Lager Land: a peek inside Mission Valley's Puesto Cervecería

Lager Land: a peek inside Mission Valley’s Puesto Cervecería

One beery holiday gift has me chomping at the bit: Puesto Cervecería.

San Diego Union-Tribune

Dec. 13, 2019 7:12 AM PT

In this season of impatience — stop shaking those wrapped packages! — I’m champing at the bit for one beery gift: Puesto Cervecería. The Mission Valley brewery restaurant’s grand opening was set for early December. But...

“We’re a little pushed back with some construction,” said Lidiya Harvey, Puesto’s director of brand strategy. “The best case, it could be in January, but that’s not for sure right now.”

My impatience is fueled by Doug Hasker, who will be this cervecería’s brewer, just as he was for this site’s previous tenant, Gordon Biersch. In an ale-centric town, Hasker was the Lord of Lagers, known for his skill in this demanding beer style. For the new Puesto, he’s making four Mexican-style lagers: a blonde, an amber, a dark and a specialty beer to pair with the taco of the month.

“Our goal is to make Mexican beer better than anyone else is doing,” said Hasker, 62. “We’ve already got two great pillars of excellence: Mexican food and margaritas. I hope to bring the third great pillar and I’m confident I can do that.”

Headquartered in La Jolla, Puesto now has six outlets: at The Headquarters in downtown San Diego; La Jolla; two in Irvine; Santa Clara and Concord.

“We’re going to start the beer in Mission Valley,” Hasker said, “then distribute to the other San Diego stores and then to Orange County.”

Orange County can wait. As long as Mission Valley is on hold, I’ll keep shaking this package.

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Peter Rowe

Peter joined The San Diego Union-Tribune in 1984. A native Californian who grew up in Encinitas, Rowe is a graduate of UC Berkeley and Northwestern University. He is past president of the National Society of Newspaper Columnists and a former Fulbright scholar. He has won a few journalism awards, but would trade them all for a chance to avenge his 1994 “Jeopardy!” loss. Married to a terrific woman who has saved him from errors in writing and in life, he has three sons. At the U-T, Rowe writes profiles and features and is even paid to review beers, which hardly seems fair.