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Tom Arnold's Old Places: The Aero Club
Choose from among 1200 whiskies
You are cleared for takeoff.
The idea of writing about old places in San Diego County has been something I’ve been mulling around for years – but I kept putting it off because coming up with the parameters was a lot harder than I imagined. In the end, I decided to focus on businesses and restaurants that have been in the same place, with the same name and line of business, for at least 50 years.
The Aero Club was opened by a female pilot named Marianne Profit who, according to the bar’s website, “wanted a place close to the airport [where she] and her fellow pilots could enjoy a drink.” The bar soon became a popular hangout for young military types, but over the decades, it slowly plummeted toward dive bar status. Until the '80s, that is, when — perhaps because of its reputation — it became popular with rockers like Eddie Vedder, who in his pre-Pearl Jam days was a regular. Today, the Aero Club still looks divey from the outside, but on the inside, it’s a classy, hip affair known for its selection of whiskeys (1200 strong), draft beers and proprietary craft cocktails such as the San Diego Whiskey Sour, made with Buffalo Trace Bourbon, simple syrup, egg white, sour mix, cinnamon dust, and red wine. Among the most visible links to the past are vintage airplane parts and memorabilia that date back to the post-WWII years. Some have been on display since the bar opened.
Editor's note: Reader party scribe Chad Deal visited the Aero Club when its whiskey count was a mere 600. A few years later, Set 'Em Up Joe's Joseph O'Brien stopped by for a Be Good or Be Gone. And a few years after that, Moss Gropen included it in his roundup of bars for grown-ups.
Here's something you might be interested in.
Tom Arnold's Old Places: The Aero Club
Choose from among 1200 whiskies
Tom Arnold's Old Places: The Aero Club
Choose from among 1200 whiskies
You are cleared for takeoff.
The idea of writing about old places in San Diego County has been something I’ve been mulling around for years – but I kept putting it off because coming up with the parameters was a lot harder than I imagined. In the end, I decided to focus on businesses and restaurants that have been in the same place, with the same name and line of business, for at least 50 years.
The Aero Club was opened by a female pilot named Marianne Profit who, according to the bar’s website, “wanted a place close to the airport [where she] and her fellow pilots could enjoy a drink.” The bar soon became a popular hangout for young military types, but over the decades, it slowly plummeted toward dive bar status. Until the '80s, that is, when — perhaps because of its reputation — it became popular with rockers like Eddie Vedder, who in his pre-Pearl Jam days was a regular. Today, the Aero Club still looks divey from the outside, but on the inside, it’s a classy, hip affair known for its selection of whiskeys (1200 strong), draft beers and proprietary craft cocktails such as the San Diego Whiskey Sour, made with Buffalo Trace Bourbon, simple syrup, egg white, sour mix, cinnamon dust, and red wine. Among the most visible links to the past are vintage airplane parts and memorabilia that date back to the post-WWII years. Some have been on display since the bar opened.
Editor's note: Reader party scribe Chad Deal visited the Aero Club when its whiskey count was a mere 600. A few years later, Set 'Em Up Joe's Joseph O'Brien stopped by for a Be Good or Be Gone. And a few years after that, Moss Gropen included it in his roundup of bars for grown-ups.