New brewing company wins Encinitas approval to use Islands Restaurant site

The city’s first restaurant with an onsite beer-brewing operation, or at least the first full-scale one in decades, won permit approval from the Encinitas Planning Commission Thursday.

Commissioners praised Encinitas Brewing Company’s proposal to open a restaurant with beer-brewing and craft-distilling production capabilities in the Plaza Encinitas Ranch shopping center. They said it will breathe new life into what’s now a fairly quiet shopping center on the city’s northeastern edge.

The project’s requested coastal development permit, design review permit and a major-use permit modification were unanimously approved by the planning commissioners, whose only modification was to recommend that the project’s backers include bike racks with space for at least six bikes given the increasing use of e-bikes in town.

In addition to approving the city permits, the commissioners also recommended that the state Alcoholic Beverage Control Board grant the project’s request for a (Type 23) state alcohol license allowing a small beer manufacturing operation and a (Type 74) license for a craft distillery. The project does not require City Council approval.

Newly appointed city Planning Commissioner Bridget Kimball called the brewing company’s proposal a “good use of a space” in a shopping center that’s currently “kind of desolate,” while Commission Chair Steve Dalton told the project’s backers that he hoped “it succeeds beyond your expectations.”

Plans c...