Modern Times Fermentorium Cafe

In the back of my mind, I remembered that Modern Times Brewery had a cafe...

the full name is rather pretentious (see post title). When I hear words with the suffix "orium", I think of "sanitorium" or "vomitorium", ha ha. But luckily this wasn't one of those.

(this is right across from Modern Times)

Located in an area with warehouses, a nearby strip club (the notorious Les Girls) and Denny's is Modern Times Cafe...

which is housed in their brewery which opens at 12 noon. The Cafe opens at 7 am. I wasn't sure if they were open because when I tried calling no one answered the phone.  I like killing two birds with one stone, so after our coffee at The Nest, figured we'd drive by here. When we saw the open doors, I was excited...

We parked about a block away...



You can't bring in Fido but you CAN bring in your kids. Because you know, this is a totally family friendly place.  Pause.  But hey, we're both adults here and if we want to drink beer or coffee or both, this was it, eh.


We didn't have much time because we were due to pick up TC in about half an hour. We ordered the Flight ($10) which is supposed to consist of their cold brew offerings, including a cold brew Horchata slushie. Yes, coffee slushie! Why can't 7-11 sell these?  Before I get to the flight, scroll through the photos of their decor. It was massive visual overload in here. Vintage comic book pages on the walls from the owner's collection. At the coffee bar, it was decorated with vintage (as in 80's) Garbage Pail kids collector cards (the kind that used to come with that gross flat and tasteless gm). On the far back wall of the brewery was a full wall devoted to the image of Michael Jackson and his pet chimpanzee Bubbles (remember that duo?) made completely of Post It Notes. Yes.


Their Christmas tree was still up during the day of our visit...



This divers helmet serves cold brew.


Bert has a few of these cards in his collection somewhere. He was more into sports trading cards than the Garbage Pail kids.



It's so huge in here! I really liked how big and open it was. Plus, it was pretty empty. I'm sure it's a different story at night. So many taps of Modern Times beers! We do like their coffee infused beers as well as their darker varieties. Bert doesn't like that they come in cans though.





Not the same photo but here they are in living color. This looks like "Bad" era to me.

Now back to that coffee flight - There are supposed to be three types of cold brew but since the Ethiopian variety was out, the barista subbed it with a Cascara (tea made from the coffee cherry; we've had versions at Blue Bottle in Echo Park and Hawthorn in North Park). The two cold brews present were Heavy Weather and Black House.

Of the cold brews, I liked the Heavy Weather - it had a great rich dark chocolate tinge to it. The Ethiopian cold brew would have been too fruity. I like mine dark and bitter like my heart. Just kidding. Bert's favorite was the horchate slushie.  Mostra coffee has an horchata coffee as well but not as a slushie. Since we were in a hurry, we only took a few sips of each and asked for to-go cups.


Cheers to 2017!

They had an art wall where I was surprised to see a Philippine folk art wall hanging of dancers doing the Tinikling dance (considered the national dance of the Philippines). Below that, a black velvet painting of a couple in...well, you can see.

Random art galore. Looks like any Lolo and Lola's house frozen in time. I'm not saying that in a bad way.


I have a huge wooden carving of the dancers and tappers in my office. TC knows this dance; as for me, I have two left feet. If I would even try to attempt this, my feet and ankles would be clacked repeatedly by those bamboo poles.



As seen in the women's bathroom stalls:

Close up of the Post It Notes. Some were torn up and/or missing.

I visited again recently with my childhood friend and her daughter (who is a pastry chef). The sun was out this time illuminating these two sheds across the street.



Once again, nice and deserted. The folks who work here are so very cool and friendly. They aren't pretentious assholes like the one guy I would meet at later this day at another coffee shop in Liberty Station (no one from West Bean mind you, those dudes are great).

My friend and her daughter ordered the same thing, Lattes which they both enjoyed along with a cinnamon roll.



My cortado with macadamia nut milk. Loved the presentation. The glass was striking but not double walled. I had to wait for this to cool down so I could pick it up comfortably. The macadamia nut milk gave this a different touch; I'm so used to almond so this was a tasty change.



Very well crafted coffee here. Worth more revisits.

Articles about MT coffee (not necessarily the cafe):
"Meet Mr. Bean" San Diego Magazine, May 2013
"Modern Times flows into coffee" SD Reader, Sept. 24, 2014
"Coffee beer gets a new twist with barrel aged beans from Modern Times" LA Times, Jan. 30, 2015
"Modern Times - The brewery that's aso a serious roastery" Daily Coffee News, April 2015
and the more recent, First brewery with a cafe on site" SD Reader, Sept. 10, 2016

Modern Times Cafe (yes, I shortened their name)
3725 Greenwood St.
San Diego, CA 92110
(619) 546-9694

moderntimesber.com + the sparse TWO reviews from you know where

We'll have to go back to try their other drinks (coffee AND beer, but keep in mind the brewery itself is open to serve at 12 noon). It's a really cool space despite the limited parking, unless you park in the Denny's lot and hope your car doesn't get broken into, just sayin'. I enjoyed both of my visits. Bert does want to go here again as well.