Last October, we shared information on an ambitious brewpub project being installed at the site of a former Hometown Buffet in San Marcos. Dubbed My Yard Live, it is the multi-faceted brainchild of a quartet of brewing, hospitality and entertainment industry professionals looking to provide a family-friendly, experientially-rich concept in North County. The group reports that the project is in full motion, with design completed and the permit process nearly cinched up. It’s moving ahead, but it will be moving on without the brewer they hired to lead fermentation operations.
Longtime Green Flash Brewing barrel master Pat Korn had been tapped to handle brewing. Over the past few months, he represented My Yard Live while participating in multiple collaboration brews with San Diego County breweries. The resultant beers—which were tapped at collaborating breweries, bars and San Diego Beer Week’s Collabapalooza festival—helped build buzz for the work-in-progress interest, as well as instill consumer confidence based on the presence of a local, veteran brewer. In the end, ownership’s vision for the project did not sync as well as hoped with Korn’s views.
“Pat is a good guy and a great brewer. We wish him nothing but the best,” says My Yard Live co-founder Jamie Minotti. “My Yard Live has many aspects to it. It’s different from other breweries and brewpubs in the way that the beer is one very important piece of several key components that make it unique, including the food and beverage programs, live entertainment, activities, as well as the space. Our vision is to integrate all of these things together for an overall experience, and our beer will be a part of the overall food-and-beverage program, rather than having to stand alone.”
Minotti says that there are already plenty of high-quality breweries in San Diego County. Rather than building something that already exists in such plenitude, he and his partners (including SweetWater Brewing co-founder Freddy Bensch) want to create a hospitality venue that has a lot to offer—including house-brewed beer—but goes beyond the standard restaurant-with-an-onsite-brewery model.
“When the project was first pitched to me, I was excited by the concept and the opportunity to be a part of it, but as my involvement increased and I put more time into the project, it became apparent that what I had thought would be my contribution to the build-out of the space, my input into the overall development of the ethos and spirit of the company, and the day-to-day utilization of my talents was not the same as the founders,” says Korn. “I wish the founders of My Yard Live the best success and I’m sure they will be a great addition to the city of San Marcos and the family of San Diego brewers.”
A groundbreaking ceremony for My Yard Live will take place soon. In the meantime, the project team is interviewing for a culinary manager and, of course, a head brewer. For the latter, they say they are looking for someone possessing the fundamentals to make great beer, with a vision of where they’d like to take the beer and recipes, in addition to connecting the brewery component to the overall desired concept and customer experience.