In 1993, entrepreneurs Lee Doxtader and Scott Stamp opened a brewery-equipped restaurant in a Grantville strip mall, naming it after a city that would go on to earn a world-class reputation for its ales and lagers. Upon its debut, San Diego Brewing Co. was one of just a handful of beer-making establishments in the county, joining the likes of Karl Strauss, Pizza Port and San Marcos Brewery & Grill.
Located near Jack Murphy Stadium, SDSU, and the city’s bustling Mission Valley area, San Diego Brewing provided many locals with their first taste of locally produced beers like its house creations, Blueberry Wheat and Old Town Nut Brown. Its 50-strong tap list also introduced patrons to storied European classics and the liquid assets of America’s early craft-beer innovators, starting many a casual drinker down a rabbit hole leading to full-blown beer fandom.
Tyson and Kristina Blake are among the scores of individuals whose love of the liquid medium traces back to that Grantville mainstay.
Shortly after relocating from upstate New York in 2001, Tyson took a job at San Diego Brewing. In 2003, he was joined behind the brewpub’s bar by Kristina, and it was there that a mutual passion for craft beer — and each other — was ignited. Together, the driven, gregarious couple instituted a regular series of beer-pairing dinners that were not only tasty but educational, and a base for community-building for fledgling members of San Diego’s fast-growing beer scene.
Over the following decade, the Blakes married and moved on from San Diego Brewing to make their own way in beer and hospitality. Today, they are co-owners of Kearny Mesa’s 29-year-old beer-bar forerunner O’Brien’s Pub, The Pub at Lake Cuyamaca, and La Mesa’s West Coast Smoke & Tap House. It was at the latter spot that San Diego Brewing — a place that has remained near and dear to the Blakes — came up in conversation with regulars, Bob and Lisa Townsend.
Like the Blakes, the Townsends have fond memories of frequenting San Diego Brewing in the early 2000s. And like the Blakes, the Townsends know a thing or two about operating venerable restaurants. They have operated their family business, North Park’s 85-year-old San Diego Chicken Pie Shop, since 2016. So, when an opportunity arose for them to purchase San Diego Brewing, they knew exactly who to ask to partner with them on the endeavor.
On Nov. 1, 30 years to the day that San Diego Brewing first opened its doors, the Blakes and Townsends were handed the keys to the brewpub and celebrated its takeover with a small yet meaningful anniversary event that saw local brewing-industry veterans stop in — many for the first time in years — to raise a glass to the business getting a much-needed infusion of new blood.
While San Diego Brewing has remained hallowed ground for longtime local beer fans, it has failed to keep pace with craft culture. Its menu and house beers have remained largely untouched over the past decade, as has much of the brewpub’s interiors, save for the installation of roll-up doors allowing access to temporary outdoor seating introduced during the pandemic. In taking over the business, its new owners not only understood the need to rejuvenate San Diego Brewing and usher it into a new era, but relished the opportunity to do so, despite the considerable amount of elbow grease that will be required.
Ownership’s near-term goal is to soldier through winter’s busy holiday and football seasons, followed by March’s NCAA basketball tournament, then temporarily close the brewpub so it can undergo renovations. Those updates will include adjusting the layout of the dining room, installing new lighting, and constructing a permanent outdoor patio. But changes will go well beyond aesthetics.
While head brewer Matt Navarre will continue to brew some of San Diego Brewing’s classic house-beer recipes, he is being encouraged to branch out and produce all manner of beer styles, from Old World ales and lagers to of-the-moment India pale ales and stouts incorporating new and experimental ingredients as well as cutting-edge technique. Ownership has also secured nearby warehouse space to install a packaging apparatus that will allow San Diego Brewing to offer products to-go and, eventually, distribute a small portion of its beers to local retail establishments, including those of the work-in-progress San Diego Hard Seltzer Co.
The menu will also be updated to include new dishes that fit within the pub-grub category — pizzas, burgers, sandwiches, soups, salads — but include more worldly, contemporary ingredients and complex flavor profiles. Off-menu specials (a “SoCal wedge” salad, and sandwiches packed with red-wine-braised beef and succulent pork belly) have provided sneak peeks of what the new bill of fare may look like.
That said, ownership knows that in taking over an eatery with so many established regulars, there are some items that are untouchable. They simply weren’t sure which, so recently they took to social media to poll followers on their favorite dishes. As a result, items such as San Diego Brewing’s beer-cheese soup and boneless chicken wings will remain.
The Blakes also plan on bringing back their beer-pairing dinners, which have lived on at O’Brien’s Pub since Tyson left San Diego Brewing to become general manager there in 2010. The special-event series has helped gain him a reputation as one of the county’s foremost culinary practitioners where beer-infused and beer-paired dishes are concerned.
Even this early, San Diego Brewing’s new ownership has beer fans — even those who had written off this long-running institution — excited for what the future holds and eager to support a return to form for one of the county’s very first bastions for local, independent beer.
This article originally appeared in the December 26, 2023 edition of The San Diego Union-Tribune