South Bay Liquor

After our pleasant experience tasting the beers from Mad Lab and also due to curiosity as well as the recommendation from a reader, we decided hands down to visit a liquor store we've passed by many times in the past whenever we've gone to Target.

Never really noticed this place until we read the reviews about their great selection of craft brews and such. It's in this strip mall, on the south west corner of Palomar and Broadway...

South bay Liquor is where it's at man! It's right next to Mrs. Rice (hmmm, any relation to the Rice King, I wonder?).

Since the legendary South Bay Drugs closed up in 2011 and was reborn as Bine and Vine (in Normal Heights), Bert and I were curious about this place. I think it's safe to say that this place has got to be one of the most well stocked liquors stores down South (not counting BevMo in Eastlake).

Rogue from Oregon makes some good beers (like their Hazelnut Brown and Chocolate Stout). That pink bottle was flavored like a chocolate peanut butter donut from Voodoo. Interesting.

I liked the names "Monk's Mistress" and "Panty Peeler"! It's fun seeing the different labels for the beers.

This was what we were looking for...the stouts and porters.

And this is the one beer I was recommended by a reader as well as by John (the owner) and his friend who was visiting that day (he was hanging out in the store). John even checked his private stash in the back for me; I was curious if they had any Green Flash Silva Stout. Unfortunately, he was out of it but he highly recommended the Victory at Sea over the Sea Monster. The Victory at Sea has coffee brewed from Caffe Calabria (one of my favorite coffee places, and I don't drink coffee all that much!).

Here's another interesting flavored beer - Banana Bread. Hmmmm....not sure about that.

We had a nice time chatting with John and his friend. John owns the store along with his brother (who wasn't working that evening). He is very knowledgeable and has visited many of the breweries that he recommends, even a few out of state. We liked that he took his time to give us his recommendations as well as explain the differences between some of the higher end beers (the ones covered with wax).

These were the three bottles we walked out with that evening. We have yet to open them but plan to one of these weekends.

The trio - Ballast Point - Victory at Sea Imperial Porter, Mad Lab Anne Bonny Porter (this was the only Mad Lab they had besides a red ale), and lastly, the Stone Espresso Imperial Russian Stout. I think I might want to bake something with that as an ingredient, but I don't know if Bert will let me do that (What? And waste good beer? Haha).

South Bay Liquor
1355 Broadway
Chula Vista, CA 92111
(619) 422-1787

They do not have a website but here are some positive reviews from beeradvocate and yelp.l

Maybe for our next visit, we'll get that Banana Bread beer and the Sea Monster...

Up next...dessert!