Operating at the ocean end of Newport Avenue since 1992, South Beach Bar & Grille is built around a chef-founder who grew up commercial fishing with his brother — the pedigree behind a thirteen-variety taco menu split between grilled and fried preparations. The bar's 40-plus draft handles include neighborhood production beer from Mike Hess Brewing Ocean Beach, with the rest of the program rotating among San Diego County breweries and the back bar holding 22 tequilas. The signature mahi mahi taco anchors a seafood lineup that runs lobster, shark, wahoo, calamari, peel-and-eat shrimp, and oyster shooters across the same fresh-fish kitchen. The two-story footprint splits a downstairs bar and dining room from an upstairs deck overlooking the OB Pier, with ten televisions across both levels — a sit-down split that contrasts with the order-at-the-counter burger model at Hodad's Ocean Beach elsewhere on Newport Avenue. The kitchen's most ambitious work shows in the bacon-wrapped swordfish medallions, Kobe beef sliders, and seared ahi tuna entrées — chef-driven plates that move past the taco-bar shorthand the room is best known for.