It was two years years ago when Novo Brazil Brewing was announced as part of an upcoming 9,000-square-foot hospitality collective in National City called Market on 8th. The original plan was to open to the public by the start of 2021, but COVID-19 delayed the project. Rather than be deterred, Novo Brazil used the downtime wisely, opening a pair of new venues, including a spacious brewpub in Chula Vista’s Otay Ranch Town Center as well as a satellite in the Ocean Beach space that was previously operated by Culture Brewing. With those venues now in full stride, the Market on 8th space is ready to take its first steps when it debuts to the public tomorrow.
Novo Brazil’s Market on 8th stall is equipped with 20 total taps. Half of them will dispense the company’s beers, while the remainder will be stocked with products from Nova Easy Kombucha. That sister brand is the primary focus of the company’s aforementioned OB tasting room. Other collective tenants include La Central Urban Grill, MNGO Café, Moe Coffee, Pacific Poke, Pizza Kaiju, Serbesa (whose owner is also working to realize Paradise Hills Brewing), Smitty’s Taste of the Bayou, Weapon and Wordsmith.
National City has historically been underserved from a brewery standpoint. The municipality was without a brewing company until September 2018 when short-lived Embarcadero Brewing opened added a nano-sized production operation to its primary homebrew supply shop. A year later it was gone. Since then, another nano, Hannegan’s House Beer Co., a combination brewery and ice-cream manufacturer, has taken up the mantle. Another local torchbearer is Machete Beer House, which was established in 2015 and remains the city’s top spot for craft beer.
National City figures to be a key community when it comes to bridging the gap between other South Bay communities where craft beer is taking hold. Thanks to local breweries, the southwestern region’s citizens are learning about and coming to support offerings going beyond ubiquitous macro beer and Mexican imports.
Presently, Chula Vista is home to six brewery-owned venues with a new brewpub coming for the city’s namesake Chula Vista Brewery plus a tasting room from Miramar’s Little Miss Brewing, both in the Eastlake community. Meanwhile Imperial Beach has a pair of tasting rooms and a brewpub (its first-ever beer-production facility) from local chain, Pizza Port, en route. Barrio Logan has four breweries, three of which celebrate Mexican culture.
If National City can make enough of a name for itself, it could be a game-changer for San Diego County’s southwestern sudscape. Novo Brazil’s presence could help make that difference there as well as yet another South Bay location.
“We will soon announce our new location in Imperial Beach, with one of the most incredible views in the city. A project similar to our restaurant in Otay Ranch Town Center, it is expected to open in mid-2022,” says Novo Brazil CEO Tiago Carneiro. “Little by little, we are consolidating our plans of being known as the main brewery of the South Bay, bringing several locations and entertainment options to the region.”
But first, they’ll welcome customers old and new to the Market on 8th. The National City location’s hours of operation will be noon to 10 p.m., seven days a week. A grand-opening event is planned for later this month, and information on that affair will be posted via the company’s social-media channels.
Novo Brazil Brewing’s location at Market on 8th is located at 41 East 8th Street in National City