Few breweries seem as perfectly suited for the neighborhoods they inhabit as Kilowatt Brewing, which opened a colorfully outlandish tasting room in Ocean Beach that was instantly embraced by Obetians and looks as though it’s been part of the community for eons. One reason for that is how heavily influenced it is by the art of Clint Cary, better known as the “Spaceman of OB”.
One of the world’s very first blacklight artists, some of Cary’s art is on display at Kilowatt’s OB lair (pictured below), but that’s not all he was famous for. The Spaceman moniker was tacked on in the 1950’s when he claimed to have been abducted by aliens and transported to the planet Rillispore. He went so far as to hand out golden tickets to friendly passersby on the sidewalks of OB over the years, entitling them to a seat on Rillisporian spaceships that would someday return to Earth to bring select humans back to their planet.
To this day, Kilowatt offers discounted beer on Tuesdays to patrons who show up at their OB tasting room with those tickets. It’s a fun way to embrace local history and pay homage to a neighborhood legend, but owners Steve Kozyk and Rachel Fischer are taking that moon ball and running with it on a new level at their Oceanside satellite, where they are in the process of installing a speakeasy that will go by the name The Space Pad.
“The Rillisporians have finally returned to Earth, and since their last contact have constructed a space elevator to bring more of us to their planet to shower us with their native food and drink,” says Kozyk, playfully summing up the concept for Kilowatt’s new sub-venue. “The Space Pad is a technologically advanced 1950’s Atomic Era-styled spaceport on the top deck of a tall tower above the surface of the alien planet. The Rillisporians were so impressed by what they found when they first visited Earth that they decided to take the mid-century vibe of the 1950’s back to their planet and incorporate it into their culture. The Space Pad is the Rillisporians’ favorite cocktail lounge, and now, decades later, they’ve invited us to visit and share what they’ve been up to with us.”
All fun-speak aside, The Space Pad will be installed in a 500-square-foot building behind Kilowatt’s existing tasting room, which is located on Mission Avenue in downtown Oceanside. That site was built in 1909 and, prior to being converted to a sampling space, was a Subway sandwich shop. The add-on the speakeasy will occupy was a comic-book store in a previous life, and from the moment Kozyk and Fischer acquired it, they’ve had big plans for the unit. Big plans are nothing new for the couple. This will actually be their second hideaway project.
In 2019, Kilowatt opened the secret doors to its first speakeasy at its Kearny Mesa headquarters. That spot, The Forbidden Cove, celebrates tiki culture with a towering idol, Japanese fishing floats and a hut-style bar, as well as a mind-bending hall of mirrors. The only things missing are the tiki drinks. Due to license restrictions, Kilowatt can’t serve hard alcohol in Kearny Mesa, so Head Brewer Brian Crecely has developed an “undistilled” sugarcane-based liquor that clocks in at 18.5% alcohol-by-volume to mix with the traditional flavors of tiki cocktails, which has worked well and added to the venue’s unique allure.
This time around, the Kilowatt crew will be able to work with a full bar, so authentic and varied cocktails will be what The Space Pad is all about. To help navigate this undiscovered galaxy, the company will lean on the experience of consulting Mixologist Cristian Diaz. Well known in the tiki scene for his work at the Disneyland Hotel’s Trader Sam’s Enchanted Tiki Bar, he will design the new speakeasy’s cocktail menu.
“Cristian’s recipes are innovative and envelope-pushing with a heavy focus on molecular mixology,” says Kozyk. “So expect to find cocktails with flavored smoke bubbles floating on top of your drink, cocktails that look like a lava lamp in your hand or change color as you drink, plus fruit suspensions and spherefied cocktails that you actually eat rather than drink. They are similar to giant boba pods, each individually filled with cocktail ingredients that burst with flavor and booze when you bite into them.”
The interior design features will match the avant-garde nature of the drinks. Upon entry through a hidden passageway, guests will enter a “space elevator” to take them to the top of the tower The Space Pad is perched upon. When the conveyance’s door opens, there will be a wall of crystal- and fossil-laced rock mined from Rillispore’s surface outfitted with a pair of windows giving way to a view a spaceport and the planet’s surface. Inside, a pair of plush booths with tables equipped with fire features will be positioned against a stone wall sporting several hundred light bulbs.
“Glass portals will be embedded in the floor, further showcasing the Rillisporians’ technology, and orders from the kitchen will be sent via a special cable-car rocket delivery system that will run across the ceiling,” says Kozyk, speaking of another new dimension for Kilowatt: food service. “Plants, animals and works of art from the planet will be displayed throughout the lounge with another large observation window behind the bar to view the planet.”
The Space Pad will be able to seat just over 24 patrons. The timeline for its debut is still a moving target, but Kozyk and Fischer hope to invite humans onto their elevator to Rillispore by the end of the year.
Kilowatt Brewing’s Taproom & Provisions tasting room is located at 406 Mission Avenue in Oceanside