#2080 - Trad'r Sam, San Francisco - 3/1/2013

Opened by Sam Baden in 1937, Trad'r Sam is the oldest tiki bar in the world. The old "bamboo bar" pre-dates the Don The Beachcombers and Trader Vic's, which started the tiki trend. It remains as a comfortable neighborhood dive, retaining the tiki decor and serving tropical drinks and scorpion bowls to a mostly younger crowd. The sign outside no longer lights up, which was partly disappointing, and but also satisfyingly apropos for such a genuine, old dive.

6150 Geary Blvd San Francisco, CA 94121 - (415) 221-0773
Est. 1937
Reviews: critiki - sfexaminer - tikicentral - sfweekly - yelp - foggedinlounge

#2079 - Jamber Wine Pub, San Francisco - 3/1/2013

A nice, woody, casual spot on Folsom that serves updated comfort food, craft beers and several wines on tap (no bottles).

858 Folsom St San Francisco, CA 94107 - (415) 273-9192
Est. year - Sep 28, 2012
Web site: jambersf.com - facebook
Reviews: grubstreet - grubstreet - eater - yelp

#2078 - Pied Piper, San Francisco - 2/28/2013

Parrish's "Pied Piper of Hamelin," shortly before 2013 restoration

The Pied Piper was established in 1909 in the reconstructed Palace Hotel (after the great quake). The original Palace Hotel, built in 1875, hosted presidents Grant, Harrison, McKinley, and Teddy Roosevelt. The new hotel has hosted presidents Taft, Harding, FDR, and Clinton -- with Warren Harding passing away there. It's also hosted Oscar Wilde and Sarah Bernhardt, who arrived with her pet baby tiger.

For the opening of the Pied Piper Bar in the newly constructed Palace, Maxfield Parrish was commissioned to create a 16 foot long by 6 foot tall painting, which has resided behind the bar with limited interruptions every since. One of those interruptions came shortly after my visit, as the hotel concluded that it did not make sense to keep an artwork worth millions of dollars sitting behind a bar. But a public outcry ensued, thousands of signatures were gathered protesting the move, and the owners subsequently changed their minds and returned the painting after some restoration work.

A bar tender in the old version of the hotel wrote one of the definitive books on cocktails in 1891, William T. Boothby's "Cocktail Boothby's American Bartender: The Only Practical Treatise on the Art of Mixology Published."  (Yes, the term "mixology" dates back to the 19th century.) The current bar maintains a focus on the classics, and provides one of the more elegant settings in the city to sip a drink.


2 New Montgomery St San Francisco, CA 94105 - (415) 512-1111
Est. December 19, 1909 - Building constructed: 1909 (previous building 1875)
Previous bars in this location:
Web site: sfpalace.com
Reviews: sfgate - examiner - wikipedia - sfheritage - blackbook - yelp

#2077 - Zero Zero, San Francisco - 2/28/2013

Upscale ‘Calipolitan’ pizzas, various small plates, and some nice, barrel-aged cocktails.

826 Folsom St San Francisco, CA 94107 - (415) 348-8800
Est. July 7, 2010
Web site: www.zerozerosf.com - facebook
Reviews: sfgate - chow - yelp - tripadvisor

#2076 - ThirstyBear Brewing Co, San Francisco - 2/28/2013

Just a couple blocks from the Moscone Center, the decor and vibe of ThirstyBear Brewing is fairly typical of a contemporary craft brew pub, with warm woods and exposed brick. However, in addition to their nine beers (including two rotating seasonals), they feature a cocktail program (I didn't try them) and Spanish tapas. It's a nice stop for a good beer.

661 Howard St, San Francisco, CA 94105 - (415) 974-0905
Est. Sep 1996
Web site: thirstybear.com - facebook - vimeo
Reviews: bythepint - sfexaminer - gayot - beerbybart - beeradvocate  - cityseeker - urbanspoon - yelp - sfgate

#2075 - Union Square Sports Bar, San Francisco - 2/23/2013

115 Mason St San Francisco, CA 94102 - (415) 345-8484
Est. April 1, 2009 (Feb 1, 1998 on O'Farrell St. location) - Building constructed: 1907
Previous bars in this location: Bradley's Bar
Web site: unionsquaresportsbar.com - facebook
Reviews: yelp

#2074 - 21 Club, San Francisco - 2/27/2013

Update: Club 21 closed in 2015

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In the center of the 21 Club -- some say at ground zero of the Tenderloin -- stands Frank. On the wall to the left, there is a very complimentary Central City Extra article about Frank, and when he catches you looking at it, he is quick to point out that he did not put that up there. The article talks about how Frank has not only owned and run the quintessential dive bar for 40 years, but how his place has served as a sort of unofficial community center for the neighborhood. Later in the evening I'll see something like this first hand, as an elderly woman named Donna engages Frank in a somber conversation behind the bar, and he eventually moves to the cash register, and returns stashing two bills into her hands. "You game me some breathing room," Donna says to him, as she makes her way to the door.

When I came back a few days later, April is working the bar. She tells me that the article got several things wrong -- that Frank's been here 30 years, not 40.  Another article I find says that it was once a transgender bar named Rossi's. April tells me she drank at 21 Club for eight years before she worked as bartender. She and multiple others tell me how much rougher it is now with other neighborhood joints closed, and this corner of Turk and Taylor so dominated by drug dealers that even the street people are scared to come in. There have been shootings and murders just outside the front door.

Three blocks up the street, where there is now just a parking lot, from 1950 until 1963 the Blackhawk Nightclub stayed open late hosting the likes of Miles Davis, Thelonious Monk, Dizzy Gillispie, and Dave Brubeck. Count Basie squeezed 16 players onto the small stage on night. Later in the 60s, a few steps north on Hyde, Wally Heider Studios churned out recordings by Neil Young, The Grateful Dead, Jefferson Airplane, Credence Clearwater Revival, Van Morrison, and Crosby, Stills, and Nash. At that time Turk Street was lit up by the blinking blade signs of the nightclubs and sex shops.

I'm staying at boutique hotel just a block away. A block the other direction there is a touristy BART stop and a Nordstrom across the street. But there's not much left on this block of Turk except for the drug dealers and a well-fortified convenience store. Yet the 21 Club remains a great little bar -- "the diviest bar in the Tenderloin," Esquire called it, while naming it one of the top 100 bars in the country. The cast of characters, inside the bar and outside it's large windows, make it a can't miss bar stop. But it is Frank who really makes the place, the regulars tell you -- and enough hipsters stray in from the shows at the Warfield to fill Yelp with reviews echoing that sentiment. "Frank is the soul of the Tenderloin," says a local theater owner in the article on the wall. "And the 21 Club is a window on the world."


98 Turk St, San Francisco, CA 94102 - (415) 771-9655
Est. 1971
Previous bars in this location: Rossi's
Web site: facebook
Reviews: central city extra - soapboxdespot - hoodline - yelp - sfbarexperiment - KALW - foundsf