Bagby Beer Company

Was in Oceanside for daughter soccer tournament and was looking for somewhere unique to go. After cruising Oceanside came across this amazing place. Great beers at reasonable price (for being craft), Food was above average, kid friendly… BUT what makes this place a preferred choice for me was the layout and atmosphere. I was there on a rainy Saturday night but I can only imagine this place on a nice warm summer day with all the outdoor bars. I will be returning!

Fun place to hang out but it’s kinda pricy. Paloma is my go-​to drink but I run up my tab quick witb their pricy yet delicious cocktails. Had our company xmas party here 2 years in a row and this past year we had too much fun and they may not want us back lmao!

Walked in and Christina the bar tender walked up immediately and asked what kind of beer I liked and. Roughy out 4 samples! All of which were on the mark and I decided on Bagby’s Lion’s Pride. It is a very flavorful old ale with a slight sour finish. I went with the Short Rib Tacos which were fantastic. At the restaurant there are two bars, o e down and one upstairs and lots of room for groups. I don’t get up here often but I’ll likely be back.

Server (s) didn’t have any grasp for beer and recommendations. Amusing they asked us if we wanted a box when we just got our food and only had 1 beer.
Couldn’t flag down a single waiter/​waitress or bartender. We had to go to the bar each time we wanted anything even though we had a server and food runner. Then sat there for 30 minutes waiting for the check after asking for it.
Terrible service and mediocre food… this place won’t last another year.
Won’t be back and it’s shame cuz it’s close to my house.
Ps. They obviously have elite Unilocalers helping them out too as they’ve messaged me within minutes of writing this review to convince me this place is so great.

Came here for the first time on my birthday. They have such a great lunch special with a new sandwich weekly. Love the décor here and the ambiance is great. Good crowd, not rowdy at all! 2 floors, bar on both, makes it difficult to find seating at these place even when it’s «crowded». Fridays seem to be the busiest nights. I come here on my lunch breaks from time to time and its not a bad place to get some work done. Outlets are lined along the bar for covenience. This is my new go to spot for lunch and a drink on the weekend.

Your service was terrible. Her name was Genavieve. We came in with a party of 12. We appreciated she was able to do split checks for us with your cool little iPad system.
First, I ordered a bottle of Blanc de Blancs for our check of 2 covers. She brought me a GLASS. About 20 minutes later, she finally went around and took everyone’s order. COMPLETELY skipped myself and my friend. By the time I noticed she already took everyone’s order, I had to ask someone else to grab our server. She didn’t even realized she had skipped us completely. She was like, Oh? you guys wanted to order food? Ummmm. yes. We wanted to eat with the other 10 people that are eating. WTH? When did I ever mentioned that I DIDN’T want to order food?
Everyone got their food and was done eating by the time we got our food. She never came back to follow up on our how meals were. Anytime we needed something, we consistently had to ask another employee. We had asked her to turn on the heater for us when we first sat down. She finally turns it on the last 15 minutes we were there.
We asked for a little bit of orange juice for our champagne. She brings a half glass full, and charges us $ 8!!! Ludicrous to say the least.
As a fellow bartender and server, I was appalled by the service here. You guys have a great cocktail and beer selection, but it was completely overshadowed by your service.
It wasn’t only myself that felt this way, but others in our large party felt the disservice we were treated with.
I would never come back here, nor would I ever recommend this place to my worst enemy.

Very cool atmosphere and huge as well! Overall the food was very tasty and the beer selection was extensive. Our server was not too attentive but bus staff helped out a lot with bringing food, drinks, extra items needed.
We will definitely come back for round 2.

The beer selection is killer! The service saves the food.
Now, gastropubs are cool and all… BUT when the food is so hipster you’re drowning the star of the show, then it just ruins the experience. We ordered the Pork belly sliders and the brussel sprouts. The sliders were cool but the pork just wasn’t crispy enough for me and the peanut butter and jalapeño jelly just drowns out what should be amazing meat. The sprouts were trying to have an crazy ingredient party that they forget that it needs some flavor, I had to ask for a side of balsamic glaze just to help get it down in my belly.
They get three from me for the beer and the awesome staff, probably won’t be indulging in the food anytime soon.
Whomp whomp.

This is my favorite place for food and beer in Oceanside. Yes, I said it. I mean it too. On a rare day off I was able to hang out with my favorite sibling and check this place out. I really liked the layout as it has an open concept with indoor/​outdoor seating, as well as a good amount of seating and a parking lot across the street.
We were quickly greeted as we walked in and given a few minutes to look at the tap list as well as the menu.
After much deliberation we decided on splitting the Cabbage Salad to start. Wow! It was really tasty. smoked corn, black beans, avocado (lots), red onion with Cotija cheese in a creamy lime dressing. I’m not a huge salad guy, but this one really grabbed me. It was fresh, the ingredients went together harmoniously and there was just the right amount of salad dressing.
We also split the Porchetta Cubano Sandwich. It was made up of house smoked porchetta, Tasso ham, dill pickle, mustard and Swiss on an artisan roll. This was a great sandwich as well and went really well with the salad. It could have used a little more pickle (we couldn’t find it) but overall, great sandwich.
We also tried a lot of the beers. The They have a really good sample deal, so I suggest that if you want to get the most for your taste buds. I tried 10 different samples and each was tasty. I didn’t have any IPA’s, but tried a lot of other styles. It’s the first time I tried that many beers and liked them all.
The wait staff was very cool as anyone working will help you out with questions, beer orders, anything. I like that style of service a lot.
For a good meal, with nice people, good food and good beer, this is definitely the place.

Oh my gosh! I LOVED this place! We were headed over to the Flying Pig on New Years Day night to grab some dinner on our way home and it was CLOSED! What? So I pulled out my trusty Unilocal app, looked for the closest place and saw Bagby with a very positive review from Trish, so it was decided. Bagby, was NOT what I expected to find. This place is amazing! It’s HUGE! (TWSS) I love that it is two stories and has multiple indoor and outdoor spaces, multiple bars, a variety of seating types and an overall clean and fun vibe.
The beer selection is awesome. I was shocked by how many different beers this place makes! WOW! I had a Rye pale and the husband had an IPA and we loved them both. But, besides the beer (oh, yeah, and they have wine and cocktails, so not JUST a brewery!) THE FOOD! OH MY GOSH! The food is amazing. I was super impressed with the menu, it’s not huge but there is a good selection and everything sounds YUMMY. I ordered the cheeseboard sandwich and a cup of tomato-​fennel soup. I soooo love fennel and I sooo love tomato soup and this soup did NOT disappoint. YOU. MUST. TRY. THIS. SOUP. So good. THe sandwich was equally good. So rich with brie and manchego and sliced pears all toasty. My mouth just watered while I wrote that. The husband got tacos (of course) and said the Baja Fish Tacos were yummy. I can say they looked really good. i really want to go back and try more of the food… it was super hard to pick because everything sounded tasty.
The service was amazing. In a place that huge, you need a lot of staff and they had it. Every section had servers and bartenders and people in general being super nice to you and making sure you were happy.
I cannot say enough good things and I am seriously going back here. I’ve already been telling people about it. Bagby, you are brilliant! Move to Escondido for me, will ya?

This place was a lot of fun. It had a great beer selection and lots and lots of indoor and outdoor seating. This is defiantly a good place to head over for happy hour.
The staff here is pretty cool and friendly.
The food here is really good but a little pricey. I got the special which was ahi poke. It tasted great but small portions and it didn’t come close to filling me up.
The parking here pretty much sucks. It has a small parking lot that fills up quick, but luckly there is a lot of street parking available.

This is the coolest thing that happened to Oceanside in the last year — and that’s saying a lot because the city is bubbling with new ventures and local love. (clap clap Oceanside! Loving it).
I’ve hung out at Bagby a couple times and in a different section each time — this place as all kinds of room options and areas. I really like the upstairs bar and the outside patio the best.
How bout some food with your brews? Tis the North County way. I can’t get down on some pints without a base of noms. They make almost everything from scratch in their kitchen. Me likey the Pork Belly Poutine, the Gingo tacos, the crispy brussel and Belgian fries. Honorable mention for the smoked corn! The fried PB & J is on my short list for desserts to try soon! Next visit!
Customer service has always been friendly and on point, they note a commitment to hospitality on their website and that can really be felt throughout. One of the top places I recommend to people!

Massive and I mean massive space! Upstairs, indoor, outdoor, kid friendly, dog friendly, this spot got it ALL RIGHT in relation to space and décor!
Stopped in on a Sunday around noon, had the Bagby Burger and fries with a few cocktails… burger was delicious, service was friendly and attentive. We were a little bummed the beer was a bit warm as well as the champagne, BUT the staff and atmosphere was so spot on I’m not knocking down my 4 stars! I don’t think they serve brunch… but I wish they did at least on the weekends. They have so much space I can’t imagine how they keep it so spotless! I’d come back for sure to see what the happy hour crowd looks like. Not sure if they have happy hour, I’d like to imagine they would. I was also happy to see just one TV in the main area so you won’t have a massive amount of sports fans just staring at TVs. People can enjoy a conversation at this kinda place. Bravo to the design team that brought Bagby’s to a great location in Oceanside!

We stopped here for lunch in Oceanside it was a luck of the draw stop.
I had their Smoked Chicken Club with Avocado Crispy pork belly, Lettuce Tomato and onion, Garlic aioli with pimento cheese on a foccacia. Other than the pork belly it didn’t have much flavor the chicken was dry and the top piece of the foccacia was hard, which made it difficult to eat without making a mess, and I did. I guess i could have removed the top and used a knife and fork but wheres the fun in that.
Jaime had the Porchetta Cubano it had house smoked porchetta, tasso ham, dill pickle and swiss with mustard on a baguette. Seemed to be a way better choice sleeker and bigger too. he enjoyed it way more than I did mine.
This place was an empty for the most part, there are quite a few brew pubs on this street too. my fav being LTH.
So I think they may want to step up their game a bit for the locals, but I guess if its a one hit tourist deal they are targeting, it might fly for a minute but for the smart tourist check your Unilocal there are better places to eat on this street with the same motif.
To be fair we did not try the beer.
Over all, MEH

We found this spot thanks to our fellow Unilocalers as we drove along 101. There is parking on the street and it wasn’t busy around 3:30pm on a Monday. They had open seating on the first floor only, the upstairs didn’t open until 5pm. Once that happened, it was bar service on the first floor and table service on the second.
We tried a whiskey sour and the Bagby Workerbee. Both were very good and I liked that they used one very large ice cube so my drink didn’t get watery.
We also tried two appetizers, the chips, salsa and guacamole, and the fries. Chips were fresh and hot, the salsas were a nice variety, and the fries delicious. I’m not normally a fan of cheese type dips but theirs was excellent.
Once we were ready, it wasn’t difficult to check out because they use a tablet and come to you. Sometimes taking care of the tab at the bar is a pain but they made it easy.
I loved the garage door windows, we could sit in the shade but enjoy the scenery comfortably. I hope they start bottling their beer soon, we’d love to take some home!

I came by here looking for something to eat, because I didn’t want to just eat ice cream for dinner. I didn’t get my ice cream afterward anyway, because the place wasn’t even open according to their hours listed in some of their pictures.
I drove by here and stopped to check it out after reading some of the reviews. This place is huge, probably takes up about a quarter of the block. There are 2 floors, I have no idea what the upper floors looked like because I sat at the bar. The bathrooms were kinda cool, the faucets are the taps like you find behind the bar. The urinals had a floor grate kind of thing for those people who can’t aim after a few beers, and there were walls separating them instead of just a divider.
I got a sample of the upside down frown, an American brown ale, it tasted decent so I got a pint of that to go with the bagby burger. The burger was pretty good. Consisting of a ¹⁄₃ lb patty on a pretzel bun, with caramelize onions, tomato/​bacon jam, white cheddar, horseradish mayo, and arugula instead of the usual lettuce. You can substitute turkey or a veggie patty if you’re not into beef. They don’t ask you how you want it cooked. The fries came with a herb mayo tasting dip. The website says they are twice fried, but they tasted more like baked fries to me. Kind of a weird texture to them, like they were old or something. I couldn’t finish them.
They had a daily special menu on the wall across from where I was sitting, but half of it was unreadable under the dim lighting and the yellow marker on white paper. The lines that I could read were in red/​brown and some of the specials didn’t sound too bad from the ingredients.
My experience here was so-​so, the food was decent, but the staff was kinda weird. It was about 8 pm or so and some of the staff just didn’t seem friendly at all. Like they were just waiting for their shift to end and didn’t want to deal with anyone. Out of the 2 bartenders, only 1 guy came to take my order and never came back to find out if I needed anything else or even ask about the food. The other guy never went past the tv. Another guy came in to work at the bar and he was the only one that was really helpful. If I were to come back, I would NOT sit at the bar.

I think Oceanside has gotten a bad rap in the past for its lack of good spots for eats and drinks, but I feel downtown has had a bit of a renaissance lately with several new places popping up over the last year or so. One of those places is Bagby, which is what can only be described as a compound for all sorts of different crowds: there’s a bar for your usual bar-​going needs, a great enclosed outdoor area that has a beer garden feel to it for some leisurely beer tasting and sampling, and a more traditional restaurant style area both upstairs and downstairs for full meals and drinks. A very cool and unique new addition to the main drag in downtown.
Bagby brews its own beer onsite and there are a TON of different beers available. I’m partial to IPAs and they have a couple different ones that are fantastic. They also feature other local and not so local craft beers to show love and respect to other great libations from outside their brewery universe. Then there’s plenty of mixed drinks and custom cocktails available if hops and yeast aren’t your thing.
On to the food: we’ve gotten several different things, and overall it is great. Fish tacos, burgers, pizzas, fries, and a whole lot more choices will satisfy everyone in your party. I’m especially partial to their fish tacos which comes with their house made black beans.
You’ve got to check out this place, super good!

Maybe it’s just that we didn’t want summer to end. Maybe — as flawed humans — we decided the enormity of today would best be accomplished tomorrow. More on that later.
Anyway we stretched the weekend into Monday by ditching out of work. Mondays suck, right?! We headed for OSide to grab some beer and grub. And where better to finish the «weekend» than at the half-​block beer-​tropolis named Bagby?
Bagby is big. 8500 square feet big. Two stories, multiple patios big. Big ocean views big. «Alice in Beer Wonderland» big. Big parking lot big. They should have named this place «Bigby»!
{Full disclosure: This review is sponsored by the word «big». No small people were harmed in the making of this review.}
We got there mid-​afternoon and joined many others also fearing the end of summer. Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. Ordered some «house beer» tasters. The award winning beer was straight-​outta-​compton, fresh-​dressed good.
We then procured a seasonal veggie salad, pork belly sliders, and of course the ice cream sandwich trio. The food was simple, well made, and delicious. This is local, authentic, California casual food with a twist. Surpise elements of sweet, tart, hot, and crunchy were discovered throughout.
And sure the long days are ending sooner, the kids are back in school, footballs are flying through the air… but please please don’t let the summer end. Give us time for just a couple more trips to the ocean and that «big» beerhouse named Bagby…
#EndlessSummer
#ThreeDayWeekendsRawk
#SponsoredByTheLetterBig
#DontWearWhiteAfterLaborDay

To sum up:
Great beers, OK cocktails, knowledgeable servers, hit-​and-​miss food, beautiful patios and open areas, parking usually involves walking.
Moving beyond simply providing a variety of hoppy IPAs, Bagby and friends now produce decent hefeweisens, bocks, and German creations. But even though they have a full liquor license doesn’t mean you should consider going that direction. Mixed drinks can be weak. I got a half-​full martini once; not sure if the server spilled some or if somebody just doesn’t know how to make one.
Potential spillage aside, servers are great, especially those working behind the bar, who know a lot more about the beers. Servers waiting tables occasionally get overwhelmed and confused with big groups, however. Maybe that leads to spillage.
Food: stick with the pizzas, which are crispy, thin, and made in one of those high-​temperature dome ovens. Sandwiches are ok, and the Gringo Taco plate is a glorified duo of Taco Bell hard tacos, but with spicier and tastier fillings.
There are several bars in the walls of Bagby. On a busy weekend evening, you could probably pull off a pub crawl entirely within the premises. So much of the space is outdoors and very doggie-​friendly. It’s pretty, too, with the low-​voltage string lighting outside, and polished woods comprising the walls all around and the top deck.
And on those busy weekend evenings, don’t even try to park within a block of Bagby’s, or even consider using the five non-​disabled spots in their lot. Head inland a couple blocks and find a spot in the residential neighborhood. The walk back to the car will do your beer-​swilling ass some good, regardless.

BAGBY BEER COMPANY is HUGE. place meanders up and down, around and around. lots of little (and big) niches. we sat upstairs outside for the ocean peek and watched the sun go down. i wasn’t all that excited about going. thought their menu (which i reviewed on-​line before we left the house) looked pedestrian. but, as is so often the case, i was wrong.
really great wait staff: well-​trained, energetic, knowledgeable, friendly, engaging, attentive — pretty much everything you could want in servers. CARSON, JESSICA and DANIELLA hats off. you did a most excellent job.
expansive BEER selection. i had a STOUT YOUR ENGINES (AMERICAN stout) and the wife-​unit had a SOUTHBOUNDER (coffee stout). we were childless for a couple days this week and took full advantage.
we started with the SUMMER FARM FETE (local heirloom tomatoes, balsamic reduction, arugula, burrata, basil buttermilk). the wife’s been craving a good CAPRESE and this came pretty darn close. flavorful without being cloying, i think she said it best — «this tastes like summer.»
well into our beers we added some BELGIAN STREET FRITES (twice fried BELGIAN style fries) and WOW were they good. if you go to BAGBY, get some or a sandwich or burger that comes with ‘em. perfectly seasoned. perfectly crispy. perfectly perfect. theirs were some of the best «fries» i have ever had — period.
with our second beers (hey, it was a hot night and we were there a while) the wife ordered a CRUISER (crispy, thin-​crust pizza with prosciutto, cippolini onions, mushrooms, arugula, smoked gouda and parmesean truffle cream). not as busy as it sounds (i’m from the school that says too many toppings makes for a muddled pizza) and really, really good.
the worker bees buzzing around wore BAGBY BEER COMPANY t-​shirts that besides bragging about their brews read SIMPLE FOOD DONE WELL. their menu’s not particularly ambitious but here’s the most important thing: their reach did not exceed their grasp. i believe when you say something like «simple food done well,» you’re making a promise. from our experience last night, i would say they kept their word.