Collaborative Outdoor Drinking And Dining Venue, The Gärten, Opens In Bay Park
San Diego’s growing demand for outdoor venues and adventurous drinking and dining options has been met with the opening of The Gärten, an expansive multi-vendor collaboration from four locally-grown food and beverage brands.
Located at 5322 Banks Street in Bay Park, The Gärten will be a welcomed addition for locals with a penchant for al fresco social spaces – with craft beverages and artisanal pizza in a casual environment that invites neighbors to gather, drink and dine.
The Gärten serves a variety of high-quality, distinctive styles of craft beverages not available elsewhere in San Diego, including craft beers, mead, and eventually sparkling wines when incoming concept Oddish Wine launches in late 2022.
A shared space for four individual businesses
The Gärten itself serves as a shared space between four individual food and beverage partners:
Deft Brewing
Founded in 2017 and most recently awarded Co-Champion Brewery in the 2021 San Diego International Beer Competition, Deft Brewing sets itself apart from other San Diego craft breweries through its focus on traditional beer styles from Belgium, Germany, Ireland and the United Kingdom.
Lost Cause Meadery
A modern mead-making operation recognized as one the most awarded meaderies in the world in recent years, Lost Cause first launched in 2017 in Miramar’s Miralani Makers’ District and has since grown to offer a wide array of meads and ciders out of its current headquarters in Bay Park.
Pizza Cassette
Newly launched Pizza Cassette focuses on incorporating Southern California flavors and ingredients into its wood-fired pizzas, and is led by two talented pizzaiolos whose résumés include locally renowned Buona Forchetta and Biga, pizzerias across Brooklyn, and competing for Team USA in the World Pizza Championships.
Oddish Wine
From the founders of Lost Cause Meadery, Oddish Wine will offer sparkling wines that combine traditional winemaking practices with nontraditional fruit including co-ferments such as Pineapple + Chardonnay and Guava + Sauvignon Blanc when it launches in late 2022.
San Diego’s own European-style Biergarten
The Gärten’s 2,500-square-foot outdoor space, located at the south end of Bay Park and just a short walk from the Linda Vista Trolley Station, takes inspiration from the quintessential European-style Biergarten.
Designed as a casual, comfortable dining and drinking destination, it will offer self-seating via numerous communal tables, where guests can enjoy a steady ocean breeze from nearby Mission Bay as well as local art and live music, comedy and entertainment more than 100 nights of the year.
The lead-up to The Gärten includes milestones for San Diego’s own craft beverage scene. Notably, when Lost Cause Meadery opened its new headquarters next door to Deft Brewing in 2020, the two businesses became the first beverage companies in San Diego County to utilize what was at the time a new ABC law allowing breweries and wineries to co-license space, via a smaller patio they both shared. This harmonious partnership in combination with a growing interest in expanding eventually led all partners to pursue formation of The Gärten.
“The vision for The Gärten began two years ago when we saw how much customers loved the shared patio concept we had with Deft Brewing. Soon after, we started looking into collectively turning the property next door into an outdoor communal space like the biergartens we love in Europe,” said Lost Cause Meadery’s co-owner, Billy Beltz. “It’s exciting to finally have such a cool outdoor venue shared by all four neighboring businesses, and we hope our fellow San Diegans will enjoy gathering at The Gärten as much as we do.”
See you there
We can’t wait to be regulars! The Gärten is located at 5322 Banks Street.
Follow along via each partner’s Instagram at Deft Brewing, Lost Cause Meadery, Oddish Wine, and Pizza Casette.
See you there, San Diego!
