Left Coast Brewing Company has been family-owned and operated for more than two decades, garnering some 25 industry awards along the way, including a gold medal at the 2025 Great American Beer Festival this month.
Cofounders and cousins Shawn and Tommy Hadjis and their team opened the tasting room, distillery and Kansas City-style barbecue destination at Sand Canyon Plaza in 2018.
Brews range from the easy-drinking Blonde Marvel to the heftier Voo Doo American stout. Irvine head brewer and distiller Jim Clarke describes his gold-winning Trunk Box brown ale as “bold and complex with a hint of chocolate – and easy to drink!”
Spirits include Left Coast Vodka, Left Coast Blanco Agave and limited-production whiskey.
Menu standouts, served in the spacious wood-clad dining room, include the signature smoked brisket sandwich with hot links, onion rings and spicy sauce on a brioche bun as well as the fried pickles starter and the cast-iron cornbread side. Among the cocktails is a novel strawberry chocolate old-fashioned.
Clarke seemed predestined for his brewer-distiller position.
“It started before I was born,” Clarke says. “During Prohibition, my ancestors bootlegged liquor. My uncle designed a distillery in the British Isles.”
Left Coast spirits are hand-bottled and hand-labeled, Shawn Hadjis says.
“We fill every single bottle through a funnel, one by one,” he says. “Everything is super crafty.”
