Nowadays, it’s common to find craft beer at Petco Park. (And let’s face it, this season the Padres are giving us—and Friars GM A.J. Preller—plenty of cause to resort to the consumption of adult beverages.) Even with beer-specific kiosks set up to offer a wide array of ales and lagers from multiple breweries spanning San Diego County, most of the smaller companies are still unrepresented. But there is one local entity that, in scoring a storefront at Petco Park, has made it their mission to bring along some of their lesser-known friends in the beer biz with them.
This season, The Patio Group installed a sized-down version of its full-scale restaurant concepts in Pacific Beach (The Patio on Lamont) and Mission Hills (The Patio on Goldfinch) called The Patio in Leftfield in Section 128, mere steps from the Padres’ bullpen. For those who venture beyond the main service counter and over to The Point, a small, living wall-equipped bar area bordering the Western Metal Building, a trio of beers from three craft breweries that aren’t available anywhere else in the stadium await.
Procured by Kelly Legan, The Patio Group’s resident Cicerone, that trio currently consists of Loudspeaker IPA, a rye India pale ale from North Park’s Fall Brewing Company, Up The Hill Backwards, a dry-hopped pale ale from nearby Monkey Paw Pub and Brewery in the East Village (the name references the drive from Monkey Paw to its sister brewpub, South Park Brewing Company) and Benchmark Brewing Company’s Table Beer. Because of the unpredictability of the ballpark crowd, it’s impossible to say when that line-up will change, but eventually, Fall will switch out Loudspeaker for its Spirit of 77 IPA and Monkey Paw will trade in its pale ale for Prima Donna Table Beer. (Who ever thought there’d be a day when Petco Park featured two Belgian singels?)
And for those whose brew preferences veer toward the java realm, cold-brewed coffee from Mission Beach’s Swell Coffee Roasting Company is also on tap, though that tap will eventually be switched out for beer from Ballast Point Brewing and Spirits as an extension of that company’s relationship with The Patio in Leftfield, which prepares all the food for BP’s Beer Garden in Section 228.