San Diego - early 2018 recommendations

I'd make a stop at Wild Barrel between Lost Abbey and Stone, their San Diego Vice series is exceptional and the rest of their lineup is good.

Around Alesmith, Mikkeller is a decent stop to knock off some tasters. Some people will recommend Pure Project since it's right in the area. I think they're wildly inconsistent and have more misses than hits, but YMMV.

If you make it into North Park, Rip Current, North Park Beer Co, and Eppig are all worth stopping at and of course Toronado anchors that corridor.

Kindred has some good vegan food as well as excellent cocktails if you're into that. It's also two doors down from Hamilton's, which is an essential beer bar. Good one-two punch.

 

If at Alesmith, I would recommend visiting Mikkeller (they are on Cabot at the old Alesmith location).
If at Societe, I would recommend visiting Council since they are only a few blocks away.
It at Lost Abbey, I would recommend visiting Wild Barrel (east of the DMV and sheriff station, also has video games and batting cages for your children...axe throwing too, but I wouldn't really recommend that for your kids, hehehe)

Edit: Get out of my head Xul.

 

@Xul @SDReaper thanks again!

 

You'd find good food at ABC, but would be better off hitting up Urge Gastropub for food and beer if you're in RB.

 

if you're in the vista/SM/escondido area, I highly suggest Churchills. I believe the owner is vegan, so he's made sure to include quite a variety of vegan/vegetarian options to the menu. Great for groups with mixed dietary preferences and awesome tap and bottle list as well.

Another brewery I'll put out there that isn't actually too far is Burgeon Beer Co. It's technically in Carlsbad, but it's actually not that far out of the way.

 

I know Toronado and Kindred have a lot of vegetarian options.

 

I second both of @Xul @SDReaper recent recommendations. Depending on what you are looking for vegan food wise, I am quite a fan of the veggie burgers at both Burger Lounge and Habit Grill plus great options at Veggie Grill and Which Which. Kindred is always a good stop and I agree Churchills usually has some great vegan options. Sit down vegan tends to be thai for me so Amarin Thai in Hillcrest is always great and has good mock duck option for curry.

 

Thanks, will check that out.

We have done Churchill's many times in the past, for both CFH and randomly, have talked with the owner and really appreciate the combination of beer choices + vegan options. We'll likely stop by again, and Burgeon sounds cool, will check it out. Thank you.

We are definitely going to do Kindred, we did it in 2016 after Festival of Funk, but I don't remember it lol

The other options you listed are helpful, especially Thai, always a crowd pleaser. Thanks again man.

 

Lots of good recs above, just a couple things to maybe add:

Sipz on 30th is ok. Decent to fuel up if you're doing any of the brewery tasting rooms or awesome bars down there.

I like a couple of the fast food options: Evolution Fast Food hits the spot and has good fake meats, and Plant Power Fast Food is pretty good, too.

 

Just keep in mind that evolution uses jack fruit for a lot of their stuff. Make sure to ask if you don't like Jack fruit. I'm not a fan of it as a meat substitute.

 

Back home now and just wanted to follow up. Had a great time, thanks all for the recommendations. Ended up hitting:

Alesmith
Mikkeller
Modern Times (Loma)
Lost Abbey
Stone

Stone was really great for lunch and as a spot to just sit and work on my laptop, had never done that before and it was nice.

Lost Abbey was just a stop-in for the Veritas pick up, they did have tiny tasters (2oz?) of some of their more sought after beers BA Serpents, Red Poppy, etc available for $5 each. Don't remember them having any of the good stuff available on tap years ago.

Food-wise, hit Kindred (did Hamilton's also), Evolution, Plant Power Fast Food. Kindred was amazing, Evolution was pretty great for fast food. Also did Civico 1845 in Little Italty, which has a pretty excellent vegan menu.

Wish I had time to do more, but sort of stuck with the more "proven" breweries with a 1 year old. Thanks again. Next trip will branch out more.

 

When West Coast IPAs became a thing, all the breweries in Boston didn't suddenly start producing all pine bombs, all the time. They eventually evolved their own ideas and did their own thing. NE style has certainly picked up here and half the breweries have a take on it with about half of those being worth a damn. It's not an easy style to do well and I'm glad that's far from the only thing I can get. A lot of people here love the NE stuff, but also love the West Coast stuff.

MT, Mikkeller, Abnormal, and Pure Project all do a great job with those, as do a few others here and there. I don't ever expect this town to go full NE style because it's not a place about copying others and I like it that way.