Bar#49 – Pink

12/16/06

Pink is the prefect place to end the night after going to a few other bars in the mission. it’s open late, there’s fun music, and the drinks are pretty strong. the all pink decor is a little cheesy, but it works her for some reason. i may have ended up spilling more drinks than i actually drank, but it was definitely a good time.

Pink is at 2925 16th Street in San Francisco

Bar#46 – Knockout

11/25/06

the knockout used to be the Odeon, a smallish bar in the outer mission right near where mission and valencia cross. the odeon used to host all these burning man events and other artsy fringe weird bizarre interesting events. but now it’s gone, and in it’s place is the knockout, a chill hipster-ish dive-ish bar that has that typical mission bar feel. it’s a pretty cool place to kick back and have a drink, but it’s pretty far out there, and definitley not as original or interesting as the bar it replaced…

the Knockout is at 3223 Mission Street in San Francisco

Bar#34 – Double Dutch

this bar was pretty cool but nothing special. the theme is 80’s hip hop and they did have some really cool sold-school photos on the walls of kids break dancing. but that’s pretty much as far as it went. they had some old nikes hanging from the bar, a simon game, some boomboxes, but other than that, the place was practically the same as it was when it was Cama. plus, the drinks were pretty expensive. i dont think i’d mind going again, but i doubt i’d make any special effort to go… especially since the mission has so many other better bars nearby.

Double Dutch is at 3192 16th St in San Francisco

Bar#19 Latin American Club

I’ve seen the neon glowing horseshoe sign a countless number of times, but haven’t ever actually wondered what it was a sign for. turns out it’s Club Latin American. what a random name. what the hell would be inside a place named club latin american? mariachi music? no. a lot of latin americans? no. pinatas? Yes!! lots of them, hanginging all over the ceiling. other than the pinatas though, there’s really not too much about the bar that reflects its name. instead, it’s a typical mission bar. not exactly a dive, but definitely has a chill dive type atmosphere and strong drinks.

Latin American Club is at 3286 22nd Street in San Francisco

Bar#12 Lone Palm

driving through the mission, we thought we might not be able to find this place, but luckily we saw what we were looking for: a single palm tree next to a neon sign. this place is exactly what I picture an old lounge to be like. not the crazy slick uber-hip lounges they are building these days, but more down to earth, with white tablecloth covered tables to sit at. this seems like the kind of place where someone in the corner would be playing a piano, and you’d find it in some old movie… or maybe in Reno. it looks like the kind of place that must have been really nice a few decades back, but now is just a relaxed bar with a chill crowd. there are very few tables here, so on a busy night it’s probably just about impossible to find a place to sit. there’s also an… errr… interesting statue on the wall that tom is pictured next to.


i have no idea what is going on here


i have no clue what is going on here either… nor why my clothes look wet

the Lone Palm is at 3394 22nd Street in San Francisco

*v

Bar#3 Bender’s

after being disappointed that Elixir was not a new bar, we headed out to place called Bender’s. walking inside, we were relieved that we didn’t recognize anything inside… surely a good sign that we had never been there before. From the first second, we liked this place more than the last bar. i dont know what it is about dive bars but there’s just something about them that is damn appealing. is it the seriously unpretentious atmosphere? is it that you feel like you can do whatever the hell you want and it’s ok? is it that the more low-key a place is, the more it is conducive to drinking? who knows and who really cares… all i know is that it works.

Bender’s had a similar atmosphere to Zeitgeist or Kilowatt. there were 2 pool tables, a pinball machine, and a jukebox filled with 99% heavy metal stuff. i tried to find something to play and could barely find anything i even recognized. i dunno if that’s a good thing, but it definitely matched the place’s atmosphere. they had Hoegaarden on tap, which as i’ve mentioned before, is definitely bonus points in my book. tom and i played pool and despite all of his bragging i almost beat him. man, if you’re not much better than me, than you must suck at pool!

the rest of the night was consumed by Natasha’s game. you know, that game where they show two half-naked people on either side of the screen and you are supposed to find what’s different about them. sheez… that game is so damn addictive. it’s so damn basic, it never really changes, and yet for some reason it’s practically impossible to drag yourself away. it just sucks the quarters right out of your pocket somehow.

eventually, we were able to drag ourselves out of the bar. we’ll definitely be coming back. cool bar, cheap drinks, and it’s a bit off to the side of the main Mission area which keeps it close to the action but a little secluded. plus, i totally love the name. really, what can be a more perfect name for a bar than Bender’s?

Bender’s is at 806 S Van Ness Ave in San Francisco

Bar#0 Elixir

This new year’s resolution might end up being a lot harder than i thought it would be. first off, not living is SF makes it a lot more difficult to go out to bars there. second, it’s sometimes hard convincing others to go out to new bars. and third, something that i never considered before is that it might be hard to figure out which bars are new ones…


(it’s hard to keep my hands steady..)

Last week Tom, Natasha, and i went to a bar called Elixir. i read about it online and it sounded pretty cool. we get to the bar, order some drinks and only after a while do i all of a sudden think to myself “wait a minute… i’ve been here before!”. yeah, it turns out that a few years ago, we had come to this bar on NYE for 15 or 20 minutes. i had totally forgotten about that. so, now i can’t count this bar. crap… i wonder how often this is going to happen? there probably have been many other bars that i’ve gone to on random drunken nights, when everything becomes a bit blurry, and names of bars become forgotten. how many bars have i been to that i just dont know about?!

Anyways, i may as well write about the Elixir anyways. actually, i think i’ll just write about all the bars i go to from now on, regardless if they make it into the fifty new bars category.

Elixir was a pretty cool place. very small, with pretty much only bar stools to sit on either at then bar or at high tables. the vibe was pretty relaxed and the crowd was an odd mix of dive bar patrons and people dressed really nice wearing suits. the thing that i thought was pretty interesting about this place was that on Wednesday nights, anyone can be a guest bartender. basically, they sign up for a certain night, and are expected to try to get hella people to come to the bar. then, on the Wednesday you chose, you come and bartend with up to 4 of your friends. half of the tips made that night then go to a charity of your choice. i think that’s a pretty cool idea… it would be so fun to serve drinks one night at bar. the guest bartender that night was pretty crazy… spilling drinks all over the place, screaming at people, dropping the girl he worked with on the floor, and convincing me to drink some random monkey drink that i have no clue what was in it.

One thing that’s pretty crazy about Elixir is that it’s super old. i guess the place has been around for like 130 years. Other than that, i can’t really think of anything notable about the place. it was chill and seemed like a good place to hang out, but nothing crazy special. after a few drinks, we headed out to another bar…

Elixir is at 3200 16th Street in San Francisco