While the pandemic presented myriad challenges for everyone, scores of individuals were able to unearth and realize opportunities. Such was the case with Steve Kozyk and Rachel Fischer, the owners of Kilowatt Brewing, who found liquor licenses easier to come by in the age of COVID-19 and were able to get their hands on a pair. Doing so allowed them to revamp plans they’d had for one of their three locations in a fun and exciting way. What was originally envisioned as a black-light art gallery has since been reimagined and engineered into existence as a speakeasy serving cocktails of the cutting-edge molecular variety. It goes by the name The Space Pad and is counting down for its public soft-launch this Friday, April 29.
Installed in a 500-square-foot former comic-book store located behind Kilowatt’s Mission Avenue tasting room in downtown Oceanside, The Space Pad is actually Kilowatt’s second speakeasy. In 2019, Kozyk and Fischer debuted an island-themed masterpiece dubbed Forbidden Cove in the industrial suite abutting the brewery and tasting room at their Kearny Mesa headquarters. Completely different in feel and décor from its neighboring forerunner, that space is replete with tiki touches, including totems, a grass-roofed hut and, for kicks, a deceptive mirror-wall entrance that almost defies description. From day one, it’s been a hit for the small brewery with the big imagination.
In Oceanside, rather than emulate Forbidden Cove, Kozyk and Fischer instead leaned on lore associated with its satellite tasting room in Ocean Beach. Specifically, The Spaceman of OB, a famous Obecian who claimed to have been abducted by aliens and transported to the planet Rillispore. With The Space Pad, Kilowatt endeavors to provide guests an authentic Rillisporian experience channeling The Spaceman’s accounts of the far-off orb and their own creativity. But erecting an Earthbound alien watering hole required far more than Kozyk’s and Fischer’s flair for fantasy. As with all of Kilowatt’s projects, technical knowhow and elbow grease were key ingredients.
“We’ve spent over a year installing over 150,000 individual computer-controlled LED lights and the systems to control them. Just about every object in the room lights up,” says Kozyk. “We can use lighting effects to make the whole room feel like it’s actually rotating, simulate getting beamed up to a UFO, or make the place look, sound and feel like a tropical paradise when you order certain cocktails…really just about anything you can imagine. And The Space Pad will continually evolve with new effects and experiences being added as time goes on.”
Among The Space Pad’s lighted features are an illuminated asteroid-rock wall, a separate wall with animated sparkle sequins, three large windows equipped with multilayered shadowboxes providing a glimpse of Rillispore’s landscape, glowing otherworldly flora and glass portholes in the floor.
“For our asteroid wall, we weaved over 400 lighted fiber-optic strands throughout a matrix on the wall and ceiling along with a grip of tubing that branches out to certain craters in the rock,” says Kozyk. “We sculpted an alien rock formation over top of it, embedded crystals on the end of each fiber which are illuminated by the fiber-optic strands. In addition to that, we blow smoke through the tube system so some of the craters emit smoke at certain times.”
A lighting-industry professional, Kozyk collaborated with expert contemporaries in that field when executing his and Fischer’s vision. And when it came time to develop a cocktail program with equal innovation, he leaned on consulting mixologist Cristian Diaz. Using equal parts whimsy and knowledge of cutting-edge techniques, he created drinks like Beam Me Up (pictured above), a tipple featuring a variety of rums, lime juice and coconut cream and red pearls meant to simulate the lights of an alien spaceship. The drink is served in a Margarita glass with green gelatin in the hollowed-out stem and a human-shaped gummy candy (that’s made in-house) being beamed up to a candy UFO garnish.
“We have cocktails with floating flavored smoke bubbles, cocktails that look like a lava lamp in your hand and change color as you drink them, fruit suspensions and spherified cocktails that you actually eat rather than drink,” says Kozyk. “We also have show cocktails where cool things happen when you order them. For example, our Blast Off cocktail commences a countdown sequence for a rocket launch. When the rocket takes off, the entire room shakes from subsonic subwoofers we placed in the booths and under the floor.”
Kilowatt’s status as a brewing interest is not forgotten in its boozy backroom. A half-dozen of the company’s specialty and barrel-aged beers are on tap. The Space Pad is also equipped with an absinthe fountain, and will offer a food menu consisting of poke made with sushi-grade ahi tuna and other locally sourced seafood.
Leading up to the official soft-open, The Space Pad will be open Thursday through Saturday, 5 p.m. to midnight. After April 29, it will be open from 5 p.m. to midnight, Wednesday through Saturday, and 3 to 10 p.m. on Sundays. Reservations will be required to visit The Space Pad and can be made online. Similarly, reservations for Forbidden Cove, which is now also equipped with a liquor license and serves a variety of tiki-inspired cocktails, can be made by clicking here.
The Space Pad is located inside Kilowatt Brewing’s tasting room at 406 Mission Avenue in Oceanside