The Norwegian Rat Saloon opened Friday on Airport Beach Road. (Courtesy: Adrien Lively)

Unalaska’s newest bar and restaurant opened this past weekend. The Norwegian Rat Saloon drew a crowd on its first night -- but the bar's still finding its footing in a town where every watering hole has a distinctive character.

On Friday night, the Norwegian Rat was packed. People were pressed against the bar, sitting down to eat, dancing near the DJ or smoking on the waterfront deck. It was a lively crowd for such a plain, neutral space -- just a few TVs on the walls, and no neon in sight.

The brand-new building doesn’t look much like the dive bars that manager Chris Merrilat has run before in Unalaska.

Merrilat: "I miss some of the old places that I’ve worked here on the island, but the other thing is that it’s really cool that Dutch Harbor has a neighborhood bar again, you know? A place -- and not saying that the other locations on the island are not that, but -- they have a locally-owned, you know, mom-and-pop place that they can come and chill."

Merrilat used to manage the Latitudes Bar, formerly the infamous Elbow Room, on the other side of town. Latitudes closed in 2007, and since then, Unalaska’s main options for a night out have been owned by UniSea, the island’s largest seafood company.

The neighborhood dive bars are a thing of Merrilat’s memory -- and as for the Norwegian Rat?

Merrilat: "I think it’s going to turn into a place where people want to come and have dinner early, and then drink and have fun later. I think it’s going to be very similar to what Dutch Harbor’s used to, where it’ll evolve into a dance club later in the night."

But the Rat’s three owners -- longtime residents with ties to shipping and construction -- want to serve what Merrilat calls a “higher-end clientele.” That’s why the bar has a themed Norwegian menu, clean grey decor and fancier well liquors – for the same price – than their biggest competitor, Unisea’s Harborview Bar and Grill.

So, that makes the Norwegian Rat a chill nightspot, a club and an upscale eatery -- so far. It’s a lot to ask of one place, and on Friday, most patrons didn’t seem too sure yet what kind of bar they were drinking in.

Kevin Tilander: "Probably more of a local hangout. That’s what I’m thinking. It looks like there’s a lot of locals here."

Kevin Tilander has been coming to Unalaska to fish every year since 1990. He’s a crabber aboard the F/V Early Dawn, and he remembers the bar scene here in its rowdier days.

Tilander: "It’s nice to have something new, something different -- like Carl’s was, or the Elbow Room."

Karisa Nogueira doesn’t remember either of those now-defunct bars. She’s only lived here since January -- and she wants her bar to double as a club, all the time.

Nogueira: "Now that they have the music going, it’s good. Before we were like, okay, this is really boring. But they have music going, and now it’s good."

But if the Rat doesn’t have a DJ every night, Nogueira thinks it won’t be long before the younger crowd heads back to the UniSea bars.

Nogueira: "Girls want to go where they can dance. The guys are gonna go where the girls are. That’s just how it is."

So what kind of bar does she think the Norwegian Rat’s going to be?

Nogueira: "An old-man fisherman bar!"

On Friday, though, the novelty was all that mattered. Longtime residents and seasonal workers of all ages skipped out on their normal routines to come take a look at the new place.

Alan Pelstring lives in Unalaska half the year doing marine salvage work. Even he said he was just glad to do something different.

Pelstring: "Yeah, we had some wings earlier -- we’re actually getting another round for the group. Oh yeah, we’re having a great time."

Of course, the fun of a new place has its drawbacks. On Friday, the Norwegian Rat was worried less about identity, and more about just trying to be a bar. They had to work out some first-night kinks -- like cutting down a long wait time to get food out of the kitchen, and drinks into the hands of drinkers.