Craving a taste of San Diego’s most flavorful history? Book your stay at The Westgate Hotel, just blocks from where the city’s craft beer revolution began, and raise a glass to it all at Bonne Vie Brasserie & Bar.
Long before “San Diego IPA” became a phrase brewers around the world would recognize, this city hadn’t tasted a fresh, independently brewed beer in decades. That changed on a single February day in 1989, just a few blocks from where The Westgate Hotel now stands, and it changed the American beer industry along with it.
The Brewery That Started It All
In 1989, college friends Chris Cramer and Matt Rattner opened Karl Strauss Old Columbia Brewery and Grille at the corner of Columbia and B Streets in downtown San Diego. It was the first brewery to operate in the city since Prohibition, and the first true brewpub San Diego had ever seen. The pair named the operation after Cramer’s cousin, master brewer Karl Strauss, a former Pabst Brewing Company executive who had fled Nazi Germany as a young man and later built a decades-long career in American brewing. Strauss lent the new venture his recipes, his expertise, and his name, and in doing so gave San Diego something it didn’t know it was missing.
A Family Tree of Flavor
What makes San Diego’s beer story remarkable isn’t just where it started; it’s how it grew. Several of Karl Strauss’s earliest employees went on to found breweries of their own. Original tour guide Jack White opened Home Brew Mart in 1992, the supply shop that would eventually grow into Ballast Point Brewing. That same year, former staff members Vince and Gina Marsaglia launched Pizza Port Brewery. As Cramer has said of those early days, the culture that took hold was one of collaborative rivalry, with friends pushing each other to brew something better. That spirit of friendly competition is credited with turning one brewpub into an entire regional industry.
Capital of Craft
Today, San Diego County is home to more than 150 craft breweries, a distinction the San Diego Brewers Guild proudly calls the region’s “Capital of Craft.” The industry has poured well over a billion dollars into the local economy, and Karl Strauss itself, the brewery that started it all, has gone on to win national recognition, including a Great American Beer Festival honor as Mid-Size Brewery of the Year.
Explore It From Downtown
The best part for visitors is that this entire story unfolds within easy reach of downtown. From tasting rooms in the Gaslamp Quarter to the original brewpub still pouring pints near Little Italy, you can trace the roots of America’s craft beer movement on foot from your front door at The Westgate Hotel. When you’re ready to unwind after a day of exploring, settle in at Bonne Vie Brasserie and Bar for a nightcap, or head up to AquaVie’s rooftop to toast the day under the San Diego sky.
San Diego didn’t just join the craft beer movement. It helped invent it, one brewpub, one apprentice, one bold idea at a time. Come taste the history for yourself.