Looking for authentic Mission Beach bars away from the crowded Pacific Beach party scene? Here is a local’s perspective on the laid-back hangouts, beach bars and neighborhood watering holes that make South Mission Beach one of San Diego’s hidden nightlife gems.
By Kevin Wilkerson, PubClub.com San Diego Blogger
Even though I live in the Gaslamp Quarter, I am a beach bum at heart. I spend a good amout of my San Diego time at the beach, mainly in Pacific Beach. For bars, I hop around to and from Hideaway, Lahaina Beach House, Open Bar, the Beverly and 710 Beach Club, with the occasional Duck Dive and Thrusters tossed in for good measure.
I do not spend a lot of time in neighboring Mission Beach, other than at Miss B’s Coconut Club mainly to visit Bartender of the Month Cute Kate. You may also find me every now and then next door at Guava Beach for Taco Tuesday; its chicken tacos are really good and when the right bartender is working I can get a really good margarita.
Otherwise, I find there to be too many strollers in Mission Beach. Families and kids are not PubClub.com’s thing. Tho maybe I should give Sandbar Sports Grill more than a peek every now and then. The century-old Big Dipper roller coaster is a good ride and there’s a tiki-themed putt-putt course in Balboa Park but neither are an every-weekend activity.
So one sunny Sunday late afternoon I set out for South Mission Beach with a mission to find out what goes on there and if it’s a worthy place for PubClubbers to spend time. After all, one of the things I do is check out bars before I write about them. I go back at different times, often on different days, because the entire premise of the website is to tell you not only where to be, but when to be there.
Two bars – the only ones there – were my destination: Beachcomber and The Pennant Bar. I knew of Beachcomber before I lived here because one year, while in San Francisco for Bay to Breakers, our group encountered girls from San Diego and one said that Beachcomber was one of the city’s best Sunday night bars.
I started out at The Pennant. First of all, you don’t have to tell me anything about it to know a bar with the name of The Pennant is a dive bar. And so that proved to be the case. The Pennant in South Mission Beach has an upstairs patio and by the look of things, its a party waiting to happen. Unfortunately, it was not happening when I was there at 4 o’clock on a Sunday. There was a long table full of friends and two girls at the other side of the bar. I asked the bartender when it is busy and he said “this is a daytime bar. Tuesdays and Wednesday afternoons are usually pretty busy.”
Now the only people going to a bar on a Tuesday or Wednesday afternoon are those who are not working at that time and that usually means retired locals. That doesn’t do a single guy much good. But I filed away the knowledge because the area does have a lot of bartenders and waitresses and, well you never know who might walk up those stairs.
Since it wasn’t busy, I was able to ask the bartender a few more questions. One was about the food becaause it has a menu with burgers, burritos and such, all at pretty reasonable prices of $12-15. “The food is really good,” he said. It’s not from us but Teo’s Kitchen, which is in the same building.”
I also asked him about the patio and why so few bars in San Diego have live music. I moved here from Manhattan/Hermosa Beach a couple hours up the coast where several bars have live music.
“It’s the permits,” he said. “You need an amplified sound permit.” I asked if it was the ABC or the city of San Diego and he wasn’t really sure but since the San Diego city council and mayor seem to be so screwed up with mismanagement, I suggeted we just blame them for it and he agreed. He did say that the only reason The Pennant has an upstairs balcony is because the owner worked a deal out several years ago that it would not have bands.
Noticing a couple signs for the Georgia Bulldogs, I kind of joked that a good time not go to there would be for Dawg games. Not only did I go to the University of Alabama but I lived in Savannah for a few years and found Georgia fans to be the most obnoxious in the SEC. “Oh no, they are really nice here,” the bartender said. “We enjoy having them.”
During this time, the bartender made me a regular customer-strength rum and diet meaning pretty strong, and seeing nobody else coming up the stairs, I finished it and went for a walk along the beach with a plan to return later.
I did, stopping first at Beachcomber. Oddly, the attractive female bartender moved to San Diego from Hermosa Beach. “And I don’t know you!?,” I joked. She laughed. I then asked her about Sunday nights and the bartender at the Pennant told me that place does have bands. “Sometimes,” she said about the live music. “But not every week.”
She said Sunday nights do get busy “sometimes.” But she also said “it’s hit or miss there. Sometimes the afternoons are busy, sometimes they are not” For research puposes, I will keep going back to try and find a reasonable recommendation of the best days and times of the day to find a lively party atmosphere.
I decided to go back to The Pennant to catch the sunset from the balcony – I was hoping for a Lahaina-type type of scene – but a sign stated the patio was closed. Apparently, I was actually missing a party because the bartender had come into Beachcomber for a shot and said “it’s nuts up there and I had to get away.” It was finals time for the colleges and students were swarming all over the beach cities like locust that weekend. I guessed the patio was at capacity so I sat at the cozy downstairs bar, where the bartender served me a not-a-regular-customer strength drink. I call those tourist version drinks.
On my way out, I stopped next door at Sara’s Mexican Food because earlier when I walked by there, a guy repeatedly went to to the counter bragging about how great the burrito was he ordered. I wanted one to take home with me. Plus, much my excitement, I noticed I could get one with rice and beans in it. This is all but impossible to find in San Diego. In LA everyone does it but here the only thing you can get in a burrito is french fries. It’s called the California Burrito and people love it because it was created here. Personally, it’s a bit too Pittsburgh-ish for me and that doesn’t seem right here in sunny San Diego.
Next door to Sara’s is an Italian food stand that I must try it sometime.
So I’m anxious to spend more time in South Mission Beach. I have a feeling that, with a little time, I can be looked at as somewhat of a regular part of the community.
In fact, walking away from Sara’s, a local man passing by said “hi neighbor.” It actually may be happening sooner than I think.
Kevin Wilkerson is the founder of PubClub.com, an award-winning journalist and San Diego-based nightlife expert who has spent years exploring Mission Beach, Pacific Beach and other coastal communities. He has covered destinations, events and entertainment for more than two decades and received an Associated Press award for investigative journalism while working as a newspaper reporter.
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