A day of beer tasting in Tijuana

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Tijuana doesn’t exactly have the greatest reputation: I mean, who doesn’t remember the iconic episode of The OC where everything goes wrong in the seediest part of TJ?! Although Tijuana wasn’t exactly suuuuper high on my list of places to explore in Mexico (obviously, Mexico City was #1 and totally took the cake), it’s also fewer than 20 miles from San Diego and we’d heard rumors of a burgeoning craft beer scene.

So, we popped down with another couple for a Saturday of brewery hopping to celebrate a birthday–and although it took us some time to get our bearings, we ended up having so much fun! We went to three different breweries, one dive billiards bar, and a trendy restaurant for dinner. Bonus: it was all super affordable and so easy to hop around from place to place!

In terms of logistics: we took a Lyft to the border crossing (it takes about 20 minutes and only costs about $15 from the center of the city), walked across the border at the San Ysidro crossing (pretty quick and easy to cross over to Mexico) and then grabbed a taxi to the main drag of Avenida Revolucion (cost about $5 and took about five minutes). Overall, I’d say it didn’t take more than an hour from hopping in a Lyft at our apartment until we were sitting in a brewery with a beer in front of us! The biggest thing that slowed us down was that cell service was spotty, especially right on the border: I have a plan with AT&T that works in Mexico, but it took some time to get coverage on maps. We agreed beforehand that we all wanted to be back before dark, so we caught a cab back to the border around 6pm. It took a little more time to get back across to the USA, but thank goodness for Global Entry!

Before we totally dove into drinking, we stopped by Mercado El Popo and the Cathedral of Our Lady of Guadalupe. I want to be more strategic next time about what ingredients I can bring back: I wasn’t sure what would be allowed in terms of liquids or agriculture, but this could be such a boon for spices and Mexican flavors.

Our first stop was Mamut Brewery: there’s a great second story patio for prime people watching. It took us a while to find the entrance from the main street: it’s not super well-marked, but look for the long hallway with a mural to guide you upstairs. There are some food options available, mostly pizza and nachos: nothing incredibly good, but options to tide you over if you’re hangry (as we were, after a few wrong turns!).

Another place that was a bit of a challenge to find (the theme of this trip is that nothing is exactly where you think it will be!) was Norte Brewery: located on the fifth floor of a parking garage, we were also a bit thrown off since it didn’t open until noon, and we arrived around 11:45am. We decided to wait out the opening, and enjoy the surprisingly good city views from the parking garage, and I’m so glad we did. The beer was fantastic–lots of good IPA options, all paired with raunchy English names–and the city views in the floor-to-ceiling windows were unparalleled.

Without a doubt, my favorite stop was the Teorema/Ludica Tasting Room: it had a super chic design (that wouldn’t be out of place in San Diego’s hippest neighborhoods), incredible beers (a blood orange IPA was next-level) at super affordable prices, and lots of games to choose from. We played a too-quick game of Jenga and a far too-long game of Uno, ha! Highly recommend this spot, and it’ll be #1 on our list when we go back to Tijuana.

Some quick background on this crew: we actually met through my blog (this post, to be exact!) and immediately bonded over a shared tennis club membership. Now Erin and I are in a book club together, and Cam and David either play tennis or pool whenever our book club meets. The guys spotted a billiards club out the window of one of the breweries, and insisted on checking it out. It was a definite dive club vibe, aka cheap tequila shots were in order!

Our last stop was La Justina for dinner: fantastic cocktails, excellent good, and a superb (surprise) dessert to celebrate Cam’s birthday. Although I don’t think any of the food was as good as Mexico City, this was a really fun and delicious place to stop before heading back to San Diego.

More than anything: totally recommend a day trip here a) if you’re already in San Diego and b) if you love craft beer! We had so many grade-A beers at a fraction of the price of California, and all of the breweries had a great, low-key vibe. Can’t wait to go back and explore more!