{"id":9755,"date":"2014-05-28T16:16:25","date_gmt":"2014-05-28T23:16:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/archives.csusm.edu\/westcoastersd\/?p=9755"},"modified":"2014-05-29T16:10:08","modified_gmt":"2014-05-29T23:10:08","slug":"neighborhood-rising-arsalun-tafazoli-reflects-on-sd-craft-culture","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archives.csusm.edu\/westcoastersd\/2014\/05\/28\/neighborhood-rising-arsalun-tafazoli-reflects-on-sd-craft-culture\/","title":{"rendered":"Neighborhood Rising: Arsalun Tafazoli Reflects on SD Craft Culture"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Arsalun<\/a>
Arsalun Tafazoli, courtesy H2 Public Relations<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

San Diego\u2019s craft beer scene has come full circle before Arsalun Tafazoli\u2019s eyes.<\/p>\n

When Tafazoli opened\u00a0Neighborhood Ale House<\/a>\u00a0in 2006, he didn\u2019t want it to be another bar in Downtown where shiny-shirts came to get hammered. Instead, the 25-year-old San Diego native wanted a place where beer would be appreciated for having substance.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we were starting out, young brewers would come in and tell stories about how they mortgaged their houses\u2014put everything on the line to get their product out there,\u201d says Tafazoli. \u201cThere was so much passion behind it. It was incredible to me that it didn\u2019t have the same credibility as wine.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tafazoli made moves. His staff of mostly women were pros on the ins and outs of beer styles and food pairings. He regularly hosted meet-the-brewer nights\u2015with out of towners like the venerable Dogfish Head and Allagash. Lee Chase (Blind Lady Ale House<\/a>, Automatic Brewing Co.<\/a>, Tiger! Tiger!<\/a>) was hired as Neighborhood\u2019s first beverage manager.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf Lee\u2019s behind the bar pouring you a beer\u2014to this day\u2014he\u2019ll get you behind it. It\u2019s amazing to watch,\u201d says Tafazoli of Chase, a mad beer scientist of sorts who worked as head brewer\u00a0at Stone<\/a> for nearly 10 years until 2006. \u201cThat got really hip; people would come in to taste more stuff. We\u2019d get letters saying \u2018I didn\u2019t know what good beer was before.\u2019 We really built a community one person at a time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Around the time of the housing market crash, there was a boom of creativity among brewers, says Tafazoli. And newly-broke winos took note. This is when Neighborhood took off, and gave rise to a new order of local establishments.<\/p>\n

\"ArsalunNeighborhood\"<\/a>
Neighborhood in East Village, courtesy H2 Public Relations<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cSan Diego is littered with gastro pubs now,\u201d Tafazoli says. \u201cNowadays, the word \u201ccraft,\u201d the term \u201cfarm to table\u201d\u2014it\u2019s all been commodified. It\u2019s a trend that people exploit. You see these banners hanging in front of places everywhere say \u201ccraft beer.\u201d It\u2019s more than getting a tap system installed; that\u2019s just one component in the context of this bigger picture. You have to make sure the whole story makes sense or else it doesn\u2019t work.\u201d<\/p>\n

Having grown from 33 breweries in 2007 to 88 at time of print, some of the craft beer scene\u2019s original players are wary of its sustainability.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt used to be that there was this young guy starting a brewery, and you\u2019d want to support it. And now every day it\u2019s someone else. It\u2019s great for the proliferation of the culture, but I think some people are getting into the business for the wrong reasons.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tafazoli\u2019s approach to success has launched what is today one of San Diego\u2019s most ambitious and talked about hospitality brands, Consortium Holdings<\/a> (CH). In 2008 he joined forces with Nate Stanton (El Dorado<\/a>), when both of their businesses were gaining momentum in the up and coming\u00a0East Village. Since, the two have undeniably elevated drinking and dining culture in San Diego with eight successful concepts and counting.<\/p>\n

\"ArsalunPP\"<\/a>
Polite Provisions, courtesy H2 Public Relations<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

It doesn\u2019t hurt to have a dream team behind their backs, with two-star Michelin Chef, Jason McLeod, helming kitchen operations for all the projects, and highly reputed bartenders like Erick Castro (Polite Provisions<\/a>) and Anthony Schmidt (formerly of\u00a0Noble Experiment<\/a>, now headed to new project Rare Form). Then there\u2019s local designer Paul Basile, whose past projects include Bankers Hill Restaurant + Bar<\/a> and Acme Southern Kitchen<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Just last year, CH won national praise for two of its projects. The speakeasy Noble Experiment (designed by Mauricio Couturier) made Esquire Magazine<\/em>\u2019s top 100 bars list and Polite Provisions won Imbibe Magazine<\/em>\u2019s Cocktail Bar of the Year. The James Beard Foundation also loved Erick Castro\u2019s Mayan Concubine cocktail at Polite, naming it one of their favorites of 2013, from a spot that opened the same year, no less.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want our spaces to promote our core values. It\u2019s why we don\u2019t do vodka or shit beer, and think about every aspect of a space\u2014because it\u2019s a reflection of who we are and what we want to perpetuate to our community,\u201d says Tafazoli. \u201cIt was the Greg Kochs [Stone CEO] and the Lee Chases who reaffirmed what I thought. At first, people were coming in to Neighborhood and not getting it, and sticking to our identity and not watering it down\u2014back when everything was on the line\u2014that\u2019s what made us.\u201d<\/p>\n

CH\u2019s first all-out culinary endeavor, Ironside Oyster<\/a>, has been packed since opening in early May. In the works are North Park\u2019s Underbelly, an East Village juice bar, and Rare Form, a Jewish Deli that will share space with a Stone tasting room\u00a0in the historic Simon Levi building next to Petco Park.<\/p>\n

Tafazoli says of the perceived \u201cseasonal\u201d neighborhood, \u201cThe stadium has shaped the cultural geography of East Village, and not in a good way. Too many businesses cater to the stadium crowd. It\u2019s not about walk-by traffic for us, it\u2019s about the great community of people who live there,\u201d he says. \u201cWe\u2019ll create a synergy there with the two different businesses. The idea is that our core values are very much alike. Stone knows who they are, they stuck to it, and it\u2019s been effective. They paved the way for a lot of people. You have to respect it.\u201d<\/p>\n

No one could have predicted the force that craft beer would play in the trajectory of Tafazoli\u2019s businesses, let alone its tremendous impact on the local economy. Tafazoli points out that the proof lies in a craft beer newspaper like West Coaster<\/em>\u2014something most people wouldn\u2019t have looked twice at a decade ago.<\/p>\n

Still, Tafazoli remains cautiously optimistic about San Diego\u2019s brewing future.<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of brewing companies have popped up without understanding the soul and economics of the business. Unfortunately, I don\u2019t think a lot of these guys will be able to sustain,\u201d he says. \u201cIn the end, I want everyone in the community to be successful, but unfortunately capitalism is harsh. I think there is a lot of local talent sitting on the sidelines, waiting to see how things play out. I see them stepping up as other people phase out. Then, we\u2019re going to experience a stronger renaissance.”<\/p>\n

\"ArsalunUNDERBELLY\"<\/a>
Underbelly Little Italy, courtesy H2 Public Relations<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

San Diego\u2019s craft beer scene has come full circle before Arsalun Tafazoli\u2019s eyes. When Tafazoli opened\u00a0Neighborhood Ale House\u00a0in 2006, he didn\u2019t want it to be another bar in Downtown where shiny-shirts came to get hammered. Instead, the 25-year-old San Diego native wanted a place where beer would be appreciated for having substance. \u201cWhen we were […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[1204,683,1200,1194,24,1203,147,1195,577,1212,1196,1198,1206,114,1213,1207,1209,1208,215,1205,1197,901,1201,1202,335,1199,1211,111,506,1210],"class_list":{"0":"post-9755","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-san-diego-beer-beverage-news","7":"tag-acme-southern-kitchen","8":"tag-allagash-brewing-co","9":"tag-anthony-schmidt","10":"tag-arsalun-tafazoli","11":"tag-automatic-brewing-co","12":"tag-bankers-hill-restaurant-bar","13":"tag-blind-lady-ale-house","14":"tag-consortium-holdings","15":"tag-dogfish-head","16":"tag-east-village","17":"tag-el-dorado","18":"tag-erick-castro","19":"tag-esquire-magazine","20":"tag-greg-koch","21":"tag-h2-public-relations","22":"tag-imbibe-magazine","23":"tag-ironside-oyster","24":"tag-james-beard-foundation","25":"tag-lee-chase","26":"tag-mauricio-courturier","27":"tag-nate-stanton","28":"tag-neighborhood","29":"tag-noble-experiment","30":"tag-paul-basile","31":"tag-petco-park","32":"tag-polite-provisions","33":"tag-rare-form","34":"tag-stone-brewing-co","35":"tag-tigertiger","36":"tag-underbelly","37":"entry","38":"has-post-thumbnail"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","wps_subtitle":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pdtr4y-2xl","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archives.csusm.edu\/westcoastersd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9755","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archives.csusm.edu\/westcoastersd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archives.csusm.edu\/westcoastersd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archives.csusm.edu\/westcoastersd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archives.csusm.edu\/westcoastersd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9755"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/archives.csusm.edu\/westcoastersd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9755\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archives.csusm.edu\/westcoastersd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9755"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archives.csusm.edu\/westcoastersd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9755"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archives.csusm.edu\/westcoastersd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9755"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}