If you’re picturing a hut on the beach, or an urban deli, you’d be ever-so-slightly off base with either scenario at Beach Deli Hut. It has characteristics of a restaurant, but the divine flavors of a specialty neighborhood deli. It’s near the water, but bayside, not beachfront. It’s kind of like a sports bar and a coffee shop got married, had a baby, and named it Beach Deli Hut. Since they share space with Ryan’s Coffee, it’s not too far from the truth.
Once you get past preconceived notions of the name, you’ll fall in love with both the food and the ambiance at this modern deli on the ground floor of Spring Hill Suites Bayfront in what you would think is the Marina District, but is actually across the street in the Core-Columbia district.
Beach Deli Hut Ambiance
Beach Deli Hut is a deli-style franchise nestled between the B Street Cruise Terminal and the historic Santa Fe Depot. Inside, you’ll find stained concrete flooring, a red and gold jewel tone color palette, and a half-moon bar under a palapa with blue pendant lights. Numerous larger pendant lights and fans hang from the black industrial-style ceiling. Light wood café chairs and shellacked surfboard-look tables, large and small, fill the indoor dining area. Four booths with their own flat-screen TVs offer a bit of privacy. Big screen TVs adorn the walls along the room’s perimeter, and hang above the bar and service counter too.
The outdoor patio at Beach Deli Hut offers stylish comfort bayside, perfect for watching the sunset. There are two large L-shaped sofas with coffee tables on either side of the door. Several deli-logo branded four-top tables with wood patio chairs, and a few heat lamps fill the rest of the spacious patio. An expansive green space separates the patio from World Pier and the cruise ships, offering diners lots to look at over lunch or happy hour.
Beach Deli Hut Food
Beach Deli Hut’s menu of beach munchies, gourmet sandwiches, hot sandwiches, and salads are created using only the freshest, high quality ingredients. Their extensive menu is known for its unique pairings often using underrated ingredients like cream cheese and avocado to take their sandwiches to the next level. Each of their thirteen signature hot sandwiches are topped with mayonnaise, mustard, dill pickles, tomatoes, red onion, lettuce, Greek peppers, and cheese unless requested otherwise. The most popular items on this menu include the California, North Shore, and Surfin’ Bird – a turkey sandwich with avocado, bacon, and cream cheese.
Their gourmet sandwich menu also includes a list of six meat and cheese classic sandwiches. You pick your choice of bread, sweet French roll, wheat roll, garlic cheese bread, wheat bread, gluten-free wraps, or lettuce wraps. They also give you a choice of cheese from cheddar, provolone, monetary jack, pepper jack, Swiss, and cream cheese to pair with either turkey, ham, roast beef, pastrami, salami, or tuna. Each are topped with the same ingredients as the signature sandwiches except the tuna & cheese does not include mustard.
Beach Deli’s list of hot sandwiches is just as extensive and creative as their cold sandwiches. They feature thirteen hot, melted, gourmet sandwiches with fan favorites such as The Woody, The Sunburn, and Shark Bite – ham, Swiss, cream cheese, Tabasco, Bulls-Eye BBQ sauce, onions, bacon, lettuce, and mayo nestled between two slices of garlic cheese bread. The Righteous Rueben, Cali Cheese Steak, and Pig Kahuna are among their other top sellers. They also feature eight gourmet signature salads with your choice of greens, farm fresh iceberg, spinach, or romaine.
If you’re not in the mood for a salad or sandwich, don’t worry, they have you covered with their Beach Munchies menu featuring an eclectic mix of delicious items. These include two styles of quarter-pound all-beef franks, the Moon Doggie and Pipeline Pup as well as beach bites – garlic bread, chips, and potato or pasta salad. This menu also includes three styles of nachos, regular, chili, and Marley Nachos – tortilla chips topped with nacho cheese, diced tomatoes, red onion, cream cheese, avocados, Greek peppers, and fresh bacon bites.
Beach Deli Hut Details
Beach Deli Hut offers a catering menu that can feed anywhere from six to 15 people depending on the selections. Options include a sandwich box, a sandwich plus chip box, a sandwich plus salad box, and a salad option. They also provide individual custom-made lunch boxes called the Luau Lunch Box which can be made for anywhere from five to 500 people. They include a regular size classic or gourmet sandwich, one bag of chips, and a cookie or apple.
This is a casual eatery with a “hang out and chill” environment ideal for children, families, and large groups. They have TVs, free Wi-Fi, gender neutral bathrooms, and a full bar. Beach Deli Hut is open weekdays from early mornings to late evenings. They take reservations, but do not have a wait staff. You order at the counter, and they call you. There is only street parking.
Beach Deli Hut Neighborhood
Core-Columbia is a small, largely commercial neighborhood in downtown, San Diego between the waterfront and Union, Ash, and F streets. It is also home to a large number of luxury high-rise condominiums commonly referred to as Millionaire Row. This small waterfront neighborhood is home to quite a few of Downtown’s most prominent attractions such as the San Diego Museum of Contemporary Art. Across the street in the Marina District, you’ll find the Midway Aircraft Carrier Museum and the Maritime Museum. Several exceptional restaurants, gourmet coffee shops, breweries, and workout facilities such as Pure Indoor Cycling, Core40 and the Daily Method can also be found in the Core-Columbia neighborhood.