When Mother Earth Brewing Co. opened a satellite tap room in Vista’s downtown Village area in 2012, it installed a homebrew shop on the corner of Main Street and Indiana Avenue. It was fitting, as Mother Earth’s original brewery started as a combination nano-production operation and recreational beer-making supply outlet. The taproom-adjacent version didn’t quite meet business expectations, so ownership decided to go another direction, gutting and remodeling the space into a hospitality venue offering food and beverages for members of the Finer Things Club, Mother’s Provisions (204 Main Street, Vista).
After roughly a year of construction, a great deal of which was done by the family behind this eight-year-old business (which has grown to include a full-scale brewery in Nampa, Idaho in addition to its Vista brewery campus on Thibodo Road), Mother’s Provisions debuted to the public last weekend. The 2,500-square-foot space is simple and homey, with green checkerboard-tiled floors, exposed brick on one wall, mounted planters on the other with deep-purple grapes here and there. Those oenophilean elements might not work elsewhere but feel at home in Vista’s old-town core where exterior walls feature a plethora of hand-painted artwork.
Mother’s Provisions offers a menu composed mostly of wine-friendly items, including charcuterie, assorted cheeses, panini sandwiches, salads and desserts. Those edible offerings can be paired with any of 15 taps’ worth of beers (13 of which are non-Mother Earth guest ales and lagers), three draft wines or up to 20 wines by the glass, 80% of which are regularly rotated. Additionally, roughly 60 wines are available in a temperature-controlled, stave-roofed room in the venue’s northwest corner featuring a largely California selection interspersed with worldly vintages. Bottles can be opened free-of-charge and consumed on-site or taken home. California law also allows partially-consumed bottles to be recorked and taken off-site for later enjoyment.
In addition to bar, table and cushy chair seating, patrons can go al fresco on a 700-square-foot patio sidling the building’s exterior. Future Mother’s Provisions promotions will include meet-the-brewer nights, vintner evenings, salumi carving and a confectionery event with two-time Food Network “Cupcake Wars” winner Don Hein. Those promotions are scheduled to begin in March and take place monthly. Mother’s Provisions is open Tuesday through Thursday and Sundays from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. and Fridays and Saturdays from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m.