San Diego recommendations (so many options)

Thanks to all who answered, or posted in this thread, it helped!

My wife and I spent 7 days in SD (5) and Carlsbad (2).

Thursday - after traveling all day, we wanted to stay close to the hotel, so we took the front desk recommendation to visit Lazy Dog near Hotel Circle. Great atmosphere, very good food and we had a couple of Lazy Dog brews (contract brewed by Golden Road). The Pale and IPA were both very good.

Friday - Toured the USS Midway. A wonderful job by volunteer veterans (former officers/pilots & enlisted). If you the have the time, support our vets.. take a tour. Next, it was on to Bottlecraft Shop at Liberty Station. My wife and I arrived at 4PM, with the intentions of drinking a couple of drafts (Karl Strauss Queen of Tarts, Burgeon - Interstellar, and I believe Faction - Spring IPA), and some food from the vast choices we had at the market. Chatted with Ethan and Lance at BC, then started getting into the 'buy a bottle/can and consume' theory at BC. We wound up closing the place down..

Saturday - In the early afternoon, we were off to Ocean Beach. We did some serious gift shopping, then went to early dinner at Wonderland. Food and beer (Mother Earth - Cali Creamin') were excellent, but the biggest surprise was the ocean view, along with the beach vibe. We moved on to Societe and enjoyed The Apprentice, The Pupil and my favorite while there, The Coachman (great tasting session). While at Societe, we had ourselves a few tacos from the foodtruck just outside the door. On to Modern Times. I tried a couple 8 oz tastings of their DDH Orderville and Orderville. Next up was Game Impact, then their Eye Spy IPA, which stole the whole show for both my wife and myself. Eye Spy has a light taste of almond and strawberry.. and the best vanilla flavored beer I've had to date. De-f'n-licious.

Sunday - Took off for Liberty Station area again, this time to visit a couple of old favorites of mine that I was craving.. some Weinerschnitzel chili-cheese hot dogs, on Rosecrans. We then hit Old Town for the Sunday Cinco-De-Mayo celebration. We hung out, shopped, walked, did some more shopping.. before going back to the hotel for more chow, and some California brewed beer (in cans): K.S.- Aurora Hoppyalis, M.T. - Orderville, The Hop Concept - Hop Freshener.

Monday - After using Uber for the last 4 days, we rented a car and drove to Carlsbad. We checked in, then hit the beach to hang out a little while. My wife had never been to the west coast, and I wanted her to stick her toes in the Pacific Ocean sand with me. Accomplished. We then hit Pizza Port for lunch and a beer (Ponto?), took a cruise down the coast, then Uber'd over to Rouleur Brewing for a few beers. I had my 1st Belgian Pale (Puncheur) ever. Not sure about Belgians yet, but this was definitely better than I expected. I also had a Won't You Be My Neighbor IPA, and stepped it up to Dopeur, which was excellent.Thanks Ryan!

Tuesday - relax day. Took it easy (gave our livers a break) for the most part, and did some walking around Carlsbad, primarily the shops and whatnot. We had dinner at Coyote (Taco Tuesday baby!), and took a nice drive.

Wednesday - sad time. Dropped the car off at the airport and caught the flight home.

Since I had been to SD for Naval Training (NTC) many moons ago, I was familiar with the layout of the area, and wanted to get back there for way too long. The sights and sounds were mostly new.. but the attitude and fun factor was still there. Every person we dealt with, from the airport, the hotels, breweries, and everywhere in between, we were treated fantastically. Every beer was delicious, and although you really wouldn't know by this post, so was the food.

The only negative.. there were NO bottles of PtE to be found. Heard about it, read about it.. just couldn't locate it. We went to at least 7 beer stores (not including gas stations), and called others on the phone. No luck. Rip Current IPA(s) were not available either. I was able to bring home some PP, Fremont, Kern River, Latitude 33 , Mason Aleworks and Artifex beer, but haven't dug into them yet.

We already started planning our visit to SD again next year .. Pliny.

 

I honestly haven't seen Pliny around SD that much in the last year or so. You could always go to the source and get some (and get a trip to the bay area in the process)

 

Two stops to Liberty Station and no visit to Stone? Interesting.

 

A few of the people at the bottle shops said Pliny has been hit or miss lately. With no set schedule.. it's harder to predict when it would be in.

Not really.. I can get all the Stone I want here in Delaware. We were looking to try "outside the box, and impossible to get back home" brews.

 

I still see Pliny at least once a month at Bottlecraft in Solana Beach. I want to say more like every other week, but maybe it's only once a month.

All this Pliny talk makes me want to get one next time I see it. It's been awhile.

 

... or you could plan a visit to the SF bay area and get Pliny at the source

 

I should mention (although I may have already mentioned it upthread) that I was able to pick up Pliny bottles at 2 different locations (Krisp and Bine & Vine) when I visited at the end of March. Not sure if those places are still reliable.

 

Not ruling that out at all.. however, my wife absolutely loved SD. She kept commenting on the weather, the lack of humidity (she HATES humidity). The day after we got back (while I was in the shower), she opened the BR door, and said "I'm ready.. let's go back!" She was not kidding.. she was dead serious.

While SF is possible, I think it'll be a hard sell to go anywhere but back to SD.

 

SD is better...we don't bastardize our burritos by adding rice to them. We also add "THE" to all of our freeways. =P

But the few times I have been up to the bay have been quite fun.

 

You could always check the various bars that tend to have Pliny on tap fairly regularly. It is much easier to encounter on tap and better that way anyway. I know O'Briens in Clairemont not too far from Societe tends to have it on tap somewhat regularly and others may chime in with some other good options.

 

That's where I had it on tap in March, and it was also on at Toronado.

 

That's fair - but you guys add French fries to your burritos. At least stay within the same culture!

 

In college there was a guy who would always order burritos with "all meat". Nothing else. We made constant fun of him for eating like a little kid. Later in life I move to SD and discover they all eat burritos like little kids here. What sort of monster doesn't at least add fucking cheese and sour cream? You want to eat a giant taco? Come to SD and order a burrito.

The quality of the ingredients is top shelf though, they just don't know how to use them. And pastor's hard to come by. Bay area taquerias simply don't *not* have pastor. Seems like approx 50% here don't have it. Sometimes they try to offer adobada as a substitute. No thanks. And for fuck's sake, not a single place understands the concept of foil. Even more embarrassing than not using it is when they put it *over* paper. Lol, wut?

Nothing beats a good SF burrito.

 

Well, you got us there....although I do prefer french fries in my california burrito when compared to others that use chunks of potatoes. I just can't do rice in it. Sure, I will get it on the side....but just seems like a filler when inside the burrito in order to not have to put in as much meat (or veggies if that is more your thing).

 

Wife and I will be staying in Ocean Beach (not far from OB noodle house) for a few days later this month. I'm aware of Belching Beaver, OB Noodle House locations, Pizza Port OB. Any highly recommended beer and food spots anyone cares to throw out at me? We will most likely NOT be venturing out of OB and just laying low and relaxing, lots of beach time expected.

 

The fish tacos at South Beach Bar & Grille are huge, tasty and very affordable! And I get you want to stay in OB, but NOT going to Modern Times at least once would be a damn shame ... it's super close and a cheap Uber.

 

As a SD transplant living is SF........

Please don't get me started on the Shitty burritos this city tries to pass off as good. It's embarrassing.

 

Thanks! We will likely hit up MT, I know it's close by. I have been to SD numerous times and have hit up a ton of breweries and beer bars. This time we will be just chilling with no set agenda. That's why I am looking for any beer bar and/or food spots in close proximity to where we will be at in OB. I will definitely check out the fish tacos!

 

MT is a can't miss. I go there all the time and I'm never disappointed. You're also not far from Culture Brewing, a Hess location and Eppig's Waterfront Biergarten. If you're feeling like lounging and enjoying the view I definitely recommend Eppig.

 

I believe Belching Beaver has a taproom in OB as well.