Huge Distillery & Restaurant Pacific Coast Spirits Opens In San Diego's North County

December 5, 2019

San Diego's newest distillery and restaurant, Pacific Coast Spirits grand opens today on the anniversary of Prohibition Repeal Day.

Pacific Coast Spirits was founded by Nicholas Hammond in 2015. Nicholas, a former mechanical engineer, was inspired to open his own distillery after he found himself continuously learning about the distillation process and creating spirits that were quoted by his friends as "some of the best they had tasted." Hammond has traveled to many regions learning and mentoring under other makers, blenders, and distillers and continued his education by apprenticing under one of Texas’s Award Winning distilleries. He also worked at one of the largest private distilleries in Los Angeles and has traveled as a consultant helping other distilleries get up and running. Nicholas has spent the last six years of his life focused on distilling and laying down product, but before that he was formally trained in Napa, CA, in winemaking and has been producing wine with his family over the past 10 years. Through all of this informal training, Nicholas is now pursuing a Masters in Distilling/Brewing through Heriot-Watt University in Edinburg, Scotland.

Pacific Coast Spirits founder Nicholas Hammond

"I have learned so much from my mentors, their techniques of slow-distillation and traditional methods of blending that truly help me daily in elevating our products and what ultimately makes it into every bottle," said Pacific Coast Spirits founder Nicholas Hammond. "We have a true synergy of bounty and libations here at Pacific Coast Spirits and are committed to sourcing ingredients locally. We are proud to be a grain-to-glass distillery, meaning all of our whiskeys are made from raw ingredients, not from neutral grain spirit. Sustainability is core to our business and is key to our future. It is our duty to make it an effort in everything we do - in process and in waste. All of our spent grains go to local ranchers as feed, we compost all of our green waste from the restaurant and recycle wherever possible."

The 12,000 square-foot Pacific Coast Spirits​ grand opens today in Oceanside with a Prohibition-themed party and the release of the company's first batch of American Single Malt whiskey. With a slogan of "where the mountains meet the ocean", Pacific Coast Spirits is a craft distillery and bar combined with an onsite family-friendly restaurant with a kitchen led by Chef Nick Schaller. The food menu is centered around shareable plates like a sampler of housemade bacon, local fish crudo, and fried chicken with a cornbread waffle that features the spent grain from the corn whiskey production. From the bar, expect an array of cocktails made with the distillery's small-batch spirits including vodka, gin, brandy, agave spirit and whiskey.

Pacific Coast Spirits opens today at 11am at 404 S Coast Highway in Oceanside. For more information, visit paccoastspirits.com and check out the food menu below.