More Than Pizza: Pizza Port Brings Brewing, Breadmaking and Good Times to San Marcos |
Where craft brewing meets hands-on fun in San Marcos. |
A hands-on breadmaking class offers a different way to experience Pizza Port’s San Marcos tasting room and production facility.
Pizza Port may be best known around San Diego County for craft beer and pizza, but its San Marcos location offers something a little different—and this week, visitors can even try their hand at breadmaking.
Located at 155 Mata Way in San Marcos, the Pizza Port Tasting Room is also home to the company's secondary production facility. Opened in 2023, the facility operates a 30-barrel brewing system—more than twice the size of the systems at Pizza Port's other locations—and serves a focused lineup of beers through 12 taps.
On Wednesday, July 29 at 6:30 p.m., the tasting room will host a 90-minute hands-on breadmaking class centered around spent grain, a byproduct of the brewing process that can be repurposed as an ingredient in bread. Participants learn how to make artisan spent-grain dough and customize their creation using a variety of sweet and savory ingredients.
The experience includes hands-on instruction, a recipe and instruction guide, extra spent grain to use for future baking and a loaf of dough in its first rise to take home. One important detail: the bread isn't baked during the class. Participants bring their dough home and finish baking it there. The class is designed for adults 18 and older and works for individuals, couples or groups looking for something different to do on a weeknight.
A Different Kind of Pizza Port
The San Marcos location isn't a traditional Pizza Port brewpub. Instead, it's both a working production brewery and tasting room, giving visitors a chance to enjoy Pizza Port beers close to where some of them are being produced. The location's tap list includes familiar Pizza Port names such as Swami's IPA, Chronic Ale, Ponto Session IPA, California Honey Blonde Ale, Mongo Double IPA and others.
And despite not having the full restaurant setup found at the company's brewpubs, San Marcos visitors don't have to go hungry. The Pizza Port Food Truck is based at the tasting room, bringing the company's "grub and grog" combination to Mata Way. Pizza Port also makes its food truck available for private events and celebrations.
The tasting room has also hosted events beyond beer releases. Pizza Port has run weekly Thursday trivia nights in San Marcos, giving locals another reason to visit beyond simply stopping in for a pint. Past celebrations at the location have included games, music, food from the pizza truck and special anniversary festivities.
From a Pizza Shop to a San Diego Craft Beer Institution
Pizza Port's story goes back nearly four decades.
Siblings Gina and Vince Marsaglia purchased a struggling pizza restaurant in Solana Beach in 1987. Vince began experimenting with home brewing in unused storage space at the restaurant, and eventually the hobby became a much bigger part of the business.
Pizza Port began serving its own craft-brewed beer in 1992, just as San Diego's craft beer scene was beginning to take shape.
Expansion followed. A Carlsbad location opened in 1997, followed by San Clemente in 2003, Ocean Beach in 2010 and Bressi Ranch in 2013. Pizza Port has since added Imperial Beach and its San Marcos tasting room to its roster of locations.
Along the way, the company became known for beers including Swami's IPA, Chronic Ale, Mongo Double IPA and Ponto Session IPA, while keeping pizza at the heart of its brewpub experience. Pizza Port says its locations have collectively earned more than 90 medals and awards at the Great American Beer Festival.
Rooted in the Community
Pizza Port also emphasizes community involvement. The company says it supports local causes, sponsors events and hosts fundraisers throughout the communities where it operates. One example close to home was Pizza Port's annual golf tournament at Twin Oaks Golf Course in San Marcos, which benefited I Love A Clean San Diego.
That makes the San Marcos tasting room worth knowing about even for locals who already recognize the Pizza Port name. It's not simply another outpost of the familiar pizza-and-beer chain. It's an active brewing facility, tasting room, food-truck stop and gathering place—and occasionally, apparently, a classroom for turning brewing leftovers into a fresh loaf of bread.
Pizza Port Tasting Room
Pizza Port San Marcos Tasting Room
|
6 Comments
Join the conversation
Gina and Vince really grew a lot from one pizza spot. Happy to see them giving back locally.
Always thought San Marcos was just for beer. Trivia and food truck sound fun too.
Wish the bread got baked there, but still sounds like a cool night out.
Love the idea of using spent grain for bread. Never thought about that before.
Steve MarksRight? I’ve only ever seen it fed to animals, but now I’m curious how it tastes in bread! Might have to check out that class.
I had no clue Pizza Port did classes like this. Looks like a good time!