Howdy! I'm heading to Sante Adairius tomorrow with some friends, coming from LA. We are staying tonight in Santa Cruz, near downtown. I was wondering about what you guys think are the best most interesting bottle shops and bars. We are very much into the sour turf, but also IPAs, saisons, et al. Would very much appreciate some tips for tonight since, alas, Sante Adairius doesn't seem to be carrying any bottles now. Thanks in advance!
Lupulo downtown is a must. Nice selection of to go bottles and pretty awesome tap list. Almost always some Sante or Cellarmaker on. Burger on Mission has good taps and solid food. Aptos St Bbq or Mission St Bbq have very good taps and amazing bbq. Bottleshops aren't the best in Santa Cruz, but AJs near Sante has a nice selection to go with solid food (it's inside a gas station), and Whole Foods has a decent selection too. I'm sure others can chime in with more suggestions.
As others have suggested, I would highly recommend Burger and Aptos St. While Lupulo is a welcome addition to the largely mediocre and/or uneven beer scene downtown, I'm not sure why I'd want to go there as opposed to Burger and Aptos St. Lupulo does have a pretty interesting tap list (especially for Santa Cruz), but the selection is relatively small and the prices are high. If you're staying downtown, then it's nice to be able to walk over to Lupulos, but Burger is no more than a 5 or 10 minute drive to get to, and Aptos St. no more than 15 or 20 minutes away. That being said, I'd go to any of the places recommended above over Red's, 515 or 99 bottles. Have fun.
Burger for shurger! Great selection at decent prices and more importantly: baked beans and cole slaw on a burger = The Biggie Smalls!
For downtown, Lupulo is where it's at. Burger is great for beer, but (and this might be snobbery) maybe go there after eating somewhere else.
If so, then I guess I'm a snob as well. The beer line-up is great, but I've never been impressed by the food there (Burger). There are so many interesting places to grab a bite in Santa Cruz, it just always seems like a waste of time and calories to eat at Burger. I might feel differently if I still lived there, but as someone who visits now just a couple times a year, there are just too many other places I'd prefer to eat instead.
