In January of 2020, Black Plague Brewing announced it would be building a tasting room in a former mattress store on El Cajon Boulevard in North Park. Acquiring a highly traversed part of a densely populated community was a big deal for the company. Since opening in 2017, Black Plague has done well for itself, amassing a solid following despite being hidden away in an industrial-zoned cul-de-sac in Oceanside’s far-inland expanses. Having the chance to extend the brand had co-founder and former pro-skateboarder Jordan Hoffart understandably enthused. He was equally as crestfallen when a deal for the North Park spot fell through months later.
Since then, Hoffart and business partner Jarred Doss have spent nearly two years in perpetual search of a place to launch a satellite venue. For the most part, that hunt took place in and around North Park, along the coast and up-and-down the Interstate 15 corridor. It’s on the north side of the latter that they finally found a place that was not only suitable, but ideal.
“The place was like a unicorn from the moment I walked in,” says Hoffart. “When we saw it, we were like, ‘everything’s done already.’ It’s got taps, a patio, decent occupancy and a ton of parking. We still have some renovations ad upgrades, plus licensing and some painting, but after two tough years, it’s like a higher power finally threw us a bone.”
This one-horned steed of a project site is located in Escondido’s downtown area on East Valley Parkway, a block north of Main Street. It is within a block of numerous beer-centric businesses, including Wild West Homebrew Supply, Little Miss Brewing, and nine-year-old brewpub Plan 9 Alehouse. The reason it is already so ideally set up to serve as a craft-brewery tasting room is because that’s what it was originally built out to be.
In January of 2018, Cismontane Brewing co-owners and North County natives Evan Weinberg and Ross Stewart secured the building Black Plague is taking over. Their intention was to open it as a beer-and-coffee hybrid concept under the moniker Knø Beverage House. That business was to operate as part of side-business, Seven Beverages, but it never came to be. Now, the 2,400-square-foot unit and its 1,400-square-foot backyard (which can hold a total of 63 patrons inside and another 48 outdoors) is on a fast-track to finally open under Black Plague’s flag.
“We had a Normal Heights spot lined up but ended up signing the lease on the Escondido space less than two weeks after seeing it,” says Hoffart. “We’re not sure what we’ll end up calling the tasting room, but right now ‘Purgatory Lounge’ is a possibility. We’re looking to eventually make the place into something of a hall of oddities.”
Black Plague’s black, goth-tinged dark-ages motif centers around a mascot of sorts, a circa-1350 plague doctor. Hoffart says that fear-inducing, beak-masked character, who was actually a heroic figure during the black plague, reminds him of how members of certain subcultures—skateboarders, graffiti artists, alcohol producers—are “misunderstood” or seen as bad people when, to him, they’re more like “bad-asses”.
Joining Black Plague in Escondido will be Full Metal Burger. This will be the first brick-and-mortar location for the mobile food vendor, which has been a mainstay at Black Plague’s headquarters since teaming with the company to provide State-mandated “bona fide meals” during the pandemic.
Black Plague is on pace to produce 3,600 barrels of beer this year, with a target of 7,000 barrels in 2023. Sales have increased as the company has expanded its distribution footprint to include Northern California, Oregon, Nevada and Colorado. Still, Hoffart prefers to sell as much Black Plague beer as possible across his own counter and is excited to start doing so in Escondido.
While the timing of the kitchen component at the new venue is unknown, Hoffart expects to begin tasting-room service in late-August.
Black Plague Brewing’s new tasting room will be located at 239 East Valley Parkway in Escondido