The craft beer scene in Baja California continues to grow with the opening earlier this year of Playami, a beer garden by Border Psycho, located in Playas de Tijuana. Playas is a short, $10 Uber from the border, it’s a small, sleepy beach town that everyone drives by on their way to Rosarito and Ensenada. I have friends that have lived there for the past 5 years and on my first visit I was surprised by how quiet the town is, but that was 5 years ago and there is now a fun night life. 5 years ago if you wanted to drink and whoop it up you had to go to Tijuana so with the opening of Playami you can just walk or Uber it over and enjoy craft beer from 5 Baja breweries. Yep, Border Psycho has not only their delicious suds on the menu but they carry beer from Insurgente, Agua Mala, Fauna and Wendlant. There is also Mezcal, tequila and wine on the menu and if you’re hankering for a Heineken they have that too!

But wait, there’s more..

Border Psycho Brewery was founded in 2010 by brothers, Roberto and Javier Albarran, and they have built one of the most popular Baja craft beer breweries in Tijuana and are distributed throughout Southern California, they also collaborate with San Diego brewery, Mason Ale Works. Playami is their third tasting room and they went all in with a coffee roaster, Sur A Norte, that opens at 8 am, Karbon, a grill that also open at 8 am for breakfast, wine from Valle de Guadalupe and the 36 to 40 taps of beer. The tasting room is very comfortable, there’s plenty of room inside and the patio outside is pet friendly and features second story patio to soak in the rays while you enjoy the food and drink.

On my first visit I enjoyed some shrimp tacos with a few brews, I had the hoppy Mako Pale Ale from Agua Mala and then I had to try the Zonkey Coffee Stout which is a collab with Mason Ale Works, this version was barrel aged and was so good! My second visit was to try the coffee, I went with a French Press of some mild roast beans from Veracruz and an order of churros that were made in house. Awesome!! The third wave coffee movement game is strong in Playas, they source their beans from different regions in Mexico and I found them to all be very tasty.

Playami is a one stop, get your beer/coffee/food/tequila/mezcal kind of a place, a real game changer as far as I’m concerned. Everything was top quality, the menu at Karbon had a good variety from breakfast, lunch, dinner and appetizers. If you don’t want the hassle of dealing with traffic in Tijuana I would definitely make a trip to Playas de Tijuana! Cheers!!

Playami is located at 795 Av, Paseo Ensenada, Playas de Tijuana

 

Last modified: October 1, 2019

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