Brew Pubs in San Diego,Ca

I'm not questioning that useful, pertinent information could be found through a search. I'm questioning whether its a useful practice to complain about an already posted request for help after the post has already been made, rather than just being helpful and saying what you think. It's not "filtering out needless duplicate posts" at all because the post is already there.

 

Downtown is pretty much the Gaslamp District. Few people that are there have cars, and it is a bit of a cab ride (though quite doable) or a 45 minute bus ride out to the nearest Pizza Port in Ocean Beach. In a 2-day vacation without a car, I don't think I'd send him up to Solana Beach or Carlsbad.

 

It's general message board etiquette to use the search function first before posting. That's what I'm trying to encourage at least. You're only encouraging the behavior I'd like to see limited.

I'll share a bit of anecdotal evidence. A few years ago I was taking a trip to Portland and needed some advice on restaurants in the area I was visiting. I chose to inquire on the local Chowhound board. I first asked for suggestions on where to eat, providing nothing in the way of useful information that would help users steer me in the right direction. I got nothing but crickets.

I then decided to change my approach and do a bit of research first. I read through some previous posts on the topic and decided to post again. In my second attempt, I provided pertinent info like where my hotel was located along with places that I had already found through the research. I asked for a critique on my list along with places to fill in the gaps. Guess what? I received a host of thoughtful replies that wouldn't have been possible if I didn't show that I made some effort beforehand.

 

Some of this is perception of a how a forum works. Some people see it as little more than a Twitterish entity, and don't think of it as a deep archive of knowledge. Living in Michigan, the OP's home forum (Great Lakes) is probably not dominated by one city like the Pacific forum has been by San Diego. It may not be ingrained behavior for other forum participants to look at the first few pages and do a search before asking a question.

On the other hand, had this been an LA DB, he'd be more deserving of ridicule.

 

Pizza Port Solana Beach is very close to the racetrack; be sure that is on your itinerary. If you are taking the train to the races (which many people do), it's right by the Solana Beach station.

 

Pizza Port in Ocean Beach was fantastic. Also, the only bar with Pliny on tap. I highly recommend it.

 

If you stay near the track and plan to do anything other than go to the beach, the races, and a nearby bar/restaurant you will NEED a car. Otherwise, stay downtown or save money and stay near hotel circle in fashion/mission valley(?) - take the train to the races on saturday, hit pizza port, brand new (sister) restaurant Sublime Tavern should have a good variety of local flavor... though I haven't made it there yet. Friday you can either take a trip out to Alpine if you have a car or hop around town via bus/cab and you'll be fine - just follow advice of previous threads re: downtown

 

Pliny has been on draft at about 10+ locations around town on a fairly regular basis, with bottles often easy to grab as well

 

Will you be renting a car or relying on mass transit (which overall is not that great in SD)?

PP Solana Beach is a great place to hit up by the race tracks, otherwise, there is not much around there (beer wise).

If you don't have a car, there should be enough place downtown to entertain your beer needs for the day. I highly recommend the Neighborhood for food and drink (the also have a speakeasy place at night called Noble Experiment that makes mixed drinks. you have to reserve a spot via text, google them and you should find the info). I would also suggest going to Downtown Johnny Brown's. You can check out their tap list on their website. If you are in search of bottles, go to Krisp Market.

If you have a car Alpine is a great option for lunch and beer. There is also O'brien's (good food), Societe, and Helm's real close together.

Otherwise my suggestion is to go to Brewer's lane, aka Mirmar Rd with Green Flash, Alesmith, White Labs (mainly for homebrewers and uber beer geeks), Rough Draft, Hess, Ballast Point, and a few other places. None serve food, unless there is a food truck in front of the tasting room.

Last option is hitting up Ocean Beach (could do this in an evening). Pizza Port OB is great. If you are in the area between 4-9:30 you can hit up Olive Tree Market and go to their tasting room, they also have a great beer selection and helpful staff. Also in OB is Raglan House and Newport Pizza. Session's Public is in the same area, and have good Moscow Mules and other mixed drinks along with beer if you are looking for something different. Their food is pretty good too (my favorite Burger in SD)

 

Are you noodling your way out of another suggestion in OB?

 

I don't care for that place...well during the day I have heard it is fine (only been in the evening). It is way too loud (Club Noodle?) and packed with a different scene than I care for. Sitting out on their patio sucks because there are constantly people standing two feet outside of the door smoking right in that area. I think it can be a good spot for locals who know about it and don't mind the scene, but I am not going to recommend it for others coming from out of town and might have a miserable time there.