Discretion Brewing
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Quality/Quantity - Decided to try their $5 special which was good. Hola Lola, west coast IPA. No reds today, so we decided after one beer to go to Balefire Brewing; see other review. Food is also available, but we are going to Shadowbrook for dinner tonight. Atmosphere - Decent size location, well the outdoor space is huge. See pictures. Books and games were available, but we did not use them. Plenty of parking, but notice all the signs. So make sure you do NOT park in the wrong spots. Open 7 days a week from noon to 9pm. Live music, see website. Clean unisex restrooms. Wifi - See picture for password. Service - Counter service, overall good service. Got some free beer can stickers for my ski box. :) Thank you. Price - $6 + generous tip. Owner Comment - Congrats on your success since 2011 with your doors opening in 2013.
Let's update. I haven't drank here since Covid started. It's still great, some smooth tasting brews and the food is still delicious. I don't get out this way much anymore but Discretion Brewing is a must stop for me. Last word...relax.
We've been here a few times and, even though they have the narrowest parking spots on planet earth, they have a fun vibe and some tasty, creative brews. I also really dig their outdoor space. Last weekend, we dropped by again because we were in the neighborhood (at Target). We really enjoyed our conversation with the bartender and one of the brewing assistants. They were willing to make recommendations, pour samples, and talk about the beers. I haven't eaten much here, except for the olives- which make the perfect, salty beer snack- but heard a few compliments on the food from other patrons on their way out. Another great brewery in the Santa Cruz-Capitola area that's worth checking out.
Pretty darn solid brewery in Soquel/Santa Cruz area. More inland, so more locals than tourist. Looks like they invested and built the facility for themselves with a metal barn-like building for the tap room and brewery, equipt with solar energy to power their operations. Their outdoor area is much more impressive than their indoors and seems 85% of the action happens out there. There's table seating, counter seating and communal benches, most are under a cover. Lots of dogs and locals, you can just feel the buzz of the community here. I only did a quick sampling of several beers here as I had plans to eat in the neighborhood for dinner. But they do have a small menu with appetizers and sandwiches that looked really promising, and the pics prove that I'm going to have to try some on my next visit for sure. I loved their website before I even ventured in. It has their story in a concise manner and the way they describe their beers are very entertaining if not poetic and creative, which I have to pound my chest and nod to. Like they describe their Shimmer Pils as having "a shimmery depth, like light on a fathomless sea.' Lol. And their Ten Million Flower's Kolsh is called so because it took ten million flowers for bees to make the honey that goes into this brew. If James Joyce and/or Walt Whitman lived in this town, I could see them being patrons here. Their beer flight you can choose up to six from their current tap selection, which I think was around 16 taps. That's a lot, like it was hard in making a decision and it would probably take me at least 6 visits to get a full grasp/opinion on their body of work. They also have brews in cans in a fridge that may not necessarily be on tap. I went last summer and their current line up is much different than what was being offered on my visit. So FYI things are in a constant state of flow here, hope you're flexible and adventurous. If you get cans to-go, you can mix and match whatever flavors you want, which I thought was a nice bonus. I really liked 2 light brews I tried. The above Pils and Kolsh were remarkably light and crisp and clean. I liked the Kolsh a tad more, had more depth and uniqueness. Liked their Mosaic hopped Pale Ale as I like a strong hop presence, but I often don't want the malt and gravity of IPA's. I did try a couple of IPA's as well as most of my buddies are into them, and I had to bring something back. Also tried a Black Lager and that was pretty much true to style. I also bet that my tasting would have evolved and been more complete with some bites of food, but that'll just have to wait for the next out. Digging their style and their efforts, so an inevitable return is on queue.
Very cool place to go with friends! My first time here and I really liked. The service is great, everyone was super friendly. I went there with my boyfriend and we had some beers. I got their Pillowcase, and it tasted super delicious. For food, we got their Pepperoni Pizza and Bruschetta Caponata. The pizza was pretty good but I didn't like the Bruschetta. It was cold and I just didn't like it. It's very different but maybe you can order and like it. Overall everything was great! I really want to come back in the summer. I think it's amazing to be at their patios enjoying the sun while having a beer. I'm looking forward to it!
Add Discretion Brewing to your list when visiting Santa Cruz. Discretion carries 16 delicious brews on tap, has their own parking lot, ample outdoor seating, indoor seating, heaters for when necessary, clean bathroom, and sweet merch! What more can we ask for in a brewery, really? After a long day of drinking, I really don't remember what I had...(it was a good day). I want to say it was the good faith, strong ale paired nicely with a pepperoni pizza. I am seeing some not so great reviews on the Italian kitchen situation but I didn't have any issues with it. I typically don't expect much from a brewery kitchen in general. Will definitely go for a flight next time!
First of all the beer is really good, I especially like their hazys. Bit what surprised me was the incredibly good food! The ribeye sandwich was tender, juicy and flavorful. I want to know where they get that bread! The salami and burrata flatbread with the grilled zucchini was on point. Sauce so tasty and again the crust! Plus its on the large size. We also had the anti pasta plate, with those savory Italian cookies that I dipped in the light and airy buratta I was in heaven. Highly recommend stopping in for a bite!
High on my list of Santa Cruz breweries. Discretion's outdoor area is very spacious and weather-friendly. The beer and food are both very good. Service was helpful. We grabbed a seat out under the pop up tent outside. On a cold night they had plenty of space heaters and there was room to space out while still staying warm. We ordered a stout and a bourbon barrel aged tripel. Both were great, but the tripel was the winner. So delicious, and strong without tasting overly so. Appreciate the vegetarian food options. We had the veggie antipasto and it was yummy and healthy. A very solid choice for a beer out in SC.
It had a vey calm atmosphere. I have been here a few times and I have always had good food!
We're visiting from out of town, but if we lived in Santa Cruz we'd be regulars here. Have been here twice in the last two years and had the same experience both times; friendly staff, good beer, good food, nice ambience and a pretty outdoor seating area. Last time we were here we accidentally came on a free movie Monday, which was a fun surprise. Check this place out, you won't be disappointed.
My last review was in 2015. And another great time out! Best craft beer in Santa Cruz county!
2 years ago
Came for a beer and dinner based off reviews and was not disappointed they had quick food service and a great quality for how fast it was honestly will be recommending to friends read more
Decided to stop by on the way home. Their food and beer are always top rate, and with the chief leaving soon. Wanted to have some of the amazing food he always creates. Definitely wasn't disappointed. Pork carnitas tacos, so good, I love carnitas, but these has plenty of cilantro and a green sauce so flavorful. So delicious. Highly recommended, but come soon! Tried a few new releases. Great uncle Dave's is a double IPA version of their classic Uncle Dave's, always a favorite. Then tried the "Follow the Creek IPA, Discretion does such a top rate job with any of the beers. This one didn't disappoint. Clean and refreshing, hoppy, perfect for following the creek and after hiking the creek. The new chief will have some big shoes to fill. Staff was friendly, courteous and keeping up the Covid protocols. Cheers read more
2 years ago
2 years ago
5 years ago
5 years ago
Great hazy ipa "magical transformation " along with a yummy meatball sandwich & caprese sandwich. Friendly service. read more
5 years ago
Time for an update! Discretion is absolutely one of my FAVORITE places to visit every time I make a trip to Santa Cruz. I can't miss a stop here, it's just too good! I don't drink, but I typically order a refresher that is some kind of fruit infused water which is different every time I visit, but always tart and delicious. The Kitchen is the best bar food I've had. The menu changes regularly, but it's ALWAYS delicious! You can't go wrong with the morsels, bites or entrees. It's all good! And it always is plated beautifully too. I have to say, my absolute favorite dish I've had is a corn chowder. And in all the times I've visited, they've only had it twice. Chicken and waffles is usually a staple, and you can't go wrong with the sliders. The food is just good! read more
5 years ago
Very good food and more importantly good beers. Sorry no pictures of food....gobbled it up so fast ha ha Definitely recommend read more
4 years ago
Super friendly, the beer selection is amazing. The food is delicious and the seating area is great. We came to Santa Cruz from the East coast and this has been the best food and drinks thus far! read more
4 years ago
Amazing food bruchetta was delicious and tiramisu soo yummy and lava cake was explosion of delicious chocolate. Sandwiches very good and salads very good as well. Great beer and doggie friendly. read more
5 years ago
Discretion Brewing has delicious farm to table food inventions with an awesome variety of beer! I had salmon crudo - crispy bread with avocado mousse mixed with curry garnished with tomato, radish, sesame, etc drizzled with chili oil (not spicy). That was so damn scrumptious my hubby had the chicken and waffles which were also delicious but I think the chicken was a bit greasy - nevertheless it had small cubes of cubed bacon bits (not the crummy kind) with a perfect amount of maple damping your bacon and waffles. The waffles were warm, semi firm outside that feels good to cut but were soft like pancakes. The beer samples came in a muffin baking sheet and they were more in the bitter side. You order at the counter, they give you a buzzer, drop off your beers, and have you pick up your decadent meals when the buzzer goes off. There is a decent sized outside patio for probably around 25 people. We sat by the books inside, next to the patio exit and I picked out a funny "our dumb world" Atlas that had denoted funny maps and descriptions of areas of all regions you could think of. Silicon Valley area was: "man looking for Silicon with a pan" , parts of Iraq: "manufacturing missles but missing a screw" and west Iran: "archeologists" along with "woman being punished for being naked under clothing" India near Ganges: "flooded river reuniting family and their deceased" --anyway they embraced a local experience while mixing it in with modern craft brewing and delicious food culture. I liked it a lot! Everything came out to $44 read more
3 years ago
I love Discretion! Great beers. Tasty food. Good service. And the environment is amazing too. They are one of those good for all type of places and that is always nice. It is a kid friendly, dog friendly, loud conversation and laughs friendly too. Discretion is a family owned business. They rotate some of their amazing crafted beers so chances are you may find new ones from time to time. The food here is simply delicious. It is farm to table and unique. Really good combinations and flavors. read more
Good beer. Good food. Nice seating. Done. But actually. They have really solid beer. It's well made with crisp flavors. Its well finished and consistent. Uncle Dave's IPA is always a good call. The food they make there is really nice too. Clearly high quality ingredients. A little on the expensive side. It's a relatively small space, but they do have both indoor and out door seating. For whatever reason it's never super busy when I go. Maybe it's just cause they have a weird location? One of my favorite breweries in Santa Cruz. read more
Inconspicuous location, behind a furniture store. Plenty of parking. Great beer selection and menu. The food was incredible. The service was awesome. There is bar seating. Plenty of tables Inside and a shaded area outside as well. Casual hip environment. I'm so glad I discovered this place and can't wait to go back. read more
Last stop on the Santa Cruz brewery mini-crawl... Rye IPA. Need I say more. Then there's the food. I'm no foodie. But... The House Cured King Salmon is worth coming here, even if you just get water. Service was efficient and friendly at the bar. If I lived here, I'd eat and drink here. Jealous. read more
5 years ago
I love this place! Favorite beer is their Peeble Project Pale Ale, but it's hard to find so I always pick up a few 4 packs when in SC/Soquel. The food is good here too, just an added bonus. read more
3 years ago
8 years ago
3 years ago
Came here just on a chance because our plans in Capitola got changed. Looked for places to eat/drink, and this sounded pretty good. Was greeted as we walked in and it was explained to us that you order everything (if you want food, you get a pager to pick up order when ready), then go have a seat wherever you like. A great variety of Italian food, very surprising for a small brewery. Ordered the meatball appetizer, meatball sandwich, and pepperoni pizza. Meatballs were delicious, and my son said the pepperoni pizza was almost the best he's ever had. The seating area is part cute garden setting, and extended seating under a tent in the parking lot. My husband really liked his beer which was like a classic American style lager, and I had wine since I can only do GF. Live music started around 3pm, a nice surprise. If you're in the area, I definitely recommend you check this place out. read more
5 years ago
5 years ago
I sit here, at the brewery floored. Lucy and her team have fed and beer'd me to utopia. I planned for only a beer and a snack but stuck around (bad traffic on HWY 1). The snacks here are something else, Octopus Carpaccio, Caprese and Spinach & Ricotta Cannelloni. Delicious. I combo'd both Hazy IPAs, the Jugo Nuevo and El Dorado. I sit here typing with a breeze, a brew and a full belly. Cheers. read more
7 years ago
This is one of my favorite restaurants in Santa Cruz. Every time I come here they have a different menu and every time it is fantastic! On this visit I had some of the okboterfest themed items. The polish sausage sandwich I had was fantastic and reasonably priced. The potatoes and the chorizo were also both amazing! Looking forward to come back again! read more
New year, new beer. Always seeking out fresh beer in our great State of California, (time to pat myself on the back) I've compiled an inexorably awesome "I Yelp California Beer!" list of Cali craft breweries visited & reviewed. So on a sunny Winter day (yeah, for both Winter weather & beers, we got it pretty good in CA), while motorcycling up & down the Coast on Highway 1, I stopped by Discretion Brewing to check out my 1st new brewery of 2015. Discretion Brewing is just off the highway, tucked into the back corner of a shopping plaza. It's in a big, red industrial-type building. Outside & in, it's all new & tidy looking. I grabbed a seat at the bar near the entrance & took a few minutes to let it all sink in. Service was friendly, informative & patient as I mulled my choices. Of which, there were quite a few. There were 11 beers on tap & a kitchen on premises for solids to go with the liquids. Eventually, I went with a 6 3oz. tasting flight for $9. Solid deal & nice way to try out more without getting totally tanked. Those 6 tasters were: Good Faith Strong Ale, 9th Conversation (Belgian Strong Golden), Uncle Dave's Rye IPA, 10th Conversation (Belgian IPA), Foggy Forest Forest IPA & Scenic Stout. Needing a little something to munch on also, I ordered the Sauteed Broccoli from their kitchen menu (new year, time to atone for Holiday gluttony). OK, I'll be honest. Some of the tasters I tried (& many of the other beers on tap) are not the styles I usually gravitate to. Nonetheless, I can tell & appreciate that they were all well-made beers. For my taste, it was mostly too malty & too sweet. The thing is, craft brewing can be so niche, that each beer becomes a matter of the brewer's personal expression. Reading the descriptions of their beers, they got what they were after. Like I said, I can appreciate that. For my munchie, the Sauteed Broccoli was excellent but the serving size was a bit small. Taken together, Discretion Brewing looks to be a great place to get well-crafted beers & tasty bites. I know, on future fun rides up & down the Coast, I'll be back by to try more of their beers (especially their Shimmer Pils on a warm to hot Spring/ Summer day) & more food from the kitchen. New year, new beer & both are off to a fine start. read more
6 years ago
Save room for dessert. But also come here hungry because the food is beyond filling and not for the faint of heart (I mean health conscious). Nevertheless, the food tastes amazing (very flavorful) and the beautiful plating just adds to the whole atmosphere of a hipster-but-not-too-hipster restaurant. For all your food photographers, you will LOVE this place - open windows for perfect lighting and the detailed plating is perfect! I would recommend the bread pudding, lemonade (a bit too sweet for me though so I watered it down quite a bit but still very unique with an extra twist of a special fruit that I can't remember haha), and the fried chicken & waffles (my first time having it here and oh my their bacon sauce..SOO good!!). Their grits were a bit too buttery for me (also a first time trying this for me) but their pulled pork is delicious! Note that you're expected to get your own dishware and clean up for yourself also. The food does take a little while to make but that just shows it's fresh! read more
4 years ago
4 years ago
8 years ago
Randomly found this place through a yelp search and I'm so surprised that I have never heard about this place. This place is perfect place to kick back after a day in Capitola or SC especially in the summer where you can enjoy there outdoor seating. I had the sliders (2 sliders in a serving). The taste and presentation was really great. There beer selections change from time to time. I had a flight and was very impressed with their beer. I'm definitely going back here! read more
4 years ago
8 years ago
By far, the best kitchen in the entire California. I lunch here every single day, I never had the same dish in two years. I'm always amazed by the creativity and the talent of this chef/team. Last time, I had the duck confit cassoulet, which is a French specialty (I'm French). Even in France, I never had a better one! This Chef deserves national recognition + Michelin stars. Top 1 Chef in CA. #topchef #talent #bestkitchen read more
4 years ago
They have a variable menu. We decided to check this place out after my wife saw the chicken & waffles in the photos on their Yelp page and that they had wings on the menu. We walked in and noticed chicken & waffles was not on the menu, instead at the time of our visit it was Quail & Waffles. Not quite the same so my wife ordered pork belly sliders. I, too, got stuck ordering something that wasn't my initial plan. The wings weren't the typical buffalo sauce wing, instead they had sweet wings. We ordered a beer flight and a couple beers and went to wait. The wait for our two items FROM THE SNACKS menu was roughly an hour!! At about the 40 minute mark we had enough and my wife went to the counter (it's not full service) to speak with the host and he said it'd only be 5 more minutes as they were just finishing up our food. Okay, so we'd been waiting 40 minutes we weren't going to leave over 5 more. 10 minutes later still no food. She went up again and he headed back then came back and said it was on its way out. When she sat back down we decided to finish our drinks and leave but fortunately our food came out before that. Sadly, it was not what either of us expected specially given the wait. My wings were coated with a powdery sauce that tasted like mostly chili powder. Her sliders didn't have much of a distinct taste at all. Both seemed like they'd had a lot of effort put in to make a classic dish into something modern with a twist. It just didn't work out for them. The building itself is pretty hip. Inside they have a "take-one, leave-one" bookshelf that's pretty neat. Seems like a nice place to hangout with friends and have a beer. Their beer is pretty good and I'd come back for drinks but definitely not food. read more
4 years ago
6 years ago
We're visiting from San Diego and were missing breweries so we decided to hit up Discretion. It was an excellent choice as we got delicious food and legit beer! Polenta was our favorite dish -- We also got chicken tacos and heirloom tomato salad. We were impressed with the food all around. Also a huge shoutout to our server! Didn't catch his name but he had long hair and awesome vibes. He recommended some fantastic beers. Thanks for making it a great experience! :) read more
6 years ago
More info about Discretion Brewing
2703 41st Ave
Ste A
Soquel, CA 95073
Directions
(831) 316-0662
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http://www.discretionbrewing.com
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