Bottoms Up

The new brewpub is Wunder Brewing Co., 1326 9th Avenue, in San Francisco, which is in the building two blocks from Golden Gate Park formerly occupied by Eldo Brewing and before that by Golden Gate Brewing, a very fancy attempt that lasted about seven months.

This one’s a partnership of four friends, the brewer John Wonder, a native of San Francisco’s Sunset District and a graduate of the UC Davis with a degree in fermentation science. Also Carl Durham, an attorney; Augustus Vastardis, who Wonder describes as a San Francisco State survivor and Alex Frantz, former executive chef of Ruth’s Steakhouse.

Wonder says they registered the long dormant name of Wunder Brewing, a historic name in San Francisco. The brewery was founded in 1896 and merged not long after the San Francisco Earthquake with Union Brewing & Malting. That company survived the Great Depression and Prohibition by making sodas from a plant at 2119 Linden St. in Oakland.

The company folded sometime in the 1930s, Wonder said.

He adds that the four founders – all native San Franciscans – are well aware that the one problem with the location is there is literally no parking.

“Actually,” Wonder says, “there’s parking two blocks away in Golden Gate Park, but moste people from outside San Francisco don’t know that or won’t walk that far.”

Anyway, their angle, he says, is to make it strictly a local place, a pub where people in the neighborhood can make their own. Personally, I love that idea. Neighborhoods are one of the many charms of San Francisco. I know Dave McLean, brewer-propietor of Magnolia, 1398 Haight St., says he gets a lot of his business from local residents. Even the Toronado, 547 Haight St., which draws customers literally from around the world, also gets a large number of neighborhood customers.

Wonder really knows brewing; after graduation he worked at a brewpub in Southern California, worked at the late-lamented Tidehouse Brewery in Alameda, built a brewpub called Sharktooth in Maui, then built another Sharktooth for the same company in Destin, FL. After that we worked for several wineries, then as a brewer at San Francisco Brewing.

Wonder has a wide range of lagers and ales on tap, the standard stouts, porters, an IPA. But he also has a California Common beer, a lager brewed at warm temperatures in the Anchor Steam tradition and a pale beer spiced with habanero chilis.

I intend to visit this week; if you’ve already visited Wonder Brewing, post what you found here.