While on my quest for the best pint of Guinness a couple of months ago, I found myself enjoying just that along with excellent fare at Copper Kings Burgers.
Copper Kings Burgers has a simple, straightforward motto: “Life’s too short for crappy burgers.” And it seems they feel the same way about the beer served. Located on San Marcos Boulevard, the venue skirts the line between pub, burger joint and tap room.
I sat down with co-owner Dermot Owens and Copper Kings beer tech Alfredo Vega to learn more.
ILB: I’ve got my pint of Guinness and a few minutes before the game starts. Let’s hear the Copper Kings Burger story.
Owens: When my business partner, John (Petr), and I started up, our original goal was to have a whiskey bar. And we were going to serve one burger.
ILB: Just one burger?
Owens: We were going for quality over quantity. We’d make everything from scratch: the burger, the bun, the cheese, the sauce…and then COVID hit. And we said, ‘All right, we’re not opening a brick and mortar right now. We can sit here twiddling our thumbs or we can get out there so people can try our food.’ That’s how we ended up getting into all the local breweries.
ILB: And the one-burger concept?
Owens: We found out real quick we needed a bit of variety. And the whiskey bar has been put on the back burner as we just have a beer and wine license here. So, we decided to take the same pride we have in the quality of food with the beer.
ILB: Tell me a little bit about your Guinness pour.
Owens: Me being from Ireland, I had to have Guinness, and Smithwick’s as well. I worked in the Irish pub scene for a long time, so I definitely know how to pour a pint and take pride in it as well.
ILB: But a number of excellent local beers and some rare craft beers are also part of the lineup.
Owens: Most of our permanent beer handles are locals. … Alfredo is our in-house beer tech. He cleans the lines every two weeks and rotates in new beers all the time. Some fun California beers and some others.
ILB: Alfredo, tell me about how you curate this taplist.
Vega: It’s a very fluid process honestly [fairly sure his pun was intended]. It’s about reaching out to the different beer reps to get first dibs on the unicorn beers that are hard to get your hands on. I’ve found that the beers that are really selling right now are collaboration beers.
ILB: Anything upcoming on the taplist readers should know about?
Vega: We are planning a Living Haus Brewing tap take over in late May or early June. They are an amazing brewery out of Portland, Oregon. Very hard to find here.
ILB: Lots of IPAs.
Vega: Yes, but I do like to keep them different enough. There’s always a triple on for a higher-octane selection, a little boozier which helps differentiate from the others. I like to keep a double dry-hopped IPA on for more of the tropical hop notes. And I like to have a single-hop style so you can tell exactly what you’re drinking.
ILB: But it’s not all IPAs.
Vega: No, I like to mix in some quality lighter beers to complement the hoppier stuff. I have a Kolsch on right now from Mammoth Brewing. We have a pilsner from Fieldwork.
Owens: We have a Mexican lager that Lost Abbey makes for us. We have Dogleg Brewing and Pure Project on tap all the time. Again, we got our start at the local breweries and we make sure that we are serving their beers here now.
ILB: Where did the name Copper Kings come from?
Owens: The first placed I ever lived in America was Montana. I worked on a ranch, and everyone I met kept saying, ‘I’m Irish.’ I’d expect that in Boston and New York, but not in Montana. I did a little research on why there are so many Irish in Montana, and it was one of the Copper Kings: Marcus Daly. He owned a copper mine and so did an American, William Clark.
They were in competition with each other and it was known as the war of the Copper Kings. I am Irish and John is American and I always liked the story, so: Copper Kings.
We wanted something a little Irish, but not in-your-face Irish. It’s not an Irish pub, but it has a little Irish in it for sure.
ILB: It doesn’t feel like you’re in an Irish Pub…but it also kind of does. It has that friendly, welcoming vibe to it.
Owens: That’s what we were going for!
Jeff Spanier is the co-host of I Like Beer the Podcast. Take a listen wherever you get podcasts. Follow Spanier’s adventures on Instagram @ilikebeerthepodcast.
