The unlikely Bay Area suburb with what may be the rooftop bar of the year |
The bar scene in downtown Walnut Creek is not the greatest. You have a few old bars that aren’t cool enough to call dives and a slew of nice restaurants that serve cocktails — but aren’t bars. But now, a new rooftop cocktail haven is filling the void, and it comes from an unlikely source: an office park brewery 3 miles away.
Open since December in a former medical spa, Calicraft Upstairs is the latest innovation from Blaine Landberg and Thomas Dang Vo of Calicraft Brewing Co. Landberg, a former Honest Tea employee, started the brewery in 2012 amid the medical offices and storage facilities of the Shadelands area of Walnut Creek. They’ve built it into one of the few Bay Area craft breweries that is actually growing.
Last year, the brewery’s sales increased more than 50% due to growth in chain stores wholesaling its beers, along with the opening of the Walnut Creek bar and a taproom in Davis, Landberg told SFGATE. In 2024, Calicraft acquired Heretic Brewing after the Fairfield brewery went bankrupt, and turned it into a Calicraft taproom. That same year, the company launched a major expansion of its flagship brewery; once complete, the Walnut Creek site will feature a 10,000-square-foot, two-story facility with a restaurant, distillery and winery.
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The neon sign at Calicraft Upstairs casts a glow on the bar.
And now, they have a rooftop cocktail bar and outdoor beer garden next to a Tiffany & Co. store.
“We wanted to expand who we are as a brand and company,” Landberg said. “It’s part of the DNA of craft and Bay Area beer, to be this whole experience. That was the premise of Calicraft from the beginning. We looked at beer as the first canvas. You can easily color outside the lines.”
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That notion of craft runs deep for Landberg, who grew up in Willows, half an hour from Sierra Nevada Brewing Co. Trips to the landmark Chico brewery left a deep impression on him, as did having homebrewers in the family.
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“I wanted to start a craft brewery since I was five,” he said. “I saw it as a regional, intentional expression of your values.”
Those values followed him all the way to UC Berkeley — until he almost got kicked out for brewing beer in his dorm room.
“Using honey adds sugar, so I was serving 9% [alcohol] beers and I thought they were 6%,” he said. “It was the best story ever, until it wasn’t.”
Thomas Dang Vo mixes a drink at Calicraft Upstairs, left; at right, the bar’s take on an espresso martini.
Now, more than three years in the making, the bar towering over Walnut Creek’s downtown main drag is whipping up craft cocktails designed by Vo, Calicraft’s VP of brand and innovation, using housemade spirits and a devotion to quality and sustainability. There’s a riff on a strawberry margarita that features clarified strawberry tequila; it’s super clean and goes down too easily. Vo reports making more than 400 of those Pink Caddies a week.
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Being brewery-owned, the bar also features 20 Calicraft beers on tap — favorites like Karl the Fog Hazy IPA and Oaktown Brown Ale — made by brewmaster Ramon Tamayo, who brings experience from stalwarts Russian River Brewing and New Belgium Brewing. There is also natural wine, cider and a snacks menu from culinary director Jeff Amber.
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Previously of Fieldwork Brewing Company and Bi-Rite Market, Amber is also the brains behind Citizen Pizza, the longstanding pizza pop-up at the Walnut Creek brewery. When he’s not whipping up those perfectly charred pies at Calicraft Upstairs, he’s executing tasty sourdough waffles, including one stuffed with thinly sliced hot dogs. It comes with beer cheese and really hits the spot.
A spread of the menu from Calicraft Upstairs, which includes sourdough waffles, pretzel, shishito peppers and roasted artichoke.
The waffles are probably the heartiest dish on the menu. You’ll find requisite appetizers like blistered shishito peppers, roasted artichoke hearts and a lovely whipped feta with charred tomatoes. Tinned fish plates come with a heap of house-pickled vegetables and a row of underwhelming crackers — Ritz and saltines.
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To find Calicraft Upstairs, you have to go through a set of glass doors on Mount Diablo Boulevard and ascend the elevator or stairs to the entrance. Inside, the bar feels like a grown-up version of Shadelands, its office park brewery. The cherry red neon sign casts a glow over the room, giving adult vibes. There’s history on the walls, like signs for the brewery’s retired Buzzerkeley biere de champagne and Chez Panisse Farmhouse Ale, a Belgian saison brewed in 2014 for the restaurant’s anniversary.
“How do we design a place we would want to go to?” Landberg said they asked themselves. “We wanted it to be somewhat casual, some taproom DNA and a little nightlife driven.”
The bar inside Calicraft Upstairs in Walnut Creek.
Outside, twinkly lights and the sounds of a trickling fountain provide just the right ambiance for a cocktail or three, especially if you can score a spot overlooking the ancient oak tree located downstairs at Va de Vi restaurant. The tables, a mix of barrels and high-top pub tables, are highly coveted, though I found their backless stools uncomfortable for any long-term imbibing.
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Due to what Landberg calls “old-school zoning issues,” they had to open Calicraft Upstairs with less space than they’d hoped for, about 1,500 square feet inside and another 1,700 outside. But he confirms that the remaining 850 square feet of outdoor space on the south side of the rooftop will be converted from office space to a “secret garden” for cocktails sometime in the next 12 to 24 months.
“It will make you feel like you’re not in a suburb but in a city in Italy or somewhere,” Landberg said.
Calicraft Upstairs feels like a beer garden during the day and a cocktail bar at night.
Ultimately, that’s what they set out to do with Calicraft Upstairs: Create a bar you might find in a big city — and something that they felt was lacking in Walnut Creek.
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“Bars in restaurants are fantastic, but I’d rather eat in a bar than drink in a restaurant,” he said. “There’s this energy and vibe that you have with a real bar. The milling around, the casual connections with people. We’ve lost that over the years post-COVID. This was exactly what we were looking for.”
Calicraft Upstairs, 1501 Mount Diablo Blvd., Walnut Creek. Open Monday through Thursday, 3-10 p.m., Friday and Saturday, noon-11 p.m., and Sunday, noon-10 p.m.
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