San Diego Union-Tribune

Bock Beer Pub Finds Patrons

“For so long, this was a cool little corner in the south end of South Park, but it has slowed a bit. But now I think it’s going to be good for everyone, with more people, more visibility.”

— BRIAN JENSEN, Bottlecraft and Vino Carta owner

Hot spot has ice cream, pie shop, brings new life to former Hamilton’s Tavern site.

Business at Hamilton’s Tavern had already fallen precipitously during the first year of the pandemic when a kitchen fire delivered a fatal blow to the South Park staple. With $1 million in damage and much of the interior unsalvageable, the bar closed in late 2020, its boarded-up space sitting vacant ever since. Until now.

A new German-centric beer bar, along with a pie and artisanal ice cream shop, and adjoining South Park Brewing Co., which also closed in 2020, have taken its place. The $3 million project, which sits next door to the popular Kindred cocktail bar and vegan restaurant, promises to invigorate the southern commercial core of South Park, a much-gentrified area that likely could have thrived even more were it not for the yearslong, boarded-up space on a high-profile corner at Beech and 30th streets.

In the little more than two weeks that the new businesses have been open, the street has appeared a lot livelier on the weekends, with people milling about outside or lining up for an ice cream cone.

Anchoring the redevelopment is Bock, the creation of veteran craft beer entrepreneur Brian Jensen, known for his string of Bottlecraft beer shops and tasting rooms that got started 14 years ago in Little Italy. A former South Park resident, Jensen reached out to former Hamilton’s owner Scott Donovan Blair early on in hopes of purchasing his liquor license, a move that he believes helped him eventually secure a lease with the property’s landlord in 2021.

At the time, he naively thought his new 21-and-over bar, which includes German-inspired snacks and sandwiches to accompany his “old world” and “new world” beers, would open in a year. Instead, it took four. He, like his landlord, believes it is arriving at a good time for South Park’s Beech Street hub, which includes the long-popular Buona Forchetta and a more recent arrival, Harland Brewing.

“For so long, this was a cool little corner in the south end of South Park, but it has slowed a bit,” said Jensen, who owns six Bottlecraft locations, plus a Little Italy wine shop and bar, Vino Carta. “But now I think it’s going to be good for everyone, with more people, more visibility, even for Kindred. And even for the workers—like my staff will get off work and they’ll go over to Kindred.”

Property owner Gilbert Lee, who had the unfortunate timing of purchasing the building that houses both the former Hamilton’s and Kindred just months before the onset of the pandemic, came up with the idea last year to brand the collection of dining ventures as South Park Commons. It was a way to not only raise their profile but also imbue the area with a cohesive, community feel that he believes will fuel more activity. It also didn’t hurt to have neighboring businesses run by powerhouse operators with multiple venues of their own.

“I wanted to add to the community in a positive way,” said Lee, a local plastic surgeon and real estate investor. “My idea was to name that area as South Park Commons as a way for it to act as a draw to all the businesses in the area. When you’re next to a vacant space, it doesn’t do well for the adjacent businesses. So I think this will be a huge draw for the entire neighborhood and will give the community a focal point to gather, socialize, and enjoy each other’s company.”

Steven Torres, co-founder of Pop Pie Co. and Stella Jean’s, also tenants in South Park Commons, was struck by Lee’s process for choosing tenants, noting that Lee prioritized businesses that would elevate South Park over those with just the financial means to make rent.

“He was wanting to create something more impactful and look at the mix of who was coming in there, so it felt like we were applying to come there, and he visited our shops,” said Torres, who now has eight Stella Jean’s locations and six Pop Pie spaces. “I feel like what we’re seeing now is what he envisioned, and we’re grateful to be there. And you can’t have better anchors than the ones who have been holding the fort there—Buona Forchetta and Kindred—that create that charm.”

When Brian Jensen set out to reinvent the Hamilton’s space, he was determined not to replicate the neighborhood icon, and the previous owner didn’t want that either. While the dimly lit moodiness of the bar remains, gone is Hamilton’s recognizable ceiling lined with dozens of tap handles.

“I think people want to recapture that thing that they lost, which was that dark bar that, you know, you can’t really find too often, and that has a big emphasis on craft beer,” Jensen said, sitting outside Stella Jean’s on a weekday afternoon. “But I think enough time has passed where people are really more sharp with it, where before they’d say, ‘You gotta have the grilled cheese and the tater tots and make sure you keep the screw-on things on the ceiling.’ Now, people are like, there was something on the menu that I liked there. I forget what it was, but this place looks great.”

With the construction of a new building from the ground up, Jensen had a blank canvas to play with.

“I could have had as many windows as I wanted, but I just feel like everyone has the big roll-up windows, and I felt like I actually want to do the opposite and keep it dark,” he said. “During COVID, everyone, for good reason, got used to sitting really far apart from each other. And now I want to get people sitting really close to one another again because I think that’s the best way to literally rub shoulders with your neighbors and connect with people.”

Architect Hayley Ruthrauff, who worked with Lee on the Hamilton’s building reconstruction, noted that while the structure dated back to the early 1900s, it wasn’t considered historic given the extensive fire damage and alterations over the years.

“We had to repair and replace most of the walls, but the thought was to keep it so that it fit in,” Ruthrauff said. “We technically updated it from what it looked like before but tried to mimic similarly aged buildings and their storefronts, so in the front, we have an arched look with a stucco facade. For the interior, we tried to do a fresh take on a European pub by putting in wood elements, wood moldings, and a darker lighting theme. There are a lot of Craftsman homes in the neighborhood, and we drew from that for the backdrop of the bar, like the arched wood details found in Craftsman homes.”

While Bock’s focus is beer and wine, which is Jensen’s area of expertise, he has sublet his space to chef Matt Schooner, who formerly ran the food truck Biersal, which is also the name of the food space for Bock. His modern take on German fare includes Bavarian-style pretzels and chicken schnitzel and zucchini falafel sandwiches. The name Bock refers to a German style of beer—a strong lager—and it also translates to “goat,” which is the bar’s mascot.

Jensen, who spent around $850,000 building out his Bock space, isn’t concerned about competition from other dining and drinking venues in the Beech Street area. He believes each has its own niche, and the only other beer-focused spot, Harland, is geared more toward families, while Bock requires patrons to be at least 21 years old.