Get the Explodo Dog: bacon-wrapped, pepper jack cheese, housemade kimchi, and mustard. (Also get a whole bunch of napkins.) Eat it on the pier. Rip off a piece for the resident pelican. Enjoy the view.
This is Fathom Bistro Bait and Tackle. It’s run by a local kid, Dennis Borlek. He grew up a couple streets up. Learned to fish on this pier as a kid. Played in loud bands. He was a doula for the city’s craft beer scene, managing early iconic spots like Liar’s Club and Small Bar.
Later on, wondering what the hell to do with the rest of his life, he came across a for lease sign on this snack bar. Normal people wouldn’t see much in it. Dennis saw home.
“My dad was in the Navy, on submarines,” he says. “We’d watch his ships leave. As soon as they open the door, I see that giant window that looks right out to Point Loma, and you can just see the submarine base right there. It had to happen.”
He filled it with seafaring and pop culture doohickeys, enough Nat Geos to bring the ’70s back, and the best damn craft beer. He once rigged a system to lower kegs into the water to keep ’em cold.
“If I build a place that I want to hang out, like-minded people will also want to hang out. I believe that there are things that are just meant to be.”
Dennis is the punk rock Jacques Cousteau of craft beer, and Fathom is the most San Diego place in the world.
