Last spring, when Ballast Point Brewing sold its 107,000-square-foot Miramar headquarters to bi-coastal non-alcoholic beverage company Athletic Brewing, it continued operating the 600-seat bar and restaurant on the facility’s south end. At the time, Ballast Point CEO Brendan Watters stated the company would keep the Carroll Way location going at least through December of this year, when its lease was up. Today, Watters informed employees that there will be no new lease, and that Ballast Point will vacate the venue following one last service on Sunday, December 14.
“It’s a great spot that served its purpose and got Ballast Point to the next level when [company founder and former owner] Jack White and the original crew had it, but now that we’ve sold it and Athletic is in there doing their thing, it’s time,” says Watters, who has been in control of the brand since him and his investors purchased it from Constellation Brands in 2020. That came five years after that conglomerate famously purchased Ballast Point for $1 billion.
While nothing has been finalized, Ballast Point plans to celebrate the Miramar location and its regulars with specials and an event or two before bidding it farewell. Meanwhile, it will be business as usual at Ballast Point’s kitchen-equipped taproom in Little Italy (as well as its locations in Anaheim, Long Beach and San Francisco), which also houses the company’s research-and-development brewery. The company’s distributed beers are produced with the assistance of numerous brewing company partners, including San Jose-based Gordon Biersch.
Watters says moving on from Miramar is in step with the company’s business plan, which has been updated to make use of the hospitality and merchandising strengths of recently added investment partners, RMD Group and Cypress Ascendant. Ownership is currently in search of multiple sites throughout San Diego where they can install Ballast Point taprooms meant to reinvigorate the brand’s reach in the county where it was born. Watters says nothing is imminent, but the Miramar restaurant does not jibe with the new model.
Ballast Point Brewing’s Miramar bar and restaurant is located at 9045 Carroll Way