features locally grown produce.
Subway and an additional coffee — or tea — house will round out the bunch.
Another pub in the family
Falling Sky’s owners shoot for a friendly atmosphere similar to that of a Munich beer hall or a London pub.
Patrons sit shoulder-to-shoulder at plank tables. They order from chalkboard menus.
At 3,500 square feet, the campus pub, if approved, would be sized between Falling Sky’s existing establishments, Cohen said.
“The pub and delicatessen are kind of like cousins,” he said. “This will be another cousin. It will have its own personality, but it will definitely be from the same hand.”
Falling Sky’s pubs serve a mix of comfort foods and exotic dishes.
As a university pub, Cohen said, Falling Sky would offer activities to appeal to undergraduates, such as live music and projection TVs for big games.
As for alcohol troubles, the pubs know how to curtail binge drinking, Cohen said. For 15 years, he ran a pub next to Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y.
“One of the best defenses is just not selling cheap stuff in quantity,” he said. “We’re not going to do that.”
The pub will serve Falling Sky’s own brews, a couple of rotating taps featuring other craft beers, plus ciders and wines. It will not carry any Pabst Blue Ribbon cans or any other form of “macro” brew, Cohen said.
Servers are trained to pay attention to consumption levels.
“We monitor their drinking,” Cohen said. “We will never have a space were people are getting drunk.”
Falling Sky is a favorite hangout for UO student Althea Seloover — an EMU board member — and her friends.
“It’s really fun,” Seloover said. “It’s a community environment. It’s really pro-social. I’ve never seen the environment turn into what you fear.”