When Lancers Cocktails opened in 1963, John F. Kennedy was still president, the average American family earned around $6,200 annually, and you could buy a house for around $20,000. Over the decades, the low-key lounge persisted as a stubbornly unpretentious escape, even as University Heights became a million-dollar home neighborhood, a much weirder Kennedy ascended to political power, and San Diego’s bar scene embraced a maximalist vibe shift.
Marc “Bubba” Rosenberg took it over from the original owners in 1978 and kept things mostly the same. This includes most of the longtime staff, many of whom have worked there for decades. But he’s finally ready to pass the torch, and come this May, Lancers will have three new owners: Chelsea Roop, Tom Logsdon, and Lisa Johnson.
Roop and Johnson have been behind the bar at Lancers for 15 years, while Logsdon joined the team in 2021 after transferring ownership of The Balboa, the beloved local burger joint he opened in 2015. They’re adamant that the change won’t come with much change.
“This is a preservation project,” explains Logsdon. “So many bars get bought and changed up and switched around. We all love Lancers and want it to stick around, be here for 100 years.”
Roop adds there will be some (minor) changes over the next few months, like adding cans to the longtime bottle-only list and some non-alcoholic options as well. “We did just get some new carpet,” she jokes. “Like, it’s still carpet, but it’s new carpet.”
The one big change? Lancers will start accepting credit cards (eventually).
It won’t be immediately, warns Roop. “But we are going to be moving out of the cash-only era.” Not everyone carries cash anymore, and between expanding payment options and adding bottles, Roop says their goal is for “everyone to be able to come and have a High Life and a shot with us.” Logsdon laughs and says that part, at least, won’t change: “It’s a beer and a shot kind of place.”
Lancers occupies a very specific place in San Diego bar history, with places like Til-Two Club (opened in 1942), The Tower Bar (1932), The Waterfront (1933), and Pacific Shores (1941) among the ranks of the old-school holdouts from another era.
“It feels like a time capsule or museum,” says Logsdon. “We’re just stewards to make sure that this place keeps going and stays what it is.”
San Diego Restaurant News & Food Events
40 Seats, 8 Beers
Tyson Blake knows how to throw one hell of a beer dinner. He’s been spearheading them for years at legendary beer destination O’Brien’s Pub and now, they’re coming to San Diego Brewing Company. He and the three other partners behind SDBC—his wife Kristina, plus Bob and Lisa Townsend who took over the Chicken Pie Shop nine years ago)—are hosting a seven-course beer dinner on Sunday, February 23 with courses whose fanciness far exceeds typical brewpub fare (think duck confit and chicharron-crusted halibut). Plus an extra beer and a tequila cocktail to top it all off. There are only 40 seats for this inaugural feast, and I’m betting they’ll go quick.
Beth’s Bites
- Happy 10th birthday to Machete Beer House! The National City watering hole has been slinging local craft beer and cocktails since 2015, and owners Joann Cornejo and Eddie Trejo show no signs of slowing down. National City has evolved quite a bit over the last decade, and I think it’s safe to say the duo were on the vanguard of great things to come in the 91950.
- One of the only good things that happened during the pandemic was the rash of surprise babies, a trend where people strategically hid their pregnancies on social media (since we weren’t exactly getting out there IRL), only to reveal the news either in the third trimester, or sometimes not even until after giving birth. I found the antithesis to oversharing both hilarious and heartwarming, and Communal Coffee pulled a similar fast one on all of us this week by announcing their newest location coming soon to Bankers Hill, in the nearly-finished Kaya building. Congrats to the happy parents.
- Local hospitality nonprofit Kitchens for Good is one of only 16 recipients of The Jacques Pépin Foundation’s (JPF) winter 2025 grants. The $10,000 grant will allow Kitchens for Good to continue nurturing the next generation of chefs, bakers, and other aspiring restaurant workers through their educational and advocacy programs (which, in today’s uncertain economy, seems more crucial than ever).
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