Beer, Wine & Spirits in El Cajon

The early 20th century birthed the first incarnation of Mission Brewery, in which California newsboys and other pre-Jazz Era scallywags tossed back their sudsy concoctions before Prohibition closed its doors. Despite its short tenure since its reestablishment in 2007, Mission Brewery has already snatched medals from the Great American Beer Festival and other competitions for its pantheon of brews. In its tasting room, patrons claim bottles or sample draft beers that include the Bavarian-style hefeweizen with hints of banana, clove, and pear; a russian imperial stout; or the Shipwrecked Double IPA, a strong concoction that, like walking on hot coals, benefits from a liberal use of hops. Located just a few blocks from the San Diego Padre's Petco Park, guests can enjoy tours through the rows of gleaming vats in the brewing chambers, which are housed in the historic Wonder Bread Building, rumored to be haunted by multicolored polka dots.

La Jolla Brew House fills four to seven of its taps with its own craft beers, brewed in the 30-barrel microbrewery located on site. Within the spacious confines of the sports bar or outside on a patio, friends can gather to cheer their favorite teams, chow on pub food, and sip plenty of distinctive beers. In addition to rotating house brews—which have included IPAs and stouts—bartenders crack open bottles of specialty beers from Belgian breweries, where the machines are not made of waffles—they're made of crepes.

Twenty flat-screen TVs broadcast games of football throughout the interior of the bar, and the comfortable patio has one 55-inch widescreen TV as well as a fire pit. All of the eatery and drinkery's seating accommodates dining on burgers—including one topped with house-made guacamole and jalapeños—and slices of hand-tossed pizza. At select times, The Brew House offers tours of their brewery. The Brew House also prides itself on being pet friendly; in addition to a menu of "canine cuisine," which dogs can enjoy on the patio, the staff holds regular "yappy hours" that often promote local animal organizations.

Uncorked Tours Megan Franks does all she can to separate stuffiness from wine connoisseurship. For tours of Temecula's wine country, she dispatches a Cadillac Escalade or a limo party coach with two flat-screen TVs and a dancer's pole, which she gaily poses next to in a photo on her website's About page. She also launches tipplers into the air during morning hot air balloon rides that begin, like the chauffeured tours, with a complimentary champagne toast. To contribute to the party vibe during each trip, a staff member continuously works a camera's shutter, producing digital photos that are then uploaded to Facebook for sharing and downloads.

Amid Temecula Valley's rippling foothills, equestrian farms, and estate vineyards, Frangipani Estate Winery has carved out a rural post of its own overlooking the Deportola Wine Trail. Since 2003, owner and winemaker Don Frangipani has fused French varietals with old-world Italian styles, exhibiting a passion for red wines along the way. Today, Don's facility produces 5,000 cases per year, and every day, it swings open the doors to its boutique tasting room so visitors can stop by and test drive samples.

Specializing in Italian varietals, Cougar Vineyards and Winery sprawls across 17 acres of land on the De Portola Wine Trail, cultivating an ever-growing selection of specialties such as vermentino, aglianico, pinot grigio, and brachetto. Patrons can sample a consistently rotating arsenal of flavors inside a tasting room that’s open every day of the week, or take their wine education a step further by taking a tour of the production facility or helming a tell-all interview with one of the grapevines. Cougar Vineyards also plays host to a variety of events every month, including live musical acts on Saturdays.

Keyways Vineyard & Winery–owner Terri Pebley Delhamer presides over the only woman-owned-and-curated winery in Temecula Valley. Enlisting her close friend and designer Deborah Daniel to select the amber stucco walls and terracotta roofs, Terri cultivated the winery's classic mission-style aesthetic. Inside a tasting room that the California Winery Advisor dubbed "rustic yet elegant," head winemaker David Raffaele calls on experience gained during studies in the Italian wine country, crafting numerous varietals that grace the black onyx bar. Raffaele’s adherence to craftsmanship results in limited-run vintages that fill the vineyard’s trim annual production of 4,000 cases, or what Dionysus referred to as pregaming.

When the vintners aren't harvesting plump grapes on their equestrian-friendly property, they keep busy by hosting special events and overnight guests at a recently renovated estate home surrounded by rolling foothills and nearby ranches. Matrimonial knots take hold beneath a dark-stained trellis that caps a paved walkway perched in the foreground of the distant mountains.