Sunday 20th May 2012

Bob Thompson

This pub is part of a small chain of brewpubs in Southern California. They are attached to branches of Lamppost Pizza and share common ownership although there are many more Lampposts (37) than Back Streets (5). The other brewpubs are to be found at Irvine, Ladera Ranch, La Quinta and Corona. This one is to be found just five minutes walk away from the Vista Transit Center station of the Sprinter rail service that operates from Oceanside to Escondido.

There is a nice wooden bar and the brewery is located both above and at the side of the main room. When I visited the bar area was busy but there was plenty of room in the rest of the pub. It is worth noting that they have happy hour(s) between 15.30 and 18.30.

There were four beers on offer from the home side and these were: Alf's Amber Ale, Cellar Rat (Rye Porter), Beach Day Blonde Ale and Tomahawk Double IPA. I had a small glass of each and thought the first three were good without being exceptional. However the Tomahawk DIPA was superb and I wished I could have more but I had to get back to San Diego.

I would have liked to supply the abv details of these beers but they were not forthcoming in the pub or in subsequent research. I fact I think they were all specials and that the list changes regularly. Yet, that was not all, as there were another six beers offered from a range from local and not-so-local breweries.

These were Latitude 33° brewery's (Vista, CA) Camel Corps Double Hump (10%), Ellie's Brown Ale (5.5%) from Avery Brewing of Boulder, CO and Lost Abbey Devotion Dry Hopped Blonde (6.5%), a beer from a brewery at San Marcos I was in a few hours earlier. There was also Iron Fist Off Hand (Vista, CA) (6.7%) and another local brew was Stone Brewing (Escondido, CA) Ruination IPA (7.7%) and finally there was Bear Republic's Racer 5 (7.0%) from Healdsburg, CA.

I had a very pleasant interlude in this brewpub and like to revisit one day.

Important Information:

Back Street Brewery, 15 Main Street 100, Vista, California 92083

Open: Daily 11.00-23.00

The brewery is about a five minutes walk from Vista Transit Center station of the Sprinter rail service that runs from Oceanside Transit Center to Escondido. Trains run every 30 minutes from Monday to Friday also from 10.00 to 18.00 on Saturday and Sunday, otherwise hourly.

Oceanside Transit Center is served by the Inter City Amtrak trains between San Diego and Los Angeles and Santa Barbara. Local trains of the Coaster service start there towards San Diego.

MetroLink trains operate on two lines from Oceanside to Los Angeles (Orange County line) and also to Riverside and San Bernardino (Inland Empire-Orange County line). Exit from Vista Transit Center station on the Olive Avenue side (where the buses wait) and turn left along Olive Avenue until you reach the dual carriageways of Vista Village Drive. Cross at the pedestrian crossing and continue in the same direction, then bear right in to Main Street.
You will soon see the brewpub on the left.