San Diego Reader

• Bar/Club
• Restaurant

Monkey Paw

• 805 16th Street, San Diego, CA 92101 | Directions
• 619-358-9901

Unless you outright loathe good beer, you probably know the name Scot Blair. In fact, you’ve probably been to his University Heights, South Park, and City Heights bars, which specialize in select local and craft brews.

Monkey Paw is Blair’s most recent endeavor, a hybrid of Small Bar’s and Hamilton’s vibe with the added perk of cheesesteaks and, within the next few months, its own nanobrewery — a five-barrel system feeding a steady three or four taps that will be run under the guidance of CHUG club homebrewer Derek Freese.

Stained-glass windows, dark wood everything, and an open-air front yield a view of the downtown skyline. Its deliberately casual (if not somewhat old Irish) ambiance fits for lunching downtown businessmen, students, post-game Padres fans, and music/art kids from Golden Hill alike.

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