Half Moon Bay Brewing Co. celebrates 10 years

Christine and Lenny Mendonca wanted to make beer, give back to their community and create a place where people could come, eat, listen to music and let their hair down.
It was sort of a tall order for a couple who had never been professional brewers or restaurateurs.

Nevertheless, in 2000 they purchased an old restaurant in Princeton-by-the-Sea - the well-known Shore Bird - with hopes of turning it into a neighborhood staple.
Ten years later, Half Moon Bay Brewing Co. has weathered 9/11; a mudslide that for months closed Highway 1, the road leading to and from the restaurant; and an abysmal economy. The restaurant has also managed to generate close to $500,000 in donations for charity and college scholarships.

"They have one whole section of the brewery known as the fundraising area," says Half Moon Bay Mayor Marina Fraser. "Christine and Lenny are very giving people, and we're so grateful to have them here on the coast."

Last week, hundreds of locals, friends, family and supporters showed their love by attending a celebration of the restaurant's anniversary.
"I'm pretty sure we had about 12 (San Mateo County) sheriff's deputies in here," says Christine Mendonca while eating lunch on the patio as the sun shone over the Pacific at Pillar Point Harbor. "They were off-duty, of course, and had a designated driver."

Local hangout
Over the years the restaurant has become a hangout for local dignitaries, residents and tourists. The Lions Club holds its meetings in the back dining room. During the big Mavericks surf competition, contestants, media and fans cram into the bar. And on the first Thursday of every month, it's Brews & Views night, a free political lecture and discussion. Last week, Mike McCurry, former press secretary for President Bill Clinton, spoke.

"My husband grew up on a dairy farm in Turlock," says Mendonca, who was also raised in the small Central Valley town. "While milking the cows he would listen to the Commonwealth Club on the radio and wanted to do something similar here."

Lenny Mendonca, who is a director and senior partner in the San Francisco office of McKinsey & Co., also wanted to turn his weekend home-brew hobby into something larger. So the couple and a handful of other investors built a brewery on the premises in 2003. Now, brewmaster Kirk Hillyard makes ales, stouts and wheat beers named after local landmarks and surf terminology such as Mavericks Amber Ale, Sandy Beach Blonde Hefeweizen and Wipe Out Imperial Stout.

During the presidential election, the brewery made special Barack Obama and John McCain ales. The Mendoncas brought the Obama beer to the Democratic National Convention in Denver and later got a call from the-now president complimenting the ale and thanking them for the donation.

The brewery makes about 1,200 barrels a year. All the brews can be had at the restaurant, and some are sold at stores in the Bay Area.
Chef Gaston Alfaro has created a seafood-inspired menu that includes an adaptation of Lenny Mendonca's Portuguese family recipe for fisherman's stew. On Friday nights and weekends, bands set up in the bar, the patio doors are flung open and diners take to the dance floor.

"The place gets so packed," says Wayne Meyer, the restaurant's director of sales and marketing. "People bring their kids and their dogs and hang out on the patio. It's totally unpretentious - a real family atmosphere."
Community support

Meyer and the Mendoncas appreciate the community's support. Even in bad times, the locals have rallied to keep the restaurant going. In return, the restaurant employs lots of local high school students and sends them off to college with $1,000 scholarships. Restaurant fundraisers support local charities, and the beer donated to the annual Half Moon Bay Pumpkin Festival helps generate funds for senior programs.
"They've always been very responsive to the needs of the community," says Fraser. "Whether it's the local Little League team or anyone else that needs something they're there."
For Christine Mendonca, it's been a labor of love.

"Ten years later, this is everything we wanted," she says. "And it's still going strong."
Half Moon Bay Brewing Co., 390 Capistrano Road, Half Moon Bay; (650) 728-2739 or hmbbrewingco.com. Lunch and dinner daily.

E-mail Stacy Finz at sfinz@sfchronicle.com.
This article appeared on page E - 1 of the San Francisco Chronicle