Brewers behind iconic West Coast beer reveal new venture after brand’s SoCal closures

The founders behind one of the Golden State’s most famous beer brands are launching a new venture in the San Diego area after the company announced its production facilities would be leaving Southern California.

Stone Brewing’s Greg Koch and Steve Wagner, who launched the brand in 1996 with their first keg of Stone Pale Ale, told San Diego Magazine they’re rechristening the Stone World Bistro & Gardens in Escondido as Quarry Escondido.

The pair plans to open the new, independent restaurant on November 14, featuring “a beer program celebrating the breadth and quality of the craft brewing community.”

The 57,000-square-foot Stone World Bistro & Gardens was not part of the May sale of Stone Brewing locations from Japanese beer giant Sapporo, which has owned the brand since 2022, to Firestone Walker Brewing Company and Duvel Moortgat USA.

As part of the deal, the buyers acquired the brand and some hospitality locations, but the announcement did not mention the Escondido sites.

In August, Stone announced it was exiting its three locations in Escondido as the new parent company moved production to Paso Robles in San Luis Obispo County and Kansas City. The CEO of Sapporo USA, Zach Keeling, said the Escondido locations it still owned had to close, resulting in hundreds of layoffs.

Sapporo decided to shutter Stone World Bistro & Gardens in November — until Koch and Wagner moved to take the location back.

“That place will always be a very big part of me,” Koch told Axios, adding that the site has been an important landmark for San Diego locals. “But, really, my favorite thing is to be off to the edge and just listen to the talking and the laughter and clinking of glasses and dishes.”

The bistro location was at one point the third-largest tourist attraction in the area, behind Legoland and the San Diego Zoo Safari Park. Around 2016, it was attracting about 500,000 visitors a year, according to the San Diego Union-Tribune.

When it launched in 2006, it reportedly changed the landscape of craft brewing tasting rooms. The site has an expansive patio with fire pits and a vine-enclosed hideout. It also include a garden featuring boulders, trees, winding paths and ponds that visitors can explore while sipping beer.

“They built a place where beer, food and hospitality were one experience,” Societe Brewing founder Doug Constantiner told San Diego Magazine. “When I came to San Diego to learn from the best, their bistro was the gold standard. It set the bar across this town and the country.”

The new restaurant will stick to what made Stone successful, Koch told Axios, serving its signature suds even if the location is no longer under the brand name.

“It will offer up new experiences and new dishes on the menu, going back to its earlier days of an entree-focused menu,” he said. “But people shouldn’t expect anything very dramatic.”

The “re-opening” of the location has been welcome news for many fans who had feared the landmark establishment would disappear

“I’m literally CRYING TEARS OF JOY,” one Instagram user posted.

Stone Brewing launched in 1996 in San Marcos and relocated to Escondido in 2006. The brand, which was buoyed by the West Coast craft brewing boom in the 2000s, was at one point the ninth largest craft brewery in the U.S.

The dying hype around craft beer and the COVID-19 pandemic has since been a hit to the industry, which is facing a national trend of declining alcohol consumption.

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