48 Hills editors and writers are highlighting their favorite people and things of 2025. View more Editors’ Picks and the winners of our 2025 Best of the Bay Readers’ Poll here! And join us October 22, 6pm-9pm, at El Rio for the 48 Hills Annual Community Gala to party with the winners and celebrate the independent spirit of the Bay Area.
Back when craft beer was at its objective peak in the mid 2010’s, 1150 Howard Street was synonymous with people lining up far down the block to secure a new 4-pack of cans release. The former home of Cellarmaker Brewing Company, the space was ground zero of sorts for Hazy IPA and barrel-aged stout whale-chasers. But craft beer (and San Francisco) is a much different scene these days and when Cellarmaker announced it was moving to the East Bay in 2022, it felt like both the end of an era and like yet another empty eyesore in the leathery SOMA stretch was upon us.
Less than a year later, local beer vets Jesse Hayter and Cameron MacDonald (Standard Deviant, Fort Point, a lot of others) took over the space and opened their Enterprise Brewing Co. (named after a long-forgotten 100+ year old SF beer brand) and things couldn’t be more different—and flat out delightful. The taproom is a welcome neighborhood watering hole filled with regulars, casuals and travellers, taking down cold, fresh glasses of beer that favor a lighter palette, but still has something for all.
There’s Enterprise’s flagship crisp Pilsner, often found in taps at other fine establishments in the city. There’s a Copper Ale made with Alameda’s Admiral Malt that’s a cheeky nod to Anchor Steam and damn it if I don’t need that itch scratched these days. On a recent stop, I had a seasonal Festbier (Oktoberfest anyone?), the approachable/crushable SOMA West Coast IPA and MacDonald’s pre-prohibition style lager brewed for Enterprise’s 2nd anniversary. You see, these guys are thriving and they’re doing it with a community-minded spirit.
Often behind the bar, Hayter is as good a talker as they come, with a laid-back Midwesterner charm and cut-off jean shorts-wearing SF bike lane cruising good vibes. For a guy who seems to always be behind his own bar, the world very much exists outside of it for him and he’s happily sharing his stories about his city escapades with you. When a stellar slate of local DJs (curated by Allan Hough, of the dear dormant Mission Mission blog) isn’t playing records over the speakers, Hayter’s dropping vinyl gems from the likes of Patsy Cline and Conway Twitty; I adore this.
A single giant TV hangs in the gorgeously sunlit space, and I come here to indulge my ADD Mount Rushmore of interests: beer and music with sports on mute while talking to friends and strangers. Rize Up Bakery is a few doors down and there’s surely collab beers with the decorated Black-owned bakery on the menu like the stalwart Sourdough Stout on Nitro and the newer OG Wit. There’s even a flaky sausage roll made with Rize Up dough (and Beaver deli mustard, natch) for $4 that’s about as good as beer snacks get. At the end of the day though, it’s the camaraderie that oozes from behind the bar and the people on the other side that make this one of the best places in the Bay to grab a beer. Cheers!
