Voices of San Diego Beer: Brian Jensen

These days, San Diego is home to a bevy of quality bottle shops that offer a diverse array of local and out-of-town craft beers, but it wasn’t always this way. Seeking out ales and lagers beyond a companies’ core brands was difficult, even at larger outlets. But, growing demand for one-offs, seasonals and “whales” created an environment where bottle-shop’s could thrive by meeting the demands of next-level beer fans. In this regard, Brian Jensen wasn’t the first to throw his hat in the ring, but since Bottlecraft’s inception, he has opened retail outlets in more San Diego communities (as well as locations outside the county) than any other local operation. Jensen celebrated his company’s first ten years in business last month while working to launch two new locations, one in North County and another on the Central Coast. It’s the perfect time for looking back and analyzing what has fueled Bottlecraft’s success, while also sharing what’s yet to come.

Crafted to Last…and Grow

By Brian Jensen

The first Bottlecraft location opened in 2011 in Little Italy. The idea was based on my experience working at a neighborhood wine boutique in Brooklyn, New York. I wanted to bring the elevated customer experience and curated selection I saw at wine shops to the San Diego craft-beer scene. I was just 27 at the time and had a lot to learn. I was the only employee at first, and between receiving deliveries and helping customers, I slowly learned enough of the business side of things to survive. Over the years, I focused on growing the team, which eventually allowed me to hand things off more and more so I could turn my attention to expanding into more neighborhoods.

Now, on the heels of celebrating a decade in business, I’m happy to report that our team is full of awesome, hardworking beer lovers who have helped to develop a business that is better than I could have ever created alone. We have grown to operate four locations in San Diego County, with sister spots in Long Beach and Virginia Beach, Virginia, plus a pair of new spots opening in Oceanside and San Luis Obispo (SLO) later this year.

While we are proud of our basic structure, each time we have opened a new spot, we have been sure to adjust our model, pivoting to best meet the desires of the neighborhoods we are moving into. That focus on being adaptable to the wants and needs of the customer rather than adhering to a cookie-cutter mentality has helped us to learn and continue to grow.

Speaking of Growth

The Oceanside store will be a little over 2,000 square feet with both interior and exterior seating. The location will be similar to our Little Italy location, but with more seating. We should be able to get about 80 seats in the space with around 30 taps. It will be an all-ages environment and feature a retail section with beer, wine, cider, sake and other beverages, plus a full kitchen operated by our buds at Shootz Poke—which you may have read about right here on San Diego Beer News!

The kitchen and food-vendor partnership will be a first for us. We have a similar “shop within a shop” with Venissimo Cheese at our North Park location, but this will be different in that it’s a fully-operating kitchen concept. Shootz will also produce their own beer via AleSmith Brewing (including non-alcoholic beers) for consumption on-site. We are on-track to open the Oceanside location in mid-to-late September.

Up in Central California, our SLO location will be reminiscent of our spot within Point Loma’s Liberty Public Market. It will be within a new food hall on the south end of the city called the SLO Public Market at 3845 South Higuera Street. Customers will be able to grab a beer and walk around the entire food-hall area or enjoy food at our bar or the outdoor patios. We will have a retail section with assorted craft beverages, and 30 taps behind a wrap-around bar with plenty of seating.

SLO came about because it is one of my favorite places to visit. My wife and I love getting away and checking out the breweries and wineries in the area. It’s got a much slower pace from Southern California but is still only a few hours away. We’re hoping to get it up and running this summer, possibly late this month or early-August. 

The Foundation for Our Growth

There are three tenets that have allowed us to grow, guided us as our family of locations expanded and kept us true to ourselves, our vendors and our customers.

• Hire kind, hard-working people who are passionate about beer (in that order)
• Celebrate craft brewers
• Wow the customer with a great beer selection and shopping experience

Bottlecraft really is a team endeavor and I think that has helped us to find success even as we expand. A lot of small-business owners want to control every aspect of their business and have a hard time delegating things to others on their teams. If that’s a skill, I guess it’s one I have grown over the years.

The makeup of our hometown has been key to our advancement as well. I think San Diego has enough unique neighborhoods for a lot of beer-focused businesses to do well. Just like every community needs a really good coffee shop, they also need a solid bottle shop, bar and brewery.

While our commitment to being a neighborhood brand hasn’t changed over the last ten years, the products and styles that fill our fridges certainly have. Our aim is to keep up with the shifting trends in the industry while also staying true to the classics. It requires more work, but I think it keeps things interesting and our customers seem to agree. The latter means the world to us and keeps us striving to remain in touch with the industry and its trends, and provide them with the best selection and service possible.