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For many Peninsula residents, warm summer weather means cooling off coastside with a chilled beer or a glass of wine.
The San Mateo County coast has long been a destination for libations, with breweries such as Half Moon Bay Brewing Company and Hop Dogma; taprooms like OceanCiders and Your Mom’s Haus; and wineries such as Baterra and La Nebbia. But last year, the Coastside’s drinking scene took a hit with the closures of Blue Ocean Brewing, Sacrilege Brewery + Kitchen and Tripp Distillery.
Now, new businesses are coming to Half Moon Bay’s Main Street, bringing cold beer and complex wines. Half Moon Bay Brewing, a staple of Pillar Point Harbor since 2000, opened a brand new location in the former Sacrilege Brewery space last month. A new wine bar and tasting room, Lab and Hound, is coming in early August, and a new taproom, Tap Yard on Main, is projecting a late 2026 opening.
Longtime brewery expands to Main Street
After 26 years, Half Moon Bay Brewing now has a second location – but don’t expect any more, said Craig Caroll, CEO and president of Half Moon Bay Brewing.
“I don’t think the name Half Moon Bay Brewing would really fit anywhere except for Half Moon Bay,” he said. “So this is probably the second and last one we’re going to be doing.”
The brewery is best known for its Mavericks American Amber, a 5.8% ABV red ale with notes of caramel, toffee and toast and hints of citrus and pine needles. Its original location offers 12 beers on tap, wine, cocktails and a seafood-focused menu, with starters such as poke and oysters and entrees including fish tacos and fish and chips.
Half Moon Bay Brewing on Main offers the same beer as its harbor counterpart, but its menu is less seafood-focused and features a new wine list and cocktail selection.
“The menu will continue to be American-style food, but it will focus more on the local ranches and farms, where our (harbor) location focuses on the local fishermen,” Caroll said.
New options include a baked onion dip, corn fritters, chicken lollipops, an oyster mushroom melt, spaghetti bolognese and grilled pork chop with chimichurri. Caroll said the braised short ribs, served with garlic mashed potatoes, are a must-order item. The dish is made with English short ribs, meaning the cut of meat runs parallel to the rib bones, with meat sitting in a thick block over a single bone per piece ($34).
“(It’s a) large cut of meat, slow cooked for eight hours, so it falls off the bone,” he said. “And then the really cool thing with that is then we use the drippings of the short rib after it’s cooked to make a short rib ragu, which we then combine with ground pork and beef to make our bolognese for spaghetti bolognese.”
Another new item Caroll is particularly excited about is the classic American cheeseburger, featuring two quarter-pound patties made from local beef, served with fresh-cut steak fries ($19).
“In America they’re called steak fries, but where I’m from in England, they’re just called chips, so they’re the thick-cut, homemade, double-fried, brined potato steak fries, and they’re fantastic,” he said.
New cocktails include tiki drink Saturn, made from gin, orgeat, passionfruit and falernum; spirit-forward Harvest Moon, made from rye, sweet vermouth, benedictine and bitters; and Beach Ranger, a bourbon-based cocktail with pineapple, falernum and bitters ($16 each).
The former Sacrilege Brewing space had a “full facelift” to transform into Half Moon Brewing on Main, Caroll said, with all new electrical and plumbing, a bar made from sapele (an African mahogany) and solid copper lighting from Morocco. The space, which has outdoor seating, seats about 80 people.
“We’re hoping we can provide a family-friendly place for people to come on the weekends and at night after school and work and enjoy a good meal and some beers or cocktails,” Caroll said.
Half Moon Bay locals to debut wine bar
For married couple Kara and Marc Baker, Half Moon Bay has been their longtime home – both grew up there and it’s where they live with their kids and three dogs.
Kara Baker worked in the hospitality industry along the Peninsula for about a decade, starting as a hostess in high school at Sam’s Chowder House in Half Moon Bay. She worked her way up to management before working at sister restaurant Osteria Coppa in San Mateo and helping open and manage Sam’s Chowder House in Palo Alto. Both Osteria Coppa and Sam’s Palo Alto are now closed.
“The first time I went to a winery, I was able to see how amazing it was to see people interact over a glass of wine or a bottle of wine, and how it really brings community and people together over conversation,” Kara Baker said. “And I thought, ‘Why couldn’t I start a really small, curated tasting room where I’m bringing in our community and very small-batch or very hard-to-find wines off the general market?’”
The idea for Lab and Hound Wine Bar and Tasting Room was born, named after the Bakers’ two chocolate labs and one bloodhound. The wines will be what Kara Baker calls “visitable,” meaning they’re local or semi-local, focusing on smaller wineries that people may be unfamiliar with – think wines from Napa, Sonoma, Paso Robles and the Santa Cruz Mountains.
“Being able to bring these incredible wines to Half Moon Bay, where it’s really not too far to go and actually visit the winery itself or their tasting rooms, is really special to me,” she said.
The wine list will be on the smaller side, with about 13 whites and 15 reds, available by the glass or by the bottle. Eventually, wine flights will be available.
For food, expect meat and cheese boards, featuring as many local ingredients as possible. Later on, Kara Baker hopes to offer small bites as well, like tapas platters, bruschettas and more.
Lab and Hound is about 1,500 square feet, with the front half a communal space and the back half a private tasting area for parties or small events. The vibe is “speakeasy meets wine bar aesthetic, but a little more of a Western rustic feel,” Kara Baker said, with a dark coffee-stained birch bar with a white quartz countertop and leather vintage furniture.
“My hopes are that I attract the everyday wine drinker, the wine enthusiasts, and those who are very educated in wine and come to do some beautiful tastings of wines that maybe they’ve never tried before,” Kara Baker said. “And so I’m hoping that this space really creates a place where people can gather and enjoy and try new things and create conversation and friendship, and obviously come back and visit again and again.”
Half Moon Bay Brewing on Main, 730 Main St., Half Moon Bay; 650-418-3303, Instagram: @hmbbrewingco. Open Sunday to Thursday from 11:30 a.m. to 8 p.m., Friday and Saturday from 11:30 a.m. to 9 p.m.
Lab and Hound Wine Bar and Tasting Room, 315 Main St., Suite B, Half Moon May; Instagram: @labandhoundwine. Beginning early August, open Wednesday to Thursday from 3-9 p.m., Friday and Saturday from 11:30 a.m. to 10 p.m. and Sunday from 11:30 a.m. to 9 p.m.
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