Hillcrest taprooms and beer bars are a shorter list than the clusters in North Park or downtown, but the neighborhood now has a new all-local beer bar to go with its long-running brewery taproom. We checked each stop below against its official website on Nov. 10, 2026. Hours change around holidays and private events, so confirm before you go.
The hook for this look at Hillcrest taprooms is San Diego Beer News’ Nov. 10 piece on Rocko’s Modern Taphouse, a Fourth Avenue bar that opened in July 2026 with a tap list the article says is made up exclusively of beers brewed in San Diego County. Hillcrest Brewing Company, on University Avenue, is the other Hillcrest stop we could verify as a current beer bar and taproom on its own site. This is not a second pass at our guides to Little Italy, downtown, Kearny Mesa and Convoy, Sorrento Valley or Oceanside and Carlsbad. Those neighborhoods have their own lists.
Rocko’s Modern Taphouse
3940 Fourth Ave., Suite 200, San Diego, CA 92103 · Beer bar
Rocko’s is the new room among Hillcrest taprooms, on the west side of the neighborhood in the former Martini’s on 4th space, according to San Diego Beer News. The official Rocko’s website, checked Nov. 10, 2026, says the bar is open and describes it as a spot for craft beer and arcade games, “open to all,” at that Fourth Avenue address. The site’s About page names owner Justin, who it says has been in the beer industry for four-plus years, holds a business management degree from Cal Poly and has a professional certificate in the business of craft beer, and operations manager Patrick, previously a bar manager at Black Angus for 18 years.
Much of the rest of the public detail on this newest of the Hillcrest taprooms still comes from that San Diego Beer News Q&A, a single source unless the official site says the same thing. The article says Justin, whose last name it spells both Philips and Phillips, spent a half-decade at two Mike Hess Brewing tasting rooms, named the bar after his six-year-old boxer pit bull, Rocko, and built a dog-friendly second-story patio (service dogs are allowed inside). It also describes trivia, karaoke, bingo and open-mic nights, plus a 1990s black-and-white checkerboard look. The official site does not post hours, a written tap list or photos of the room — its Photos page still says “Coming Soon!” — so we are not listing hours here. The drink menu is an embedded Canva file; we did not treat that embed as a stable, official hours or tap-list page.
Hillcrest Brewing Company
1458 University Ave., San Diego, CA 92103 · Bar, pizzeria and taproom
Hillcrest Brewing Company is the older of these Hillcrest taprooms, at University Avenue and Normal Street, and the only brewery-branded room on this list. Its official site, checked Nov. 10, 2026, says it was established in 2012 and describes itself as “the first out and proud gay brewery in the world.” The same page is clear about the current setup: the company “may not be brewing on site any longer,” but it still pours some of its own recipes and says it keeps more than 24 taps, with an emphasis on San Diego independent breweries.
For anyone planning a loop of Hillcrest taprooms, this is the stop with posted opening times. Opening times as posted: Monday–Friday at 2 p.m., Saturday at 11 a.m. and Sunday at 10 a.m. The site does not list a closing time for the bar. It does say the kitchen closes at 8 p.m. Sunday, 9 p.m. Monday–Thursday and 10 p.m. Friday and Saturday. Hoppy Hour is listed seven days a week, 2–6 p.m., at $2 off all draught beer, wells and wine, with $3 pizza by the slice on weekdays during those hours. During San Diego Beer Week, Nov. 7–15, the brewery is advertising $10 beer flights. The phone number on the site is (619) 269-4323.
Hillcrest taprooms this guide leaves to other posts
If you leave these two Hillcrest taprooms and keep walking, North Park, University Heights and Mission Hills sit against the neighborhood’s edges, and that is where a lot of the next beer stops are. North Park Beer Co. is in North Park, not on this list. Downtown and Little Italy rooms are already covered in the guides linked above. Wine bars, cocktail rooms and restaurants that happen to pour beer, but are not brewery taprooms or beer bars we could verify on an official site, are outside the scope of this list.
Planning a stop among the Hillcrest taprooms
The walk between these two Hillcrest taprooms is straightforward: Rocko’s is on Fourth Avenue, and Hillcrest Brewing Company is on University Avenue near Normal Street. If you are already heading east into North Park or south toward Little Italy and downtown, use those other guides rather than stretching this one past the neighborhood. Check Rocko’s directly, or call, for hours, because they are not posted on the official site we reviewed on Nov. 10, 2026, and confirm Hillcrest Brewing’s kitchen close if you want food with a pint.
