INCOMING: Besta-Wan Big House

Stories about craft beer usually fall along specific parameters. A homebrewer decides to go pro and opens their brewery. A global conglomerate buys a craft brewery, and panic (then apathy) ensues. Sometimes, a brewery closes one day, and that’s the tale’s end. Other times, when one brewery closes, another snaps up the space to expand or launch an entirely new project. Call it a capitalist circle of life sort of thing.

We saw that last story when Green Cheek Beer took over Bagby Beer Company’s Oceanside location. We saw it again when Mission Brewing took over Rough Draft. It’s happening in Vista, where Weir Beer is taking over the former Helia Brewing space at 1250 Keystone Way.

It’s the first brewery for Hayden and Kyndall Weir, said the couple behind Weir Beer. Hayden started brewing nine years ago, six of which he’s worked as the head brewer for Dos Desperados Brewery. He’s always wanted to open his own space, be his boss, and brew beer. Finally, achieving his goal alongside his wife, who owns 51 percent of Weir Beer, is a dream come true.

“We had been paying close attention to the industry closures in our area, hoping for the perfect opportunity since the beginning of this year,” he says. “When I heard Helia was up for sale, I was at the brewery that afternoon to get more information.” The 6,000-square-foot space has an 800-square-foot patio, plus a 15-barrel, three-vessel brewhouse with four 15-barrel fermenters, three 30-barrel fermenters, one 15-barrel brite tank, and a four-head Alpha canning line. (If you don’t speak brewery-ese, they’ll be able to make a lot of beer.) “Plenty of brewing capacity for room to grow,” says Weir. 

Weir Beer will have 24 taps with a core four, including a hazy IPA, light lager, pilsner, and a hard seltzer. Weir adds they’ll also have a rotating West Coast IPA, red ale, double IPA, a variety of lagers, and more, including some collaborations. “I am stoked about the opportunities that lie ahead for production. I can start fresh with what I want our core beers to be, and the creative directions I can go in,” he says, adding that he plans always to have more than just beer available. Expect cocktail-inspired hard seltzers, complex teas, and other concoctions as time passes.

The aesthetic will be modeled after millennial nostalgia, or what he calls “summer in the ‘90s.” He anticipates opening in October, with a grand opening celebration over Halloween weekend. “There are many breweries in Vista, but we are excited to set Keystone Way apart from the other areas of Vista,” Weir says. “After all of the good times we have had at Helia, we are excited to keep the good times going there as Weir Beer.”

San Diego Restaurant News & Food Events

Taste Your Way Around San Diego With Two Upcoming Festivals

Every neighborhood has a particular vibe—Ocean Beach is staunchly counterculture, Golden Hill is hip without all the hype, and La Mesa is waking up to the inevitability of its potential. But Taste of Gaslamp on September 14 and Taste of Oceanside on October 4th and 5th allow each area to showcase its finest flavors with tons of food and drink vendors. Both offer a VIP experience and early bird pricing, so grab tickets to one (or both if you’re feeling particularly peckish). 

Beth’s Bites

• What goes into cider making? Find out on Sunday, September 1, at Raging Cider & Mead’s annual Community Crabapple Harvest in Julian. Kick the day off with the hard part (picking apples), then crack open a few cold ones during the post-work picnic in the orchard. Follow Raging on Instagram for more info, or email Dave Carr at [email protected] with questions. 
• Meka Coffee has a new name but the same great cold brew. Now called Kaya Coffee, the locally made small-batch cold brew cans are now available at Snoice and online, and a new espresso cart is coming later this year—just in time for holiday caffeination!
• Juicy Burgers may still be about to open in Hillcrest and College Area, but there are more on the horizon. Next up is at 3555 Rosecrans Street in Midway, and if founder and CEO Nick Rose’s plans pan out, that’s just the beginning. 

Have breaking news, exciting scoops, or great stories about new San Diego restaurants or the city’s food scene? Send your pitches to [email protected].

New Restaurants in San Diego

Oceanside-Based Urban Winery Expands to Vista This Spring

For the past decade, Skip and Maureen Coomber have been making wine in San Diego. In 2019, the pair opened up Coomber Craft Wines tasting room in Oceanside, and this year will be expanding to downtown Vista with about 20-30 wines to taste. 

General manager of Coomber Craft Wines Will Burtner describes the vibe of the Vista space as “industrial elegance” with the structure’s steel beams exposed overhead, concrete floors below and lots of wood throughout, playing up the 100-year-old building’s original charm. 

As far as a wine style, Burtner says they tend to produce wines that are more fruit-driven, California-style but aren’t too sweet. When the tasting room opens in the spring, they’ll have wine tasting options on the menu, regular live music outdoors, and outside food vendors for bites. Similar to their Oceanside location, they will also have “lockers for locals” which allows wine club members to keep three wine bottles in a locker at the space and drink it on-site without a corkage fee. 

Spill the Beans Coffee Shop Opens in Mission Valley

Spill the Beans opened up their third San Diego location in Mission Valley just before the start of the new year, following their Gaslamp and Seaport Village outposts. With an emphasis on the perfect breakfast pairings: coffee and pastries, the coffee shop will continue serving freshly made bagels topped with their homemade cream cheese flavors like wasabi, ginger, and white truffle.

Other menu options include bagel sandwiches like the San Diego breakfast sando featuring two over-medium fried eggs, pepper bacon, American and pepper jack cheese, and cayenne aioli. 

And, of course, the coffee. The team whips up their own handcrafted, specialty lattes like their blondie mocha, a spin on a blondie bar, with white chocolate sauce, brown sugar-macadamia syrup, espresso and milk. They also have your traditional beverages available like cappuccinos, lattes, cold brew and teas. The Mission Valley location has both indoor and outdoor seating.

San Diego Restaurant News & Food Events

Karl Strauss recently released its first zero-proof beer, the non-alcoholic Red Trolley, a spin on their original Irish-style red ale that typically has an ABV of 5.8 percent. The NA brew is available only in January at Karl Strauss locations. 

Del Mar’s Beeside Balcony is hosting a five-course tasting menu on Wednesday, January 10 alongside Napa Valley’s Huneeus Wines, pairing dishes like shrimp pesto gnocchi and beef tenderloin alongside one of the winery’s Quintessa Red wine selections or Flowers Chardonnay.

And here it is. Our biggest restaurant issue of the year, San Diego Magazine’s Best Restaurants. Every year, I eat out at a few hundred different restaurants. And every year, people ask me the same question: “How are you not dead yet?” The answer to that is that my midsection has begun making a canopy for my feet, yes. But I also have a “two bite rule,” meaning I am merely a taster of food. Two bites, and I’m done. Any more than that and I would grow so large that the gravity on earth would be thrown out of whack, and the rest of you would just be flung off into space.

When this issue is released, my inbox starts to swell with people’s opinions on it. They range from “THANK YOU!” to “YOU’RE AN IDIOT!” to “AMAZING!” to “IT’S RIGGED!” to “YOU’RE AN IDIOT!”

So this year, I figured I would answer a few of the questions I usually get, to hopefully clarify things ahead of time.

Q: Do advertisers pay to win categories? Is it rigged?

A: No. Absolutely not. Nyet. The Best Restaurants list is divided into two sections: Readers’ Pick and Critic’s Pick. The readers make their votes, and those votes are tabulated using a non-subjective tool called math. We do not insert advertisers in there, or give them extra votes, or help them in any way. This list is as pure as we can make it. The only thing that could change the readers’ pick is bad math or if it looks like a restaurant stuffed the ballot box (see below).

The Critic’s Choice is simply me and the hamster in my brain. I keep a list throughout the year of the best things I’ve been lucky enough to put in my mouth. It’s my little black book of San Diego’s most amazing food. In seven years as San Diego Magazine’s food critic, I have never, ever been asked by someone from the magazine to include an advertiser. I just fill out my ballot like the readers, based on my personal experience. A few restaurants have, however, offered upwards of a couple thousand dollars to name them a winner. I declined, which may explain my current living situation.

Q: Are Readers’ Picks a popularity contest? Can’t restaurants stuff the ballot box?

A: They can, and they do. But we have ways of sniffing out shenanigans. One way is that we can look at IP addresses and see if one was used hundreds of times. We also notice when a voter names the same restaurant in every category, e.g. an Indian restaurant wins every field, including “Best Mexican” and “Best Restaurant That’s Anything But Indian.” We don’t allow spam, and we account for that, but restaurants are allowed to promote and campaign.

Q: How the hell did readers pick XX Restaurant as Best XX?

A: The readers like what they like. I learned a while ago that my aesthetic tastes are not universal. My palate was not dipped in the River Styx. And therefore I will not begrudge the readers their favorites. After all, I named William Bradley my favorite chef in town, but I’ve been known to crush a rotisserie chicken in my car on the way home from Sprouts. And Thomas Keller, a very fine world-famous French chef, famously purchased In N Out for a staff party.

Q: Why isn’t my restaurant included?

A: To be honest, I don’t like naming restaurants “best.” Restaurant culture isn’t a tennis match. And because, with any category, there are usually a handful of restaurants that could “win” a category for me. For instance, with “Best New Restaurant,” I was hemming and hawing between Trust in Hillcrest and Herb & Wood in Little Italy. The ultimate deciding factor for me was that the team at Trust didn’t have the “name” going into this project that chef Brian Malarkey does at Herb & Wood. Malarkey’s restaurant is excellent, and beautiful, and deserving. But he also had more resources and momentum. The fact that Trust pulled off what they did with fewer resources inspired me. They MacGyvered a really great restaurant.

Also, every year I forget restaurants, or fail to get restaurants into the list. Last year, I completely spaced on Kindred, winner of this year’s “Best Vegetarian/Vegan.” This year, I’m ticked off that Flying Pig (Oceanside and Vista) and Land & Water Co. (Carlsbad) aren’t included in my picks. Those are two of my favorite restaurants in town that somehow didn’t fit the puzzle. And that’s what a list like this is—a puzzle.

Q: How is Sushi Ota not your Best Sushi Restaurant? Is your mouth injured? Everyone knows Master Ota is untouchable!

A: For those of you who still don’t know about Master Ota, do yourself a favor and find his restaurant. It’s in Pacific Beach, next to a 7/11 and a freeway. Ota has, and will be during his time on earth, the apex of sushi in San Diego. Local fishermen literally make all other restaurants wait at the docks until Master Ota has had his pick of the day’s very best catch.

That said, our sushi scene has evolved, and there are very excellent sushi chefs who deserve a nod. For me as a critic, sustainability plays a huge part. Our oceans have been looted, and they’re in danger of collapsing. Sushi is a major contributor to that plundering. That’s why, last year, I gave the award to Land & Water Co.—whose chef-owner, Rob Ruiz, is now one of the country’s top sustainable seafood experts, and runs his restaurant as such.

And this year, I picked another sustainable sushi chef who’s got major chops: Davin Waite of Wrench & Rodent in Oceanside. First of all, Davin’s a punk and has built a little skate-zen place that’s fun to hang out in. Second, he’s a really good, respectful, obsessive sushi chef. Third, he’s as sustainable as it gets. Ota will always be the yoda of the scene, but younger jedis deserve credit for helping in saving the universe.

Q: Hey, Critic! You chose Kettner Exchange as “Best of the Best, Casual”? That’s a fancy restaurant whose chef has cooked at the James Beard House!

A: You’re right. That’s odd. And not quite right on my part. Here’s what happened. There was no ignoring George’s California Modern this year as “Best of the Best, Fancy.” Trey Foshee has been one of the country’s top chefs for decades. This year they underwent a massive renovation of their bar area, and bartender Stephen Kurpinsky has become a real inspiration and innovator for the city’s cocktail scene. It was the year to honor one of the country’s best restaurants.

I had actually considered Kettner Exchange for that award, since it’s a beautifully designed spot and Brian Redzikowski’s food absolutely blew me away over the last year. So, I reasoned—Kettner has two very active bars, which makes it a social scene as much as a dining one, and aren’t bar areas, even nicer ones like theirs, casual? It may be flawed reasoning, but it was mine. And I wanted to shine as much light on KEX and Redzikowski and bartender Steven Tuttle as possible.

If you have any other questions, please feel free to leave them in the comments section below and I will answer as many as possible. Thanks, guys. Hope you enjoy the issue.

Behind the Best Restaurants Issue

Critic’s Pick for Best Caterer 2017: Miho. | Photo: Sam Wells

It’s on a side-street behind the strip mall and the place where pro surfers eat six or seven breakfast burritos at a sitting. Its décor can best be described as “we love the ’60s and hoarding knickknacks oh and weed and dogs.” And it’s just about perfect—an unpretentious temple of Dia De Los Muertos-inspired surf funk. For nearly 50 years, Besta-Wan Pizza House in Cardiff-by-the-Sea has been a locals hangout fit for the shirtless, the socialited, the beer-bellied, the yoga-abbed, the preschooled and the flea-collared. And after a half century they’ve decided to expand with a second, bigger location in Carlsbad. Besta-Wan Big House is going into the former Finnegan’s Pub at 1814 Marron Rd., right off the 78 Freeway. This is nearly Oceanside/Vista territory, which means that once-depressing cauldron of stucco-fied chain slop is starting to see a few rays of light. Flying Pig announced they’re heading to Vista with their second location (an Italian spinoff). Then the guys behind Urge Gastropub said they’re opening up a bowling/beer/whiskey/food Disneyland-for-adults in a former Bally’s Fitness in the area. Vista is the new North Park! Land is cheap! Start prospecting!

INCOMING: Besta-Wan Big House

WE WILL RULE THIS GOURMET DESERT: As a native from inland North County, I’ve long moaned about the lack of decent Franco-American-bistro-esque choices. I really should’ve shut my trap since I didn’t open one of my own. But thankfully my inaction has been counterbalanced by the group behind The Barrel Room. They followed that Rancho Bernardo wine bar with Urge Gastropub right next door, then Brothers’ Provisions a mile down the road, and now they’re striking again. “When we first opened the Barrel Room in 2007,” says co-owner and sommelier Grant Tondro, “every real estate agent in town told us, ‘You can’t open in Rancho Bernardo! There’s nothing there!’ And we thought, ‘Ding, ding, ding.’” Their new space in Vista will be called Urge: Craft Alley isn’t ambitious at all—just a 24,000 square-foot city of sweet, sweet vice (formerly home to Bally’s Total Fitness). The plan includes: a 10,000 square-foot restaurant with over 400 seats, a 2,000 square-foot bottle shop (wine and beer to go), a 5,000 square-foot brewery and eight to 10 bowling lanes. “It’s basically my Disneyland,” says Tondro.  “We’ll have 200-300 whiskeys, with the intention of getting it up to 400 or 500. We’ll start with 51 taps of craft beer with the option of expanding to 100 taps if there’s demand for it. Leigh Lacap and Christian Siglin from Sycamore Den will be designing the cocktail menu.”  Why bowling? “It’s a game you can play with one hand, it doesn’t take a lot of skill, and it’s kind of cool,” says Tondro. Are there a ton of investors behind it? “No, it’s just me and my two business partners,” he says.  “I took out the biggest loan of my life. I still drive a Kia. If this doesn’t work out I’m moving back with mom and dad.” Are you going to open 30 more restaurants within six square miles within the next year? “We’ve taken a look at sites in Coachella and L.A., but we’re going to make sure we do this right first.” Urge: Craft Alley will be located at 1928 Hacienda Dr. and open February or March of next year.

I REEK OF SAN MARZANOS: Working on SD Mag’s pizza-issue in November. The roof of my mouth is ripped and raw like breadknife sushi. I sweat oregano. At one reportedly decent place in north county, the most notable thing was a man who’d been drunk since 1997 offering advice on caring for German Shepherds. At another I found a decent pizza with a horsefly problem. As the pie-man explained: “They come to Del Mar when the horses arrive for racing season. The track closed yesterday. That means no more manure. The flies are homeless. So they’ll bother us for about a week.” Thanks for the frank explanation. Without spoiling the surprise, I had one pie today that reminded me a very, very good chef is doing pizza in Norht County. Blue Ribbon Pizzeria’s classic—fennel sausage, moz, crimini mushrooms—is one hell of a pie, leopard-spotted for your splendor. For those center-city sectarians who never venture north of La Jolla, chef-owner Wade Hageman just opened up Blue Ribbon Rustic Kitchen in Hillcrest.

SORIANO MILKS IT: Great local designer Michael Soriano (The Pearl, Vin de Syrah, Queenstown Public) has signed on to design the first retail location for The Cravory, San Diego’s custom-cookie stalwarts. The 1,000 square-foot space will have milk on tap and is aiming for an October open. 3960 W. Point Loma Blvd. (Midway Towne Center).

THE BIG IDEA: Urge Craft Alley