The Weekly Newspaper of El Segundo
Herald Publications - El Segundo, Hawthorne, Lawndale & Inglewood Community Newspapers Since 1911 - (310) 322-1830 - Vol. 109, No. 40 - October 1, 2020
Inside
This Issue
Certified & Licensed
Professionals.......................9
Classifieds............................4
Crossword/Sudoku.............4
Election 2020........................3
Entertainment......................6
Legals....................................9
Letters...................................2
Pets......................................10
Police Reports.....................3
Real Estate............ 7-8,11-12
Weekend
Forecast
Friday
Sunny
83˚/65˚
Saturday
Sunny
82˚/64˚
Sunday
Mostly
Sunny
80˚/63˚
Officer Lemus Rides for Breast
Cancer Awareness Month
Officer Lemus will be biking over 300 miles roundtrip from Torrance, Ca. to the Santa Barbara Pier. You can donate to his fundraiser at www.espdppp.com. All money raised will be donated to local El
Segundo non-profit, Helen’s Room. Follow along on social media from October 9th through 12th as Officer Lemus bikes for a cure. Photo courtesy El Segundo Police Department.
Surfridge Brewery Aims to Make Its
Mark in an Ever-Growing Marketplace
By Duane Plank
Back in the day, when I began my dubious
career guzzling beer, there were not a whole
lot of options to quench one’s thirst, hops and
barley wise. Coors, Bud, Miller, the swill that
is Pabst or Colt 45 were some of the available
options, as was Lucky Lager and the incredibly
cheap six-pack that was just labeled “Beer” at
the local supermarket.
I would like to tell you that I waited to start
imbibing until my 21st birthday. However,
I still somewhat remember my coming-out
party, a tad bit before my 21st birthday, when
the proud Mira Costa Mustang junior varsity
baseball team, with me as the starting and
winning pitcher, clinched the Pioneer League
championship. The after-game celebration got
a tad bit out of hand, thanks to Jack Daniels,
with me ending up borrowing a pair of pants
from a teammate to attend class the next day.
Boy, wish we had distance-learning back then.
Anyway, the options for beer connoisseurs
have increased in the past 40-or-so years, with
craft beers and IPA’s (whatever those are)
becoming all the trendy rage. And Surfbridge
Brewery co-owners Steve and Jennifer Lieberman,
who opened their El Segundo site less
than a year ago, are hoping to make a mark
in the increasingly crowded craft-beer field,
COVID-19 be damned. The Liberman’s were
recently interviewed by this scribe via the tele,
following all social-distancing guidelines…
they were taking a car trip 3,000 miles away
on the East Coast.
The Lieberman’s opened Surfridge, located
on Nevada Street, in October of 2019, naming
it after a now fenced-off habitat for the famous
El Segundo Blue Butterfly, that occupies land
off Vista Del Mar and Dockweiler Beach.
The Lieberman’s have a love for the outdoors,
which is where they spend the bulk of their free
time. They also aspire to be eco-friendly. “Our
logo is the light-post with a little blue butterfly
perched atop,” said Steve, who also noted that
the Surfridge Brewery taps are fashioned from
a company that partakes in beach clean-ups,
recycles the remnants, and turns their found
treasures into bar tap handles, among other
sustainable products.
The Lieberman’s met while working in the
restaurant industry in Santa Monica and tiedthe
marriage-knot in 2011.Both owners took
circuitous routes to end-up as El Segundo
business owners, a 50-50 deal partnership,
said Steve. Steve started his hospitality career
in 1993, toiling as a bar-back in Long Island,
New York, working his way through college
bartending. After college, he moved to New
Orleans, working at a Brennan’s restaurant,
then headed west to San Francisco, where he
managed restaurants.
Steve then headed down the coast and
ended up opening a Gastropub in 2009 in
Santa Monica with Jennifer. Jennifer, a Miami
native, grew up as an avid fan of the ocean,
enjoying pursuits like fishing and boating. She
moved to L.A. after college and pursued job
opportunities in real estate, model management,
as well as working for art dealers. Steve said
he had always wanted to move to the West
Coast and escape the fickle weather patterns
of the environs of New York state. He had
a few veering employment stints, peddling
insurance, pounding the pavement to generate
door-to-door sales, but he said that was not
fulfilled drawing those paychecks. “I needed
to talk to people, be on my feet, move around,
socialize with people,” he said.
Like almost every and all businesses, the
COVID-19 pandemic has greatly impacted
Surfridge Brewery. As Gov. Gavin Newsom
and county officials apparently consult their
none-to- reliable Ouija boards for daily direction
on how to best deal with this pandemic, Steve
said that, while Brewridge has an outdoor patio,
they are currently closed in that aspect of the
business. However, Brewridge is still allowed
by Newsom and Mayor Garcetti to deliver beers
to “essential” bars and liquor stores. Steve said
that that had been a bummer because Jennifer
had designed a “beautiful, comfortable tasting
room, with a great patio, plants everywhere, food
trucks,” which is sitting fallow because of the
lock-down. Steve said that they were shut-down,
then allowed to open, then shut-down again.
Shocker there, another flip-flop from the alleged
COVID “experts.” He and other strangled
businesses of the same ilk are doing their best
to work with trade industries and lobbyists to
get fully opened again, but, at this point, to
no avail. He said that he misses his drop-in
customers and considers them like “guests in
(his) house.” Steve said that they have been
“brewing friendships since 2009, and are now
truly extending their family, one beer at a time.”
The third wheel of the Surfridge troika,
brewmaster Jeremy Montemagni, migrated to
California from the New England area. He
brewed his first tub of craft beer in 1997 and
decided to follow his new-found passion. After
relocating to Vermont for a spell, where he
was able to hone and collaborate with other
craft beer brewers, he returned to the Sunshine
State to utilize his knowledge of crafting specialty
beers, dabbing in a “North East flare.”
Zach Lyall, co-owner of Richmond Bar and
Grill, has established a quick friendship with
the Liebermann’s and Surfridge Brewery. “I
can say that not only are their beers top-notch,
those speak for themselves, but they also go
above and beyond when it comes to supporting
the community and the local bars and restaurants.
See Surfridge Brewery, page 6