South Park's Newest Night Out Is Hiding Inside Two Places You Already Know

At the back of Kindred, past the bar and down a dark passageway, a chain-mail curtain hangs across a doorway. Behind it is an indoor waterfall, a rolled-up menu scroll and a cocktail list that takes its cues from Dungeons and Dragons. From the sidewalk at 1503 30th Street you can't see any of it. The facade looks the way it has for years.

A little farther up the same block, at 1521 30th Street, the bar at Bock hasn't changed. The kitchen behind it has a new operator, a new name and a new menu as of late August. South Park's two most notable additions this fall needed no new signage, no storefront and no build-out anyone would notice walking by. They showed up inside places the neighborhood already knew, and together they change what an evening on this block of 30th Street can look like.

Through the curtain at 1503 30th Street

Throne Room comes from the team behind Kindred and Mothership. The idea goes back to 2017, when it started as a Kindred pop-up at Coachella. Nine years later it has a permanent home in a back room of the bar where it began. It held its grand-opening event on Saturday, September 26. By October 1, Eater San Diego had added it to its list of the city's best new restaurants and called it "a maximalist medieval speakeasy."

Eater's write-up describes the drinks. The Silver Queen combines Kina L'Aero D'or aperitif, scotch, myrtle berries and knotweed. The Dwarf Elder is a take on a gimlet, made with Monk's Secret herbal liqueur, Poitín, apricot and elderflower. Nonalcoholic elixirs sit on the same scroll as the cocktails. The food menu is called Mystic Mezze. In Eater's description it includes a cave-aged cashew brie served in artichoke leaves, grilled flatbread, and a whipped five-layer fava bean dip topped with pomegranate and served with labneh. Before opening, WhatNow San Diego reported plans for 12 cocktails, six nonalcoholic elixirs, house tea, wine and ale. A room this new may still be adjusting its menu, so expect those names to change.

The house rules differ from Kindred's out front, so they matter more than the drink names. Per its OpenTable listing:

• Age: 21 and over only.
• Reservations: booked through OpenTable as 90-minute seatings.
• Walk-ins: taken every day it's open. The listing suggests arriving early and uses a paging system if there's a waitlist.
• Hours: Monday, Thursday and Sunday, 5 to 10 p.m. Friday, 5 p.m. to midnight. Saturday, 2 p.m. to midnight. Closed Tuesday and Wednesday.

The listing's tagline is "If there is a waterfall, there is a secret behind it." Eater recommends booking ahead. The 90-minute window is the detail to plan around. A Throne Room visit fits best as one part of the night, which is where the other half of the block comes in.

The kitchen at 1521 changed hands while the bar stayed put

Bock opened on the lot where Hamilton's Tavern stood for well over a decade before a fire destroyed it in 2020. Owner Brian Jensen built a European-style beer hall there with Simbiotek, an architecture firm, and stocked what San Diego Beer News calls the largest draft selection of imported German, Czech, Belgian and U.K. beers in San Diego County. From the beginning, the kitchen was run by a separate tenant. That tenant was Biersal, a mobile food vendor that had been around for eight years and was known for food built to go with beer.

Biersal's tenancy ended earlier this year. Rotating pop-ups ran the kitchen over the summer while Jensen looked for a permanent partner. He found one in Kurz, which started service on August 21. Kurz is run by Will Remsbottom, a local hospitality veteran who is also behind Scrimshaw Coffee, Field Trip Coffee Roasters, Majorette and Love Letters. Jensen explained the choice to San Diego Beer News:

"The pop-ups were a fun way to keep the kitchen active and bring some different people through Bock this summer, but we ultimately wanted someone who was excited to build something here for the long haul."

The name is German for "quick." San Diego Beer News describes the menu as from-scratch German beer hall cooking that changes with California's seasons. Bock's current menu lists a pretzel, fries, a potato salad with Riesling vinaigrette, a sausage board, currywurst, bratwurst, a schnitzel sandwich, two burgers and leberkäse, a South German loaf made from beef, veal and pork. Pierogi rotate. Desserts are pretzel bread pudding and Black Forest cake. The schnitzel is made gluten-free, and the menu includes vegetarian and vegan options.

Kitchen hours run longer than Throne Room's. They are 3 to 10 p.m. Monday through Thursday, noon to 11 p.m. Friday and Saturday, and 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. on Sunday. On weekdays from 3 to 5 p.m., happy hour discounts the fries, pretzel and bratwurst. Fall has kept Bock busy too. Bocktoberfest ran from September 18 through October 4, with Festbier, Märzen, Kurz food and stein-holding contests on the weekends.

One Thursday on one block

The two schedules line up. Bock's kitchen opens at 3 p.m. on weekdays, and Throne Room opens at 5 p.m. on Thursdays. Bock has a Chuckanut brewery spotlight on its calendar for this Thursday, October 22, starting at 5 p.m.

A Thursday evening on this block, using the hours each venue has published, could go like this:

1. 3 to 5 p.m., Bock. Happy hour pricing on fries, the pretzel and bratwurst from Kurz.
2. 5 p.m., Bock. The Chuckanut spotlight starts on the taps.
3. After 5 p.m., Kindred. Walk down the block and through the curtain for a 90-minute Throne Room seating, either booked on OpenTable or as a walk-in on the paging list.
4. Before 10 p.m. On Thursdays, Throne Room and the Bock kitchen both close at 10.

Fridays and Saturdays are looser. Bock's kitchen runs until 11 and Throne Room stays open until midnight. On Saturday, Throne Room opens at 2 p.m., the earliest of any day. Tuesdays and Wednesdays are Bock-only nights, since Throne Room is closed both days. Hours and event lineups on both venues' pages can change, so check them the day you go.

Fern Street runs on the same idea, once a month

A few blocks away, the same approach shows up in an art space. An Interval is a three-hour art exhibition held once a month in a driveway at 2227 Fern Street. The Vibe Vintage Gallery hosts it and Emma Catacutan curates it. Voice of San Diego described the setup on show days. The trash cans get moved aside, art hangs on walls built from reused wooden pallets, and the show takes over the uneven pavement next to the sidewalk. The same article places the driveway near The Whistle Stop, along a short row of clothing shops and a record store.

The most recent show, "Roll Credits," ran on Sunday, October 4. It included a collaborative sculpture series coordinated by Mika Castañeda of Harvest & Gather with artists Walker Hewitt and Cat Gunn, plus a piece by Riley Tavasolli that makes different sounds depending on how viewers physically interact with it. Castañeda told Voice of San Diego, "There's a sincerity to the 'pop-up.' It's practical, strategic and insurgent." Voice of San Diego's phrase for the show was "hidden in plain sight." The next date hasn't been posted yet. The Vibe Vintage Gallery at 2227 Fern Street is the place to watch for it.

That phrase fits 30th Street just as well. Throne Room needed a curtain at the back of an existing bar, Kurz needed a kitchen that was already built, and An Interval needs a driveway one weekend a month. South Park's main streets look the same as they did a year ago, and much of what's new this fall has opened inside them.

When neighbors ask what's changed around 30th and Fern, these are the places we point them to first. At DuPre Real Estate, knowing which back room just opened and which kitchen changed hands is part of how we talk about South Park. If you'd like to hear how this block fits into your own plans for the neighborhood, Schedule Your Consultation.