The drummer of Cults books the room; the owner of the Casbah co-owns it. Soda Bar at 3615 El Cajon Boulevard opened in November 2008 on the North Park-City Heights border, a 230-capacity club that began as a quasi-sports bar and pivoted into San Diego's essential small venue when Cory Stier took over the booking. The alumni list reads like a festival poster written early: Angel Olsen, Phoebe Bridgers, Kamasi Washington, Nathaniel Rateliff, The War on Drugs, Grimes, Sharon Van Etten, Foster the People and Alvvays all played the tiny stage on their way up. The 2018 ownership change formalised the city's booking axis: after a three-year landlord dispute forced a sale, Big Soda LLC - Stier, Casbah founder Tim Mays, musician Andrew Montoya and bar manager Angie Ollman - bought the club, uniting San Diego's two premier independent talent buyers under one roof. The operation runs seven nights a week across every genre that fits the room - indie, punk, hip-hop, metal, songwriters - and doubles as an outside promoter presenting shows at the Irenic, Music Box, Quartyard and the Che Cafe. The bar keeps dive credentials intact - cheap local drafts, a pool-hall-adjacent looseness, 21-plus door - while the sound system and sightlines run well above the room's price point. The El Cajon Boulevard corridor location, ten minutes from downtown, anchors the city's band-scene geography: the room where a San Diego act headlines last before graduating to the Casbah and beyond. The room itself is a single rectangle with the stage along the back wall, a long bar down one side and a small patio out back - no barrier, no barricade, the band at eye level - and the calendar's local-heavy Monday and Tuesday bills remain the cheapest reliable way to hear where San Diego's scene is headed next. The jukebox between sets is curated as carefully as the calendar.

Type: Bar / Pub

Address: 3615 El Cajon Blvd., San Diego, CA, United States, 92104

Website: https://sodabarmusic.com

Minimum Age: 21

Cover Charge: 1

DJ: 1

Capacity: 230

Opening Date: 01/11/2008