#2103 - Aunt Charlie's, San Francisco - 3/4/2013

Aunt Charlie's appears to date back to some point in the 70s, and is the only remaining gay bar in the Tenderloin. I suppose it should have been obvious that "Aunt Charlie's" was a gay bar, but I had no clue until I looked it up after my visit. E.g. I saw no obvious hints from Bob, the avuncular, white-sweatered, white-haired, soft spoken bartender, who has worked here for 20 years. Of course it might have been different if I'd come in during the "Dream Queens Revue," the "Hot Boxxx Girls," or the "Tubesteak Connection." But while I was there the only striking demographic was that it was all old white guys.

133 Turk St, San Francisco, CA 94102 - (415) 441-2922                 
Web site: auntcharlieslounge.com - facebook
Best articles: metblogs - 7x7 - jameshosking - gaycities - coastnews - peacheschrist - blackbookmap - yelp

#2102 - Jonell's, San Francisco - 3/4/2013

On one of the rougher corners in the Tenderloin, I enter Jonell's, a bar named for the intersecting streets Jones and Ellis. Bonnie, the middle-aged Korean bartender, serves up a gin and tonic and chats with me from behind the central horseshoe-shaped bar, the ceiling swooping down to echo its shape, and decades of wear obvious in the formica bar top and the red leather sides. The place obviously had a different sort of character many years ago, with a horse racing theme and named, I would later find out, The Horseshoe. Now Bonnie, the bartender told me that she was watching the place while Jennie the owner was busy. Bonnie and Jennie are old friends from Korea. "I get done at Safeway, wait here, we go together, we good friends, we [she bumps her hands together]."

Bonnie says the bar has been around 100 years, but Jennie's owned it for about ten. The past few years have been more difficult, and she seems to be opening later every few days. Bonnie explains that liquor prices "high, high, high -- go up, up, up."

I hope she does well. From some of the reviews I ran across, Jennie seems like a pretty sassy lady. I always have high hopes for a bar with this much age and character; you can't help but feel that even stronger when the place is run by a couple plucky, middle-aged, immigrant ladies, unflinchingly handling the the junkies, dealers, and characters of these parts.

401 Ellis St, San Francisco, CA 94102 - (415) 776-8345
Previous bars in this location: The Horseshoe
Reviews: sfweekly - sfexperiment - instantcity - yelp

#2101 - High Tide, San Francisco - 3/4/2013

You want your dive bar?  This is a dive bar.

They have all your dive bar essentials -- cheap, stiff drinks, dark interior bills pinned to the ceiling and walls, random small packets of snacks hanging on clips, Christmas lights hanging year round. But then the High Tide takes it up to dive-bar eleven. It is massively dingy, clearly not meant to be seen in daylight hours. The portion of the red carpet under the pool table features a plateau of dust that must have been building for generations. The remaining portion is specked with black dots of aging miscellaneous substances. The cracked vinyl seats have some hapless attempts at patching with packing tape, and the Camel Cigarettes display case is filled with dusty origami made from dollar bills. Then there is the enshrined portrait of the old owner's mother, topless.

The portrait, it appears, is of the grandmother of local hip hop artist Richie Cunning. (7x7) Cunning's grandfather and then his father once owned the place. I came at a slow hour, on an early Monday evening when there was only one other customer with myself and Vicki, the bartender who immigrated from China seven years ago. I would like to come back and see that the tide brings in on a Friday or Saturday night.

600 Geary St, San Francisco, CA 94102 - (415) 771-3145
Reviews: 7x7 - sfist - sfbarexperiment - sfweekly - yelp

#2100 - Sears Fine Food, San Francisco - 3/4/2013

This barely, barely qualifies as a bar, but they do have a physical bar where they serve beer and wine, presumably just sine 2004 when they began staying open for the dinner hour and on weekends. The "fine" in Sears Fine Foods must be taken with a grain of salt, but they do fit the bill for anyone looking for old-fashioned American breakfasts and comfort foods.

Sears was established a block up the street in 1938, started by Ben Sears, a retired circus clown with a reputation for good Swedish pancakes. From its heyday when people lined up down the block for a table, it basically went under in 2003, and was revived in 2004 by Man J. Kim. Kim immigrated from Korea in 1972, working as a janitor and taxi driver before buying into the restaurant business. (sfgate)  He now owns a local chain of 50s style diners called "Lori's" and "Gaining control of Sears would make him the indisputable pancake volume leader at Union Square." (ibid)  Nolstalgia for the menu notwithstanding, the sign out front alone makes me grateful someone preserved the place.

439 Powell St, San Francisco, CA 94102 - (415) 986-0700
Est. 1964 in current location, 1938 in earlier location, Aug 1, 2004 under current owneship
Web site: searsfinefood.com
Reviews: sfgate - gayot - yelp - citysearch

#2099 - The Redwood Room, San Francisco - 3/3/2013

This is very much what you'd like a hotel bar to be -- dark and swanky, with history and good cocktails. I'm not sure how well the digital portraits (which change over time) fit in. But the cherry colored wood, the lighting, the art deco angles and the rest of the decor make for a romantic stop -- at least if you come in on a non-busy night when there are no special events. And while the bar has recently had an expensive remodel, it retains the redwood bar and the basic design theme from it's beginnings right after prohibition.

495 Geary Street, San Francisco, CA 94102 - (415) 929-2372
Est. 1933
Web site: facebook
Reviews: restaurant-ingthroughhistory - sfweekly - worldsbestbars - spottedbylocals - about.com - partyearth - yelp

#2098 - Toronado, San Francisco - 3/3/2013

Toronado is a long-time craft beer mecca, in a divey sort of setting crowded with beer lovers and hipsters. I had my first Pliny (the Elder) there, and got a lot of friendly nods from people who thought a guy sitting on a stool near the door must be working the door.

547 Haight St, San Francisco, CA 94117 - (415) 863-2276
Est. Aug 5, 1987
Web site: toronado.com - facebook
Reviews: partyearth - beeradvocate - esquire - sandiegoreader - blackbook - urbanspoon - yelp - tripadvisor

#2097 - The Mad Dog in the Fog, San Francisco - 3/3/2013

Perhaps you like soccer. I do not. But the Mad Dog is still a pleasant place to grab a pint. It's a fairly typical English style pub, comfortably situated in the neighborhood, with a pretty good beer selection, a nice little patio, and enough unique gewgaws and decorative touches to feel like it has some personality.

530 Haight St. San Francisco, CA 94117 - (415) 626-7279
Web site: themaddoginthefog.com - facebook
Reviews: partyearth - wsj (barcraft) - yelp - thefillmorecenter - citysearch - everybarinsf 

#2096 - Trax Bar, San Francisco - 3/3/2

From the 70s through the first half of the 80s, the Haight had a thriving gay community rivaling the Castro. A dozen gay bars in the area included including the I-Beam, which hosted such bands as the Cure, Red Hot Chile Peppers, Duran Duran, and Siouxsie and the Banshees. But unlike the Castro, the more bohemian Haight gay scene never recovered from the AIDS crisis, and Trax is now the single gay bar left in the neighborhood.

From the outside it looks like a vintage gamers' scene, but the inside is bathed in velvety reds and rainbows. The site is said to have hosted a bar since the 40s, and it's now one of the oldest running bars in the Haight. It's now a fairly standard gay dive bar, with strong, cheap drinks, friendly bartenders, and a mellow vibe.



1437 Haight St, San Francisco, CA 94117 - (415) 864-4213
Est. 1974
Previous bars in this location: Question Mark Cocktail Lounge
Web site: facebook
Reviews: yelp

#2095 - Martin Macks, San Francisco - 3/3/2013

An Irish themed "gastropub and sports bar" that struck me as pretty thoroughly boring.

1568 Haight St, San Francisco 94117 - (415) 861-1586
Web site: martinmackssf.com - facebook
Reviews: haighteration - yelp - menupages - eater

#2094 - The Gold Cane, San Francisco - 3/2/2013

The Gold Cane may be most famous for being the place that the infamous Bruno chased people to when he kicked them out of Zam Zam. But the crowd makes it quite a happening little dive, even on this night when the streets of the Haight seemed strangely quite for 10pm Saturday. It states that it was established in 1926, although this was in another location up the street and would have been during prohibition. It appears to have been in its current location sine 1978. Besides stiff, dive-style drinks and a fun crowd, the Gold Cane has little patio and a large moose head.

1569 Haight St, San Francisco, CA 94117 - (415) 626-1112
Est. 1926, 1978 in this location
Reviews: sfist - yelp - sfgate - zagat

#2093 - Milk Bar, San Francisco - 3/2/2013

When I entered this bar it was packed with people, perfectly still, and eerily quiet -- so much so that I felt obliged to whisper my drink order. Eventually I learned that the people staring at the televisions had come for a screening of the film "Rolled" by Whit Scott. This is apparently the only dance club in the Haight, and on more typical evenings caters to USF students with a mix of live music and hip hop DJs.

1840 Haight St, San Francisco, CA 94117 - (415) 387-6455
Web site: milksf.com - facebook
Reviews: yelp

#2092 - Murio's Trophy Room, San Francisco - 3/2/2013

Murio's was established in 1959 by Olympian and tennis champion John Murio. This was his second bar, after the Hawaiian Village just a few doors up the road (now the Cha Cha Cha). It was very divey, but new owners Edward Sargent and Roger Howell opened a highly remodeled version at the beginning of 2012, in a fashion that one site calls "darker and masculine," but which strikes me as something like a pimp's idea of classy. Thankfully, the retained the great sign out front and also the ancient trophies,  the bartenders are cool and funny, and it's still pleasant in a way that good dive bars are pleasant

1811 Haight St, San Francisco, CA 94117 - (415) 752-2971
Est. 1959
Web site: muriostrophyroom.com - facebook
Reviews: sfgate - tablehopper - eater - sfist - yelp - luckybdesign

#2091 - The Alembic, San Francisco - 3/2/2013

Small and crowded, very nice craft cocktails.

1725 Haight St, San Francisco, CA 94117 - (415) 666-0822
Est. 2006
Web site: alembicbar.com - facebook
Reviews: sfweekly - grubstreet - becksposhnosh - sfgate - jaunted - yelp - bourbonobservor - sanfranciscorestaurants - beeradvocate - gayot - voiceplaces

#2090 - Aub Zam Zam, San Francisco - 3/2/2013

Aub Zam Zam is a happily dark and glowing bar, old enough that it's Persian decor must have seemed exotic rather than kitschy, with a horseshoe-shaped bar, no televisions, and none of the typical, cheesy beer company paraphernalia. It would be a pleasant place to sit for a drink even if you knew nothing in particular about its history. But you can't talk for long about Zam Zam -- or San Francisco bars in general for that matter -- without hearing tales about the legendary Bruno, who ran the place for 50 years, and instantly kicked out hippies, yuppies, and anyone who did not carefully adhere to a very particular set of looks, drink orders and behavior.

Bruno Mooshei died 2000, 13 years before I could make it here. His Assyrian father "Sammy" and his mother immigrated from (what is now) Iran in the early 1920s, and built the Persian Aub Zam Zam Room on Haight Street with the assistance of Syrian architect Jon Oshanna (1). Bruno took over in 1950, and served strictly behind the bar despite the neat tables in front and in a back room, and dressed in white shirt with black tie and vest. Following are some snippets from the stories I ran across:

'For 50 years, Bruno ran the Zam Zam Club with an iron fist.  The bar opened when Bruno opened the bar.  The bar closed when Bruno felt like closing it.  If he did not like you at first sight, you were invited to go down the street to the Gold Cane where he would say, "I think you would like it a lot better down there." If you were accepted to have a drink at his bar, if you were a man your money must be on the bar.  He would only place a napkin in front of a women.  Women were not expected to pay for a drink.  He would ask what you wanted with a glare that said it had better be a Martini.' (greatjoints)

"The joint was founded by Bruno's father in the early forties, and Bruno learned everything he knew from his father.  He only made Gin martinis, because he believed that the Martini was invented with Gin (he's right).  And when you insisted on a Vodka martini, whoosh, out you went.  (Same with ordering a Manhattan with anything but George Dickel). Once, a friend insisted on a Manhattan made with Jack Daniel's. Bruno suggested George Dickel. My friend wanted what he wanted - WHOOSH!  (yelp)

'The other door opens, and in walks a delightful young British couple. Awesome. Not just tourists, but foreign tourists. I was starting to feel my American pride swell within me. People around the bar are starting to smile but are fighting to hide it. We all know that there is no way this couple could run the Martini Nazi Gauntlet successfully. The couple sits next to us and Bruno walks over. The lady gets a napkin and the man, none. “What’ll you have?” Bruno said in his raspy voice. “I’d like to see a cocktail menu.” Said the woman. Bruno turns to the man. “What’ll you have?” “I’d like to see a cocktail menu as well.” The British accent is so dignified. Just adorable! Bruno then turns back to the woman and takes her napkin away. The bar has now stopped drinking. We are all hunched over our drinks. The napkin removal is the sign we’ve been waiting to see. It’s game time. “The bar is closed. We don’t serve your kind here.”'  (crawlingroad)

"Also I miss Bruno, the old owner guy who used to kick everyone out for the most bizarre infractions like ladies ordering a second drink, or if you didn't tip him the 50 cent piece he'd give you for change."  (yelp)

"For decades the place was owned and run by a fellow named Bruno.  Bruno would not serve you if any of the following was the case:
(1) You were not seated at a stool at the bar (yes, the place always had chairs and tables, and you could always sit at them, but you'd never get a drink);
(2) He didn't like the way you looked;
(3) He didn't like the way you talked;
(4) He didn't approve of your drink order;
(5) Any little thing about you rubbed him the wrong way."
(yelp)

'I mean, I always ordered gin martinis (there's no other kind), and I knew not to ask for it dry (because there's no other way), and I never even thought of asking for table service, and I tried hard to keep my voice down.  I tried very hard.  But every other time I went, it was kaputzki for me.  One time, Bruno looked at me and said, I can tell you are a good person, but your voice is too loud, so go.'  (yelp)

"I got bounced once for asking for a few extra olives after the drinks was made."  (yelp)

'We ordered our martinis. Gin. Stirred. Cold. And were sipping. Watching other people get kicked out. I don’t remember who it was Bruno had just kicked out, but I’d had my entire martini, and I was feeling giddy, and I couldn’t help myself: I giggled. “Young lady? What’s so FUNNY?” Bruno turned his short, stout body to me. I was horrified. “I just thought something was funny.” “We don’t LAUGH like that in PUBLIC. You are being VERY RUDE. I have to ask you to LEAVE.” I’d heard him say those lines before, but now they were directed at me. Oh. I could hear my boyfriend-now-husband sucking down his martini next to me, finishing as quickly as he could.'  (jadepark)

'“When his wife died, he just didn’t see the point of offering table service anymore, and Bruno stuck with it,” explained Andrea, Aub Zam Zam’s current bartender. “From then on, if you asked if you could sit there, he just kicked you out.”'  (theskylineview)

"The first time we went in here, the original owner (and only employee) told us to get out when we took seats in the back room. We came over to sit at the bar. We were the only customers. We ordered a vodka martini and a beer. He told us once again to GET OUT, much more forcefully. We pulled it together and each had a gin martini with a twist. The drinks were delightful and were served in beautiful crystal glasses. We befriended the owner and returned many times. We were very careful with our seating and drinks choices thereafter."  (yelp)

"If someone opened the door, especially in daylight, and hesitated before coming in, Bruno would shout: ‘Shut that door, there’s a stench out there. Away with you, barbarian!’"  (lrb)

"Those people, they must be from FREMONT, I'll bet they drink BUD, from CANS."  (yelp)

'Bruno had been known to go up to the circuit breaker at the bar and announce “The bar is closed” and shut off the lights for no reason. I did not witness this myself, but others reported it as a possibility.  (crawlingroad)

"I don't make carnival drinks go to the Gold Cane."  (yelp)


1633 Haight St, San Francisco, CA 94117 - (415) 861-2545
Est. 1941
Web site: facebook
Reviews: greatjoints - sfgate - yelp - crawlingroad - theskylineview - sfstories - sfgate - sfweekly - nightout - sfweekly - thebigdrinksf - tastingtable - sfbaytripper - blackbook

#2089 - Happy Lounge, San Francisco - 3/1/2013

3745 Geary Blvd, San Francisco, CA 94118
Web site: facebook
Reviews: yelp

#2088 - Ireland's 32, San Francisco - 3/1/2013

3920 Geary Blvd, San Francisco, CA 94118 - (415) 386-6173
Est. 1982
Web site: facebook
Reviews: yelp - blackbookmag