My Beer Pix » pub crawl

Pub Crawling with the Pros in San Diego

Sage — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 19:50:27 +0000

Birthday boy Tony and girlfriend, Carmen

A couple weeks back was the 50th birthday of Churchill’s bartender and all around great guy (even if he is English), Tony Dowson.

To celebrate, friends Kevin Hopkins (who Twitters with the enthusiasm of a 16 year-old girl) and Brian Friel chartered a bus from Brewery Tours of San Diego, assembled 20 or so of Churchill’s most accomplished drinkers, and set off on a grand quest to conquer five of San Diego’s top beer bars.

Naturally, mayhem ensued.

Okay, maybe not so much mayhem, as much as public nudity, hi-jinks, and a (barely) controlled group stagger through a large part of San Diego County.

Here’s the stops we made:

Port Brewing and The Lost Abbey | 155 Mata Way, Suite 104, San Marcos, CA 92069
www.lostabbey.com | Google Maps

This was our launch point. (10 am on a Sunday — no easy launch). We ambushed Tony here and did a little pre-drinking prior to getting on the bus and heading south.
Blind Lady Ale House | 3416 Adams Ave, San Diego, CA 92116
www.blindladyalehouse.com‎ | Google Maps

Excellent atmosphere, tap list and food. (I had some sort of fresh olive dish and mussels; both of which were delicious. The pizza is outstanding too.) Former Stone Brewing brewer Lee Chase and wife Jen are the proprietors, so you know they’ve got lots of great local brews on tap. We had such a great time there we were able to convince Lee to grab his skateboard and hop on our bus to the next couple of stops down 30th street.
Hamilton’s Tavern | 1521 30th St, San Diego, CA‎ 92102
www.hamiltonstavern.com | Google Maps

Hamilton’s is a local legend — a great craft beer tavern with a “dive bar” atmosphere. A huge tap list of local and not-so-local craft brews, and a crowd that’s always ready for another round. We’ve been here a number of times and always enjoyed ourselves.
Toronado San Diego | 4026 30th St, San Diego, CA 92104-2602
www.toronadosd.com | Google Maps

The southern sister to San Francisco’s Toronado, this was actually a re-scheduled stop. We had intended to go to another bar (less big beer, more English stuff as a nod to the birthday boy and a couple of guests), but that got over-ruled and we ended up backtracking up 30th street to the Toronado. Naturally, it has a great tap list (and less scary restrooms than its SF sibling), so somehow we ended up hitting bottles of Cable Car and Toronado 20th in addition to all the other stuff we were drinking. (Things start getting fuzzy here.) This is also where Lee Chase parted ways with us, grabbing his skateboard and rolling back up 30th to the Blind Lady.
Tap Room (Pacific Beach) | 1269 Garnet Ave, San Diego, CA 92109
www.sdtaproom.com | Google Maps
Our final stop, the Tap Room is a couple of blocks from the beach in an are of San Diego known as Pacific Beach. Open and airy, they’ve got an outdoor bar where you can sit and watch San Diego’s beach culture ride by. (Many of them stop and have a pint too.) Again, a great tap list full of local craft brews and an atmosphere that pretty much demands you stop and enjoy at least 3 or 4 leisurely pints. (Can’t wait to get back here again.)

By the time we rolled out of the Tap Room (and I do mean some of us were rolled), it was closing on 6pm. Thankfully we were at least half an hour from our original rendezvous point back at Lost Abbey, so many were able to grab a quick nap. And the really hardcore professionals were able to grab another pint on the bus.

After drop off in the brewery parking lot (and a couple of people being shoveled into taxis), I’m happy to say that other than a phone, a backpack, and a few billion braincells, nothing else was lost on our adventure.

All-in-all, not a bad birthday party. Happy birthday, again, Tony. Hope you have 50 more. For anyone visiting from out of town, I highly recommend each one of the stop we made… Just get someone like brewery tours of San Diego to drive you.

And for those of you who’d like a visual accounting of the entire thing, here’s a photo album (I’ll get around to commenting on the photos some other time):

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PS: Thanks to Ivan Derezin of Churchills. Even though he could attend (his loss), he ponied up for a part of the cost of the bus. A very cool gesture indeed.

Churchill’s Pub Crawl Wrap-up – Part 1

Sage — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 01:52:08 +0000

As many of you already know, this past Saturday, January 17th was the (quasi) annual pub crawl sponsored by Churchill’s Pub and Grille here in North County San Diego. For Beer Molly this is one of the seven or eight highlights of the year (right behind her birthday, Christmas, and any other event at which she might receive a gift), mostly because she gets to wear one of her (many) dirndls, drink beer and remind everyone how she got the “Beer Molly” moniker to begin with.

Warming up at Adam Ts.

The day started bright and early with a rendezvous with the Monkeys (Mike and Michelle), Justin and Sarah, and Kenan and Sheryl, at Adam T.’s house at 9:30 a.m. or so where we did a “pre-drinking” in preparation for the big day ahead. After a couple of Bloody Marys we all piled into the van and had Adam’s son Ryan chauffeur us over to Churchills.

At Churchills we had breakfast, another beer or two, and piled on to the limo busses Ivan had secured for the pub crawl. I have to admit, the buses were sweet. They each sat forty people and the seats were arranged so that everyone faced each other. A jockey box and keg of Port Brewing’s Midnight Sessions were at the front of the bus; a big-assed flat screen TV was mounted to the back. (My only regret — the other bus had a stripper pole in the back, which would have been very entertaining after the third or so stop.)

Once the bus was off and rolling, we quickly got down to the business of settling in and drinking more beer on our 30 minute drive down to El Cajon for our first stop.

Stop 1: Main Tap Tavern, El Cajon, CA

Main Tap Tavern, El Cajon, CA

Main Tap Tavern sits on East Main Street in the heart of El Cajon, about 20 minutes east of San Diego. El Cajon is a working class town; not something I’d consider a tourist destination. Downtown looks a little tired; ethnic markets, liquor stores, vacant lots and empty shops make up a good portion of its population.

As a result, I was pleasantly surprised when the bus pulled up in front of the freshly painted, stone façade building that houses Main Tap.

Main Tap Tavern's Taps

Inside was even better. Clean and comfortable, the bar runs nearly the length of the place and 24 taps with hand-blown tap handles serve as the centerpiece of the backbar. (Molly commented that the handles look a lot like some of her favorite adult toys. They do, but the tap handles do more for me.) At the back was a large outdoor patio that proved to be a favorite spot among the pub crawlers to sit and enjoy a balmy winter’s day with a pint.

The beer selection was excellent. Many of San Diego’s craft breweries were well represented, as were plenty of others from around the state and the country. I ordered a pint of Firestone Walker’s Velvet Merkin and took a seat near the large windows that open onto Main Street, which proved to be a great people-watching spot (one of my favorite pastimes).

We stayed at the Main Tap for a little more than an hour and then had to move on to stay on schedule. In all I thought it was a great bar, and if I lived anywhere near there, would definitely make it my local. As it is, if I ever have reason to be in El Cajon again, I’ll make it a point to drop in again.

Stop 2: Hamilton’s Tavern, San Diego, CA

Hamilton's Tavern and Cafe, San Diego, CA

Hamilton’s Tavern sits at the south end of San Diego’s famed “Beer Avenue,” 30th Street. (So many great beer bars line this road that Green Flash Brewing actually produced a beer called 30th Street Pale in its honor.) Beer Molly and I have been there a number of times and we never fail to have a lot of fun.

Not too long ago Hamilton’s took over what was once a small café next door, so now they have a small kitchen where they make an assortment of pub food. As a result, when our bus rolled up and we wandered in, one of the pool tables had been converted into a buffet table and loaded with an assortment of hot wings, poppers, and hop sausages – perfect fare for our now well-lubricated crowd.

Inside Hamilton's

Shortly after taking up a spot near the shuffleboard table someone brought me a pint (I’m embarrassed to admit that I don’t know what it was other than a decent West Coast-style IPA), and me and my companions proceeded to play shuffleboard and drink our way through the afternoon. At one point I recall catching a glimpse through the window of Beer Molly army-man crawling in her dirndl on the sidewalk out front. Turns out, she was sneaking up on someone to photograph this.

We stayed our time at Hamilton’s and then loaded back onto the bus for the two-mile trip up 30th Street to the Toronado.

Next: Churchill’s Pub Crawl part 2

Check out the pub crawl slideshow: