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By Kevin Wilkerson, PubClub.com San Diego Nightlife Blogger
Happy Holidays from PubClub.com!
Whether or not it’s the most wonderful time of the year depends on one’s own vantage point – I mean summers are pretty awesome here – but it sure is colorful, fun and puts a smile on the face. There’s a ton of activities happening in San Diego for the holidays, as well as bar and restaurant news worth passing along to you. So put on your Santa hat, some appropriate music (“Jingle Bell Rock” or “All I Want For Christmas” are fine choices) and grab a seasonal cocktail for here is PubClub.com’s rundown of San Diego holiday events and bar and restaurant news for December. Plus, a feature on our Bar Manager of the Month!
What’s New For San Diego’s Bars In December
• Good Night John Boy, the John Travolta, Saturday Night Fever (complete with lighted dance floor) is now the seasonal pop-up X-Mas bar. It’s one of several bars in the city that have taken on a holiday theme, including Duck Dive in PB, which is full of decorations and the Lafayette Hotel bar. If you like live music like me, you’ll love El After Social, a pop-up in what was a taco place on 5th & F a couple doors down from Trailer Park After Dark. Pro’s Tip: The Xmas bar is adding an automatic 20% tip to your tab, which turned my $8 beer into $10.50. So be warned to check your tabs before signing there and at other Christmas-themed bars and restaurants.
• I’m always looking for places with live music and I came across these two: The Pub, a cool little watering hole in Baypark (right across the Claremont Blue Line stop) has a live Celtic band every other Saturday, so in December it would be Dec. 13, 20 and 27 and spilling into 2026 it’s Jan. 20 and 24. It starts at 6:30 (this is not a late-night place) and the food there is excellent. In PB, 710 Beach Club, home to November Bartender of the Month Natalie, has bands on Saturday nights.
• Modern Times has turned The Local downtown into Timestead. The location at Fourth & C is retro western and futuristic sci-fi bar. In addition to craft beers, it has a full liquor license to serve mixed drinks. Modern Times, interestingly, no longer brews it’s beer; it is made by Alesmith. For sports, Timestead shows soccer and Green Bay Packers games. The Local was a Packers bar for downtown/Gaslamp/East Village residents.
• The liquor license of Mr. Tempo in the Theater Box building on 5th & G has been suspended. According to a very complete story in SanDiegoVille, it was due to a complicated set of circumstances involving all the businesses at the property. The Mr. Tempo owners, it reported, are eyeing opening at 4th & Market where there used to be a Hooters and most recently the it-was-cool-to-go-there-one-time WNDR Museum. The revoked liquor license applied to the property and not the business.
• The Smoking Gun is featuring Peppermint Espresso Martini as its cocktail of the month. It is made with Absolut Vodka, peppermint, Irish cream, cold brew from its sister Spill the Beans coffee stand, and cost $12.
• Little Italy’s Cloak & Petal has launched its holiday menu with food and drink specials through January 6. On the drink side, there is Santa’s Apples (Averna, apple brandy, grenadine, lemon), Kringle Colada (Haku, pineapple, coconut cream, lemon, St. Elizabeth allspice dram), and Have a Peary Christmas (white rum, St. George spiced pear, honey, lemon, fee foam). On the food side from Executive Chef Robert Cassidy, there is Pan Seared Miso Salmon (garlic quinoa, yuzu kosho sweet peas, pickled red onion, petite pea tendrils, Agedama) and the Winter Wonderland Roll (salmon, chipotle tuna, shrimp tempura, cucumber, torched lemon aioli, jalapeno cream cheese, cranberry ponzu, dehydrated orange zest, yuzu sale and petit shiso).
• La Mesa Village’s Coin Haus, the self-pour beer bar and arcade, has updated its tap list for the holiday season, and new selections include One Tree Pumpkin Cider, Le Seul IX Strawberry Sour, Human People Muzak DIPA, Great Notion Tiny Little Scissors IPA, and Hubbard’s Cave French Toast Stout. Wine and readymade cocktails are also available.
• Karl Strauss Brewing Company this week released winter seasonal pairings at its downtown brewpub, where you fill find PubClub.com Bar Manager of the Month Scott Watkins (keep reading). Executive Chef Corey Rapp has created Black Garlic Fondue with the suggested pairing of O.G. Amber Lager and the BBQ Pork Sando with the suggested pairing of Hard Cherry Cola. The Fondue features oven-warmed brie and gorgonzola with beer onions, black garlic, roasted red peppers, sesame chili crips, and grilled bread. O.G. Amber Lager was Karl Strauss’ very first beer when it opened in 1989. The BBQ Pork Sando includes smoked pulled pork, spicy habanero-cherry cola BBQ sauce, red onion, pasilla, curry kale sale, and toasted brioche. Cherry Cola is Karl Strauss’ hard soda that recently became a mainstay in the brewpub.
• Monello, an award-winning Italian restaurant located in Little Italy (750 W. Fir Street) has a trio of Italian Picnic packages all month, for including Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve. They are: La Dolce Vita with a salumi e formaggi board with cheese, caprese salad and bread; penne with creamy beef ragù; and mini cannoli. The price is $180 (four to six people) or $320 for eight to 12 diners. Parma has polpette in spicy tomato sauce; Caesar salad and bread; truffle and mushroom rigatoni; and mini cannoli. The cost is $200 (four to six guests) or $360 for eight to 12 people. Bel Paese has include meatballs in spicy tomato sauce; caprese salad and bread; pizza margherita; penne with creamy beef ragù; and mini cannoli. The price is $225 (four to six) or $380 for eight to 12 people.
• Temaki Bar: Handroll, Sushi, Sake in Encinitas has three festive cocktails for December. They are: Santa’s Little Helper, a 16-ounce imperial stout, priced at $9; Cotton-Headed Ninny Muggins, a combination of candy cane–infused Skyy Vodka shaken with white chocolate liqueur, vanilla and crushed candy canes, priced at $18; and Navidad, a citrus-forward cocktail made with Don Julio Blanco and Del Maguey Vida Espadín, blood orange, cranberry and cinnamon agave, priced at $18. There are also various food deals and at its monthly bingo night is (Monday, Dec. 1, 6-8 p.m.) anyone showsup in an ugly holiday sweater or onesie gets a complimentary sake bomb. “Bingo Bells” includes $6 draft wine, beer and sake, as well as $8 Mexican sake bombs.
• Encinitas Ale House, a great spot for big beers and good food (the burgers are especially juicy) has announced it will be closing. But not just yet. Next summer. In a social media post it stated: “After nearly 20 years at our beloved little Encinitas Ale House, we’ve made the heartbreaking decision not to renew our lease. Come Summer 2027, we’ll close the doors and turn out the lights in our first home. The world of small restaurants and bars has changed dramatically. Landlords are challenging. The pressures are real. The costs are heavy. Sometimes, the bravest thing a small business can do is choose to end its story with love and intention, not exhaustion and debt. So, we’re choosing our ending.”
San Diego Holiday Events
Here’s a rundown of the most fun social events happening in San Diego for the holidays.
• The biggest, most awesome holiday event in San Diego is December Nights in Balboa Park. It’s Friday and Saturday, Dec. 5 (3-11 p.m.) & 6 (11 a.m.-11 p.m.). It is a beautiful event, full of Christmas lights everywhere, activities in nearly every room in every building from choirs to DJs to a rootop party to Nutcracker dancers, food from around the world at the international cottages (pro’s tip: the food is better and cheaper there than you get at the standard fair vendors elsewhere, a Christmas tree that opens up with singers at the Spreckles Organ Pavillion and stages with bands. It’s all free, too. Getting there take a bit of time and forget driving and trying to park. Take one of the free shuttles: City College parking garages (free parking) 16th and B Streets; downtown, City Hall at 3rd Avenue and A Street; and Little Italy, near the Green Line trolley stop and County Administration parking garages at Beech Street and Kettner Blvd.
• Pacific Beach has a holiday pub crawl that hits The Beverly, Firehouse, Maverick’s among its seven bars, the same Friday, from 5-10 p.m. The cost is $30. The Santa Con pub crawl, which is go-on-your-own pub crawl, is Saturday (4-8 p.m., $15; advance on-line sales only) and the tree lighting on the PB Pier is Sunday, Dec. 6.
• The 55th annual San Diego Bay Parade Of Lights boat parade dates are Dec. 14 and 21. There is free viewing all along the bay from behind the Convention Center to Shelter Island as well as Coronado Island.
• The annual PB Holiday Parade is Dec. 13, from 1-3 p.m. It goes down Garnet Street from Haines to Bayard streets. I can’t say I know anything about it because I’ve never been; I’m always back up in Hermosa Beach that weekend for the annual 12 Bars of Christmas, but I have to believe in PB it’s fun (or really afterward in the bars). It is preceeded that day by the San Diego Santa Run, a 5K with 40,000 participants (tho it’s pretty aggressively priced at $55). The Pacific Beach Santa’s Bar Fest, put on by Mad City Bar Fest, is $10 on the same day and goes to six bars.
• The 46th annual Ocean Beach Holiday Parade is Saturday, Dec. 6, at 5:05 p.m., along Newport Avenue. Starting at 5:05 p.m., it has 106 floats. This year’s theme is Galactic Holiday Beach Bash, with all things aliens, and spaceships.
• The Encinitas Holiday Parade is Dec. 6. It runs along Highway 101 between D and J streets. It starts at 5:30 p.m. There are several bars and restaurants alnng the way and Temaki Bar has $5 sake bombs from 5 -close.
New Year’s Eve In San Diego
• The Hard Rock hotel in the Gaslamp has a multi-room NYE party. Tickets are currently $56.85, but go up the closer it gets to NYE.
• Want an inexpensive NYE? Join Levinson Group for a NYE party at the downstairs Fins bar and the rooftop It’s 5 O’Clock Somewhere bar at Margaritaville. Tickets are less than $25 and can be purchased here.
New Year’s Day In San Diego
• The aforementioned Temaki Bar is having bottomless mimosas and Aperol sprit from 11 a.m.-9 p.m., on New Year’s Day. You’ll need food to go with that, of course and Temaki has sushi and handrolls, including the Moonlight, an eight-piece cut roll with spicy tuna, shiso and bubu arare, priced at $12; Mama’s Roll, shrimp tempura, blue crab, ooba and cucumber wrapped in soy paper and topped with seared salmon, sweet soy, sesame seeds, negi and lemon, priced at $24; various handrolls featuring salmon, yellowtail, albacore, toro, blue crab and more, priced starting at $6.50; and more.
• For sports fans, the College Football Playoffs have games on New Year’s Eve (4 p.m.,) and three on New Year’s Day (9 a.m., 1 p.m., and 5 p.m.).
Meet Scott, PubClub.com’s San Diego Bar Manager of the Month!
PubClub.com’s Bar Manager of the Month for December, once lived above a brewery. Is that a beer lover’s dream or what!?
“I had a job at Beaver Street Brewing Company in Flagstaff,” said Scott Watkins, who is now General Manager of Karl Strauss Brewing’s downtown location on Columbus Street. “I was part of the opening crew there in ’94 and my love for beer grew from there. I lived above the brewery – it yes was very, very dangerous (said with a laugh) – and I would wake up in the morning and say ‘they are brewing a stout today.’ At that point, I was 100% hooked.”
This from a guy who used to drink the likes of Milwaukee’s Best while a student at Northern Arizona University, thinking that’s what beer was all about until he found out otherwise.
“Somebody turned me onto Sierra Nevada Pale Ale and that was my first snippet of drinking a really good quality beer,” he said. “I was like “wow, this is what beer is supposed to taste like!”
Eventually he moved to San Diego where he was working at one of the legendary live music venues in the city’s history, Croce’s, and then help open up Ocean Beach Brewing Company. There, he used to come out smelling like beer, but in a good way. The brewmaster used to let him put in the hops and lean over the boiling kettle to soak in the aroma. “I would put my face there, my glasses would get fogged up and it was just an amazing smell,” he said. “My whole face would be glistening with hop oils. We called it the ‘hop spot.’ I would go home and my wife would say ‘you’re glowing today.’ ”
Watkins has been at Karl Strauss since November of 2024 and has been GM since May. Pop in and let him recommend a beer for you.
Read more him in this full Bar Manager of the Month feature article.
Name: Scott Watkins
Occupation: Manager
Bar/Restaurant: Karl Strauss Brewing downtown
Hometown: Orange County, CA. Went to school at Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff, AZ
How Long Have You Been In San Diego? Since 2000
Personality: I’m kind of an easy going guy.
Favorite Beer To Recommend To Customers: My favorite thing to do is talk to the guests and find out beer what they like and recommend a beer that matches them.
Favorite Beer To Drink: West Coast IPA (Tower X at Karl Strauss)
Things You Like To Do When Not Working: I used to be a rock climber. I love heights. I play the guitar. I hang out with my wife, go to movies and walk along the beach.
Instagram: @karlstraussbeer
TikTok: @karlstraussbeer
This story was compiled by PubClub.com and wrtten by a human with no assistance from AI or ChatGTP.
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