The Waterfront Bar & Grill in Little Italy, San Diego, is the oldest bar in town. Local Little Italy Realtor Jorge Castellon interviewed co-owner Chad Cline to learn about the history of this great San Diego bar. They have been serving San Diego cocktails since 1933. Chad describes how the bar came to be and what he recommends for pairing dishes and drinks. Choose your own adventure here at the Waterfront Bar and Grill.
Check out the video from YouTube here!
Jorge: We are here at the Waterfront, World-Famous Waterfront in Little Italy, San Diego. We have the pleasure of having one of the owners here Chad Klein. He was gracious enough to let us in here and bring cameras and do a quick interview with him. If you don’t know the Waterfront you got to learn about it, it’s a San Diego icon. One of the oldest bars if not the oldest bar, we’ll find out, in San Diego. So Chad thank you for having us again pleasure to meet you, so let’s start off with that, tell us a little bit about the history of the Waterfront Bar.
Chad: Well the Waterfront was established in 1933 legally. It may have been a speakeasy before then but we have been serving San Diego legal cocktails since we
were allowed to. The year we were legally allowed to have booze in San Diego we were serving it!
Jorge: That’s cool and actually I thought it would have moved but you just told me it hasn’t moved from this spot.
Chad: No, lots of things have changed in Little Italy over the past decades but the Waterfront has stayed the exact same while all the condos and things are building up around us.
Jorge: That’s awesome because there’s actually literally a condo all around and above you and I’m assuming this was a historical building at the time so they had to incorporate the Waterfront?
Chad: It was actually a guy named Jonathan Segal, He was the architect on the building and he was a gracious guy with my grandma and they just worked out a deal where he liked my grandma and he liked what the Waterfront was so he sold the land to our family
when I don’t think he really had to.
Jorge: Awesome, that’s cool! I’m glad it’s still here. This is a great place every time I come by whether I’m walking, driving by or on my bike, it seems to be packed. Many people don’t know it but the food is actually really good. What are some of the favorite dishes here?
Chad: I do think that it depends on what you’re drinking.
You know, if you come in and you have one drink I would go
with the fish taco. But as you’re starting to have more drinks the food that you should have probably changes. Maybe two beers and a shot, go with a hamburger, and four beers, three shots you get into like the chili cheese fries type of situation… where it just it changes. It’s kind of a choose-your-own-adventure bar, so you come in you can do whatever you want to do and wherever your head’s at we try to provide.
Jorge: The more you drink the more you eat, the greasier it gets…
Chad: Yes, exactly!
Jorge: So that brings me to the next question as well, which is, this is a neighborhood bar you guys are serving whiskey
on the rocks and beers and things like that, but do you have a specialty cocktail or something that you guys specialize
here?
Chad: I would say the drink that we’re most known for is the
Bloody Mary. We do a lot of those on brunches, we make them from scratch, people seem to appreciate them. They’re well-known and I think when people come in here that’s probably the go-to on brunches. Any other time of the day I would say, as long as there’s alcohol in it you’re probably gonna like it, that’s pretty much what people seem to go for.
Jorge: It’s cool! Yeah, I’ve seen the Bloody Mary’s and they’re pretty killer here so maybe we’ll have one later. I know who’s gonna drink it but we’ll order it.
Chad: Yeah, I’ll drink it!
Jorge: Last thing is, there are some people in San Diego who have not been to the Waterfront Bar which I find amazing. You should come here if you haven’t been here; for those San Diego locals who have not been here yet and people from out of town who are gonna see this video, why should they come to the Waterfront Bar?
Chad: In my opinion the Waterfront is kind of a right of passage bar. I think it’s part of San Diego culture and to not have come here is really to not come to, in my opinion, an iconic San Diego bar and those are important to me. There’s
there’s a few of them in San Diego and Waterfront’s definitely one of them.
Jorge: I totally agree! I find it interesting when people who have been here for so long have not yet ventured to the Waterfront; but most people have because it’s a great place to be like you said you feel at home and that’s what attracts people here.
Jorge: So that’s it! Thanks again for the interview Chad it was a pleasure. We’re gonna have some drinks are some food and if you haven’t been to the Waterfront Bar please come check it out! It’s an experience that you must be a part of if you’re coming to San Diego or if you’re from San Diego. Thanks again and we’ll see you on the next episode!