In September, Miramar’s Little Miss Brewing announced it would be entering the North County city of Poway with its seventh San Diego County venue; the most of any locally based brewing company. But the Miramar-based operation isn’t done expanding. As they work to further populate the north (Little Miss also operates a tasting room in Escondido) they’ll simultaneously be stretching their empire south to Chula Vista’s inland Eastlake community. Like Little Miss’ other tasting rooms, the upcoming space will feature an interior-design thematic based on a country on the winning side of World War II, though this time it won’t be an official Allied nation.
“Eastlake will be themed in honor of Mexico. This will be our first location that is themed after a belligerent. Technically Mexico didn’t declare war against the Axis in World War II,” says Little Miss co-owner Greg Malkin. “We’ve been looking to open a tasting room in Eastlake since 2019. The market there is very limited with little retail space available for lease. While Chula Vista has a good number of breweries, Eastlake is limited with just two, Novo Brazil Brewing and the soon-to-open Chula Vista Brewery.”
Little Miss’ new tasting room will be its largest, coming in at 1,800 square feet with an additional 400 square feet of outdoor patio space. It is located in the same plaza as the aforementioned Chula Vista Brewery’s brewpub. Malkin hopes to brew a collaboration beer with his future neighbors, and that will likely take place on the half-barrel pilot system Little Miss will install at its Eastlake property and use to produce venue-specific beers on a quarterly basis.
In other Little Miss news, the company recently purchased a four-vessel, 30-barrel brewing system from a manufacturer in China. It is scheduled to arrive in-port in Los Angeles in January. In the meantime, Malkin will decide whether to expand Little Miss’ current Miramar headquarters to house it or find a new location to serve as the company’s primary manufacturing facility.
“We plan to keep our space in Miramar regardless of were our new system is installed. Our brewing staff is excited [about the upgrade] to say the least,” says Malkin. That staff is led by Head Brewer Guillermo Lopez and Senior Brewer Stephen Thomas. “The beer they’ve produced on our very manual 10-barrel system, both in quality and quantity, is nothing short of a miracle. With the installation of the 30-barrel system, we’ll finally be able to put our focus on distribution.”
Securing the Eastlake location and upping capacity are the latest in a string of growth-geared moves Little Miss has made in the past year. While many local brewing companies were working hard simply to keep their heads above water during the pandemic, Little Miss opened Lakeside’s first ever brewery tasting room and started work revamping a former ice-cream shop into its Poway location. Like the Chula Vista spot, it will include a nano-brewing setup, though it will not have on-site food service.
Little Miss Brewing Chula Vista is expected to debut to the public in January or February of 2022. Once open, hours of operation will be 2 to 10 p.m., Monday through Thursday, noon to midnight, Fridays and Saturdays, and noon to 9 p.m. on Sundays.
Little Miss Brewing Chula Vista will be located at 891 Showroom Place, Suite 100, in the city’s Eastlake community