Last weekend, 32 North Brewing Company officially closed the doors to its tasting room within Point Loma’s Liberty Station development. That space, which consisted of a small bar outfitted with ten taps, was located inside Moniker General, a 4,200-square-foot combo coffee bar, retail shop and event space. The venue opened in May of last year, but 32 North’s satellite component never found solid footing, leading to the a mutual split between 32 North and Moniker Group.
This development comes in the midst of a big push by 32 North to become more widely known to the beer-drinking public. In the second half of 2016, Peterson brought on numerous personnel to upgrade his brewing and sales programs. Since then, the company has begun canning several of its core beers and distributing with greater vigor. It seems doubtful that pulling out of Moniker General will negatively impact those plans.
32 North owner Steve Peterson says leaving Liberty Station was bittersweet and that he wishes it would have worked out, but he could see that business wasn’t the perfect fit for the space and, by vacating, Moniker General would be able to bring in a vendor to provide something closer to what their clientele wanted, most notably, wine. Additionally, he is eager to reassign time and resources spent on Moniker General toward a new barrel-aging facility and taproom hybrid. Unlike the Liberty Station taproom, it will be his alone, allowing for greater freedom over the space.