Pop-Up Brewery Prohibition

"Yeah, bad news.  It looks like we can't do breweries anymore," Kate said looking at her smart phone.  

"Intergalactic just emailed me back, it says, 'The city will issue citations to any food vendor that is not a food truck or trailer with an acceptable grade of C or better at any brewery, tasting room or urban winery in San Diego county.  This new ordinance will go into effect on July 1, 2017.'"

"Well, that's just great.  I guess we'll just have to go back to doing markets again," I said.

"No!" Kate yelled, almost sarcastically, but not really.  

We felt like we had already graduated from the farmers market hustle.  Besides the Wednesday OB "Farket" that remained on our schedule (& only 3 blocks from our house) we hadn't set up at any other market in close to 3 years.  It was so long ago, that Golden Hill, Point Loma & Kearny Mesa didn't exist anymore.

"We had to do something.  I'll go back out there & scout out some markets," I said.

"Go ahead.  I'm gonna talk to Robert about some spots for lease," Kate said.  "I only wanna do markets short-term.  The more short term, the better."

I made a list of markets to check out (above).  On April Fool's Day, I went to Little Italy (which is ironically the biggest market in San Diego) Poway, Scripps Ranch, City Heights & Rancho Penasquitos Saturday morning markets.  

We were setting up at Groundswell brewing in Santee later that day, so I had a few hours to do a walk through at each.  

Much like in 2012, I was able to talk to some of the managers & came up with a few conclusions:

• Little Italy: NO Open Spots (must take a $120 class before applying)
• Poway:  Talked to Suzanne (come back in July to see if there's an opening) ??
• Scripps Ranch:  Talked to Bev (Plenty of space, live music & $ to be made.  Fill out an app in June & you're in) YES
• City Heights: Still way too small.  NO
• Rancho Penasquitos: Tiny & Brand New.  Hard NO  

While I wasn't thrilled with waking up early again on Saturdays, but it appeared that Scripps Ranch & Poway were viable options in the future.  I had their info & would follow up.  

But, there was still every other day besides Wednesdays & Mondays (only one market in San Diego county about an hour's drive away) to find gigs for.  Kate & I had three months to figure it out.