![\"FRONT](\"https:\/\/sduptownnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/FRONT-COVERwebtop.jpg\")
<\/a>The California Tap Room has taken over a space notorious to North Parkers as the former home of The Rubber Rose adult boutique (which Boomer called \u201cthe dildo store\u201d), a tattoo parlor, a pot shop and a porn studio.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are so<\/em> rated G!\u201d Boomer laughed, drawing out the word \u201cso.\u201d<\/p>\n On April 15, the brick-and-mortar shop opened at 3812 Ray St. in what Boomer described as a \u201chellhole building for a long time.\u201d At the moment, they are only using half the space, putting up a temporary dividing wall in the middle of the building. They tore down 50-year-old shingles that were past their prime, and gutted the building. In their remodel, they chose a rustic theme with lots of repurposed wood on the walls, wood floors, wooden crates, and wooden picnic tables and benches.<\/p>\n The pretzel side of the business is up and running, and they sell five types of twisted deliciousness: the New York ($4), the Philly ($5), the Munich ($5), the Jumbo Bavarian Double Twist ($6) and Pretzel Puffs ($3 for five or $5 for 10). The pretzels are vegan and vegetarian, Jeff said, but not gluten-free.<\/p>\n The soft pretzels are large and served with a spicy cheese dipping sauce containing flakes of green chili peppers. \u201cWe use aged cheddar cheese infused with local craft beer in our dipping sauce,\u201d Jeff said. He added that the pretzels are made with unbleached flour, unsalted butter, sea salt, olive oil, yeast and San Diego tap water.<\/p>\n Patrons can purchase extra cheese sauce, gourmet mustards and dips, and even beer-glazed nuts from North Park Nuttery. Gourmet ice tea, lemonade, root beer and sodas ($2.50) are also on the menu.<\/p>\n Folks who want to take pretzels home can purchase a \u201cTake and Bake\u201d order, complete with everything you need to re-create the in-store experience. They also specialize in taking orders for beer lovers heading out for a pub crawl. And if you can\u2019t make it to the shop, you can order their pretzels via Door Dash for delivery to Hillcrest, University Heights, Normal Heights and North Park. They also plan to offer their own delivery service in North Park in the near future, via an electric car.<\/p>\n Soon, customers will be able to order a charcuterie board choosing sliced meats, fruits or vegetables.<\/p>\n But wait, what about the craft beer? That\u2019s coming soon, too. Their wine and beer license has been approved, so they are expecting to open the taps within a few weeks. The wine and hard cider won\u2019t be far behind.<\/p>\n On the other side of the temporary wall is a work in progress, as they prepare to showcase craft beers from their client breweries that feature their gourmet pretzels.<\/p>\n California Tap Room will also be one of the anchors at the Ray at Night monthly arts festival, hosting the \u201cofficial beer garden\u201d in the parking lot in front of their business. \u201cWe plan to rotate beers each month,\u201d Jeff said.<\/p>\n Jeff spent 25 years in the banking industry with the Bank of California, based in Irvine. \u201cI survived the crash of the banks,\u201d he said. \u201cI was bought, sold, merged and closed. I had enough of that, so I decided to retire.\u201d<\/p>\n But Jeff also loves the craft beer industry, and looked into opening his own brewery but found the start-up costs to be prohibitive. \u201cI started looking for a product that would compliment craft beer.\u201d<\/p>\n Jeff knew beer lovers have a natural affinity for pretzels, and he searched the city and found a quality baker who could produce the products he wanted to serve. He and Boomer politely decline to name the mystery baker, but that man was the person who introduced the future business partners.<\/p>\n In March 2015, Jeff started California Tap Room as a mobile business, catering gourmet pretzels and accouterments via a \u201cpretzel trailer\u201d to businesses and brewers, such as Mike Hess Brewing, Coronado Brewing Company, The Lost Abbey and Pizza Port Brewing Company. As the mobile business took off, he realized that he needed a brick-and-mortar operation and a business partner. A casual conversation with his baker led to the fortuitous introduction to Boomer, who has known the baker for many years since he moved to San Diego from Philadelphia. Boomer calls the baker \u201cmy father figure out here.\u201d Jeff and Boomer met, found they share common interests, so Jeff sold half the business to his fellow North Park residents, Boomer and his wife Lauren.<\/p>\n Incidentally, Boomer and Lauren\u2019s affection for Philly pretzels is why those are on the menu, Jeff said. They are already a top-seller.<\/p>\n San Diego Uptown News visited the shop on National Pretzel Day, which fell this year on April 26. Customers trickled in, including North Park resident Mike Myers, a Realtor with Team Metro Real Estate.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat a great place to be, especially on National Pretzel Day,\u201d Myers said.<\/p>\n \u201cI’m very excited to see them open and looking forward to their expansion with not only the store size but the menu. California Tap Room is already a great place. The pretzels are delicious! I had my first cinnamon and sugar pretzel \u2026 and it was incredible. Boomer hooked me up with some icing drizzled on top and Jeff suggested a side of honey that knocked my socks off,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n \u201cI cannot say enough about California Tap Room. With great people, a great store, great location, great pretzels, it’s definitely a spot that will be around for a long time and become a staple here in the heart of North Park.\u201d<\/p>\n \u2014Ken Williams is editor of Uptown News and Mission Valley News and can be reached at\u00a0ken@sdcnn.com<\/span><\/a>\u00a0o al 619-961-1952. S\u00edguelo en Twitter en\u00a0KenSanDiego<\/span><\/a>, cuenta de Instagram en\u00a0KenSD<\/span><\/a>\u00a0o Facebook en\u00a0KenWilliamsSanDiego<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/em><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Por Ken Williams | Editor<\/p>","protected":false},"author":846,"featured_media":249233,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"11555","_seopress_titles_title":"The pretzel-meisters of North Park","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[11547,11551,11550,11555],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-250180","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-features","category-news","category-top-stories","category-uptown-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/250180","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/846"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=250180"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/250180\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/249233"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=250180"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=250180"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=250180"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/a><\/a><\/a>Boomer, by the way, recently lost his bid to be elected to the North Park Planning Committee. But the millennial businessman isn\u2019t deterred; he plans to run again in the future. He also is keeping an eye on the presidential race, because Republican frontrunner Donald Trump was his former boss when he was a camera operator on NBC\u2019s \u201cThe Apprentice.\u201d Boomer doesn\u2019t mince words in describing Trump: \u201cHe is a lunatic!\u201d<\/p>\n<\/a>\u201cJeff, Boomer and Lauren are all so friendly. As soon as you walk in there, they make you feel like you’ve known them forever. They’re very easy-going and always make you leave with a smile. I usually bring my dog Riley with me and they treat her just as nice, usually winning her over with a taster Pretzel Puff,\u201d Meyer said.<\/p>\n