March 8, 2022 – National Beer Day technically arrives around a month from now, on April 7. But for the Santa Cruz side of Monterey Bay, this year’s real Beer Day will be June 1.
That’s when two highly anticipated (and slightly under-the-radar) craft beer destinations from the team behind Beer Thirty and Beer Mule—and some new partners—will debut.
Site one is the Trout Farm Inn in Felton.
The locally famous property is a stunning indoor-outdoor venue with big windows and high ceilings on the interior and a swimming pool on the ample deck on the outside.
The former Trout Farm Inn went on the market after a rebuild that followed a catastrophic kitchen fire in 2016. The Beer Thirty team wasn’t planning on opening anything there, but that changed suddenly after they learned Jessyka and Tachu Soto sought a partner and invited them to take a peek.
“When we saw it, there essentially was no way not to be a part of it,” Beer Thirty co-owner Kym DeWitt says. “It’s such an amazing space.”
The plan is to pair dozens of independent craft beers (and some macro beers) with thoughtful, casual food for lunch and dinner—meatloaf and mashed potatoes, skirt steak, vegan mushroom bourguignon, fried chicken and a bunch of robust salads.
“We’re wanting to do homestyle food that’s not super fancy,” DeWitt says. “We want to cater to everybody’s palate with classic American food—not diner-ish but more elevated comfort food.”
Kombucha, wine and hard seltzer will join beer on the 20 taps. A full liquor license, bar service from the snack shack overlooking the pool deck (where they’ll serve cans of beer and wine) and cabanas will all figure into the draw of the place.
The other June 1 debut will also occupy an iconic property. The Beer Thirty sausage house/tap house/bottle shop with the undisclosed name will open at long last in the tall Wienerschnitzel A-frame on Soquel Avenue in midtown Santa Cruz.
More than 30 taps will rotate through craft beers, ciders, kombucha, wine and zero-alcohol beverages. A bottle shop will offer upwards of 300 craft beverages like the OG Beer Thirty and Beer Mule do. The old drive through has been reborn as a walk-up service counter.
Lunch and dinner will center around hand-crafted sausage with the Beer Thirty’s own proprietary recipes, including a beet-driven vegan number DeWitt says is her favorite of all. Seating will be entirely outdoor.
In tribute to the building’s history—Weinerschnitzel closed in 2006 leaving a vacant neighborhood eyesore—the new spot has also pledged to do an aggressive chili dog in addition to various beef hot dogs, chicken sausages and (pending availability) wild game sausages.
Whatever’s on the menu, a big boom to the Santa Cruz craft beer community awaits right at the start of summer.
Stay up to date at: Instagram.com/TroutFarmInn
About the author
Mark C. Anderson, Edible Monterey Bay's managing editor, appears on "Friday Found Treasures" via KRML 94.7 every week, a little after 12pm noon. Reach him via mark@ediblemontereybay.com.
