Alvarado Street Brewery

This 100-year-old building spent a decade sitting vacant – a former Elks Club and movie theater gathering dust on Alvarado Street. Today, it anchors the block as the original outpost for the brewery that helped shift the center of gravity in downtown Monterey. The interior respects the structure's turn-of-the-century bones, but the operation is thoroughly modern, centered around a visible 10-barrel system that churns out the hop-saturated IPAs and experimental sours filling the tap list. The main room is rarely quiet. It operates on a first-come, first-served basis, so you often see crowds waiting for a booth or squeezing in at the bar while servers rush past with trays of pan pizza and smoked dry-rub wings. The energy is high, and the noise level matches. For a different speed, you walk through to the beer garden in the back. It functions as a distinct space from the dining hall – open-air and noticeably more relaxed. It’s usually the preferred spot for working through a flight of hazy IPAs or a pint of their revived "Monterey Beer" lager without shouting over the dinner rush. The kitchen leans into scratch-made comfort food, serving things like quesabirria tacos and steak sandwiches that are substantial enough to balance out the high-ABV pours.