On Tuesday evening, South Oceanside’s Municipal Taco held its final service. The brewpub, which is operated by the team behind the Best Pizza & Brew restaurant chain, offered California-inspired riffs on tacos and other Mexican fare in tandem with house ales and lagers produced under the Municipal Beer brand. Those beers will be distributed to Best Pizza’s locations while ownership finalizes a deal to hand the 7,000-plus-square-foot, 10-barrel brewery- and speakeasy-equipped eatery to a new operator. Though unconfirmed at press time, multiple sources name San Juan Capistrano’s Heritage Barbecue as the incoming entity.
Municipal Taco opened just prior to the summer of 2021 after repurposing the former site of Urge Gastropub & Whiskey Bank. That spin-off of Rancho Bernardo’s Urge Gastropub was the original home of Mason Ale Works, a brewing operation that has moved production to a larger sister location in San Marcos boasting a full-on production brewery following the Oceanside brewpub’s closure. That venue has since been taken over by The Cohn Restaurant Group, and Mason Ale Works beers are now manufactured in Tustin at TAPS Brewery, which the beermaker merged with last June.
In its year of operation, Municipal gained little traction for its brewing component. The restaurant’s food, cocktails and extensive spirit collection was the focus of the business’ marketing, with beer seldom mentioned. The portfolio, which consisted primarily of food-friendly lagers and hoppy ales, was a mystery to most, much to the chagrin of Head Brewer Chris Brown. A veteran who logged time at several Southern California breweries before joining Municipal, Brown’s collaborations with other breweries marked the full extent of the company’s attempts at being an active part of the San Diego brewing community.
Over Municipal’s brief lifespan, the company was often compared with Craft Coast Beer & Tacos, a brewpub offering Mexican street food and a lager- and IPA-heavy assortment of beers just two miles north near the Oceanside Pier. Opened in summer 2020 by former Pizza Port brewer Blake Masoner, that business has been an out-of-the-gate success, as well as an active, engaged and collaborative member of the local brewing industry, easily proving a concept that seems to have befuddled the Municipal team.
Heritage Barbecue debuted in San Juan Capistrano’s historic Old Town area in 2020 and has since gone on to become a hotspot with daily lines filled with ‘cue fans eager to order the business’ smoked stock before it sells out. That happens both daily and quickly. A darling of TV and online food shows and publications, the Michelin Guide named Heritage a Bib Gourmand value restaurant last year. Heritage would be the second San Juan Capistrano interest siting a craft-beer project in coastal North County, joining Docent Brewing, which is installing a tasting room in a former residence in Carlsbad’s Village area.
Down south in the College Area, another brewpub has closed its doors for good. After three years of on-and-off service dictated by the pandemic, Black Market Brewing has pulled the plug on its SDSU location. The Temecula-based brewery opened its doors in 2019, making it nearly a year before Governor Gavin Newsom’s initial COVID mandate required owner Kevin Dyer to close. Dyer attempted a “grand reopening” last fall, initially opening as a taproom while its kitchen lay dormant.
When reached for comment, Dyer stated that after two years of unsuccessfully trying to renegotiate Black Market’s lease with the landlord at the College Area location, he has decided to move the equipment from that spot to Texas, where he plans to set up a satellite. Meanwhile, operation continues as it has for the past 13 years at Black Market’s Temecula headquarters and production facility.