Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs
Dave_Rice's avatar

Dave Rice

Dave Rice is a Reader contributor. See staff page for published articles.

Are smaller brewpubs over and out?

I'm a little late to the party (just realizing that SD Beer News no longer shows up in the list of other staff blogs and I've been missing out), but I've got to agree to some extent with some of the comments here. El Cajon Brewing beers, the one time that I visited, were underwhelming. And the scene was pretty depressing - on a Saturday evening around 8:00 there were maybe a dozen seniors gathered around a couple appetizer plates sipping water and perhaps hosting a sewing club meeting. No one else - my party had one round (at least a few people ordered different beers and let me try them) and left before we even got to order food. LJ Brewhouse was notorious for problems with its brewer/owner relations (Brandon has documented this), and I never got anything beyond mediocre/slightly disappointing service the handful of times I was in there. Bailey's imminent closing/changing hands is probably the result of an also well-publicized rift between owners. I hope someone picks up the torch and runs with it, I've heard good things about the place but haven't been up to Julian to pay a visit. Rock Bottom, really more a chain restaurant than a craft brewery, isn't a huge loss in my eyes. As mentioned, they'll still have one local outpost, and the multiple personality disorder, as well as the tremendously competitive nature of the high-rent district downtown, probably just aren't a fit when what they're doing isn't as unique as it was ten years ago. Still, it's a shame to see any business fold. The upside is that two of these four have a chance of reopening/staying open with new owners in place, and the new Stone near me is so busy I haven't even been able to get in the few times I've tried to venture down.
— August 23, 2013 6:10 p.m.

Temper flares at Ocean Beach Planning Board meeting

Mercy - like many of us locals, I'm sure you've been following the issue for some time. And I'm sure we'll all continue to, as you say the wheels turn slowly indeed. You're right in that the best solution would probably be a police outpost in the lifeguard tower which, from my understanding, is showing its 50+ years of age pretty badly. Anyone who's ever used the public restrooms knows what a travesty they are. So I've got to imagine that we'll be due for a new tower sooner than later (though "sooner" could still mean another 10 years), and I think the long term solution would be to design it with a small police storefront. So far as the trailer goes - marking it with a "Police Trailer" sign is no good because the sign gets vandalized? I think that says it all right there - no one is stupid enough to walk up to a police cruiser and vandalize it if there's an officer sitting inside it or standing nearby. The very fact that vandalism of police property is a concern speaks volumes to the fact that the public (especially the under-pier dwellers, equivalent to The Wall's denizens when I was younger) knows that the trailer is in no way actually functioning as the "presence" needed. If it's got to stay there, can we get someone to use it? Let officers that "write their reports" inside do so with the door open, make a point of having officers in cruisers stop by and hang out, anything to convey the message that there's something going on to create a genuine police presence. In my 7+ years as a resident I've never seen anyone going in or out...
— August 10, 2013 10:20 a.m.

Ask a Hipster — Advice you didn't know you needed Big Screen — Movie commentary Blurt — Music's inside track Booze News — San Diego spirits Classical Music — Immortal beauty Classifieds — Free and easy Cover Stories — Front-page features Drinks All Around — Bartenders' drink recipes Excerpts — Literary and spiritual excerpts Feast! — Food & drink reviews Feature Stories — Local news & stories Fishing Report — What’s getting hooked from ship and shore From the Archives — Spotlight on the past Golden Dreams — Talk of the town The Gonzo Report — Making the musical scene, or at least reporting from it Letters — Our inbox Movies@Home — Local movie buffs share favorites Movie Reviews — Our critics' picks and pans Musician Interviews — Up close with local artists Neighborhood News from Stringers — Hyperlocal news News Ticker — News & politics Obermeyer — San Diego politics illustrated Outdoors — Weekly changes in flora and fauna Overheard in San Diego — Eavesdropping illustrated Poetry — The old and the new Reader Travel — Travel section built by travelers Reading — The hunt for intellectuals Roam-O-Rama — SoCal's best hiking/biking trails San Diego Beer — Inside San Diego suds SD on the QT — Almost factual news Sheep and Goats — Places of worship Special Issues — The best of Street Style — San Diego streets have style Surf Diego — Real stories from those braving the waves Theater — On stage in San Diego this week Tin Fork — Silver spoon alternative Under the Radar — Matt Potter's undercover work Unforgettable — Long-ago San Diego Unreal Estate — San Diego's priciest pads Your Week — Daily event picks
4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs
Close

Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

This Week’s Reader This Week’s Reader