Award-winning Long Beach brewery Trademark Brewing is officially expanding into Torrance (technically Los Angeles). Joining a conglomerate of other stellar food brands at the retail complex known as the Enclave, this taproom will home in on the brewery’s beers while building an entirely new patronage within the region.
“We’ve been working on this project for an entire year,” said co-owner Sterling Steffen. “It’s been a wild ride but such a sense of pride to watch the brand expand.”
What is Trademark Brewing in Torrance all about?
Don’t expect to see the gleam of brewing tanks or the clank of brewers creating the brews that have turned Trademark into a nationally recognized brewery. This is a taproom, where you’ll find Trademark beers along with some guest taps and wine.
Some special highlights to be introduced to its new Torrance audience? Two GABG-winning beers: Their limed-out Mexican lager, “A La Playa,” which won a silver. And, of course, their Codebreaker West Coast IPA, which one the gold. And they could probably expect the brewery’s Morning Drive coffee beer, which scored them a medal at this year’s World Beer Cup.
“This is about our beer and using our surrounding partners as collaborators and event hosts,” Sterling said. “Who knows—maybe we’ll partner with HiroNori and do a collab beer that goes with their ramen?”
So what is the Enclave in Torrance?
Similar to SteelCraft in Bixby Knolls and Long Beach Exchange in East Long Beach, the Enclave is a collection of structures in a business park in Torrance that offers retail and restaurant space.
“Enclave is basically four buildings between two larger office buildings,” Sterling said. “Believe it or not, the office buildings have had their occupance levels,
It features a food hall, where Trademark will be situated; think The Hangar at LBX. There are two buildings that feature an array of restaurants. Then there is a fourth space that remains empty but will likely be programmed with some sort of fitness tenant. And some of the brands already reflect a tinge of Long Beach’s own food culture: HiroNori (with a location in Bixby Knolls) and 123 Pho (with a location in Downtown Long Beach) also have homes at the Enclave complex.
How did Trademark Brewing come to be?
Owners and husband-and-wife team, Sterling and Ilana Steffen scouted the space next to the Packard Building all the way back in 2015, seeing the former auto repair shop as a future home to an open floor brewing concept where the brewing process and the drinking process are seamlessly brought together thanks to a glass wall. Their thoughts at the time? Think Stumptown in DTLA, but with hops. And a buzz. And a genuinely gorgeous mint green-like floor that fits with the brewery’s overall minimalist aesthetic.
Come 2017, the pair signed their first check—tens of thousands of dollars they had saved up—to wait two years to open, just before the pandemic. With ceilings sandblasted, trusses painted, skylights installed and beers brewed, Trademark Brewing formally opened in June of 2019, some six years after the pair began planning it.
Expect Trademark Brewing in Torrance to open next year
Sterling said he will be hosting a soft opening some time early 2025 while a grand opening “will take a bit more time to nail down because we still have construction [largely revolving around refrigeration] that we have to get through.”
Trademark Brewing in Torrance will be located at the Enclave’s food hall, located at 970-990 W. 190th St. in Los Angeles at the border of Torrance.
