Category: Fifty Bars

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#18 Place Pigalle

It’s gonna be very hard for me to write a review of this bar because of how my night started. yan was in town from prague, so a few of us went to a german restaurant called Suppenkuche to have dinner. the food there was pretty good and they had a ton of different beers to choose from that you could get in all sorts of sizes ranging from small glasses all the way up to huge *4 liter* containers. yes, you could definitely drink a serious amount of beer in this place. yan and kevin got a huge 2 liter beer that came in a monstrous glass that was shaped like a boot. it was hillarious. erica and i each got 1 liter beers. as the night wore on, we each got another order, so by the time we left the restaurant, we had each drank 2 liters a piece.


kevin drinking from the boot (and spilling on himself)


Erica’s drink isn’t all that small either

we left Suppenkuche and stumbled off to Place Pigalle. the rest of the night is a bit of a blur. somehow i lost my debit card and also my paycheck. somehow i got into Popscene without paying. somehow we ended up being driven around in a Lincoln Towncar. somehow we ended up on some girl’s balcony. the night ended at Sparky’s, yet i dont recall anything about a very expensive milkshake, nor how we got home. ahh yes… another classic night.

so, what does this review actually say about Place Pigalle? well, pretty much nothing really. all i know about that place is that it has a pool table and looks kind of run down inside… and i only know that cause i had to come back a few days later to pick up my missing debit card.

*v

Place Pigalle is at 520 Hayes Street in San Francisco

Bar#17 Amber

Amber is a cool liitle bar in the Castro. well, actually it just seems little when you look at it from the outside. onse inside though, it turns out that therere’s actually lots of space and there are couches everywhere for people to sit on. this place seemed like a really nice mixture of a lot of things. there was fun music playing, yet not so loud that it would drown out everyones talking. the place looked nice and semi-slick in some ways, yet was totally relaxed and didnt give off that stuffy vibe at all. the crowd seemed very mixed: everything from people who were dressed up to people looking gritty, from hip-hop types to indie kids to everything in between. everyone seemed to be having a good time too. you could get fruffy coctails or you could drink pbr. basically, this place was a little bit of everything. unfortunately i ahd a cold so i had to go home early, but i definitely wanna go back again…

Amber is at 718 14th Street in San Francisco

Bar#16 Matrix Fillmore

we had just barely survived the hellish scene at Mauna Loa and, as if we hadn’t had enough punsihment, we decided to try out a second bar in the marina. from everything i had heard, the Matrix is the quintessential marina bar. looking inside, we could already see that the crowd was gonna suck. every guy in there was wearing the striped button down shirt that is the mandatory uniform required in this neighborhood. i had read online earlier that this place was filled with the kind of guy that this article was written about, and from what i could see, it was totally true. at first i was worried (or relieved) that they might not let me inside, but they did.

he bar itself looks really nice. everything is sleek and black and shiny with a large modern firepit in the center. the drinks were overpriced, but i guess that’s expected for a place like this. when i went to the bathroom, there was a bathroom attendant handing out paper towels. come on, is that really necessary?! i know they’re trying to be fancy and classy by having an attendant, but it just seems lame. we hung out for a while, trying to endure the overcrowded, overannoying, and overly lame scene, but finally, we just had to leave.

the Matrix Fillmore is at 3201 Fillmore Street in San Francisco

Bar#15 Mauna Loa

for the new year’s resolution, i was determined to explore the districts of SF that i havent really visited too much. so, despite all my reservations about it, we decided to try out a bar in the marina. i’ve always avoided this neighborhood like the plague because the bars there attract the worst people ever. well, within seconds of walking into the Mauna Loa, i could see why i’ve been avoiding this area. i felt like i walked into a frat party from hell. everyone there was super cheezy. the kind of people who used to be a fratboy/jock/cheerleader and now have lots of money and like to brag about it to everyone around them. within a few mnutes of being there, a fight almost broke out. of course, in the end there wasn’t an actual fight, instead it was just some testosterone fueled bullshit where people can act all badass and then go home later and brag to all of their friends how they almost beat someone up. ugh.

the thing is, the bar itself here was actually pretty cool. nice bartenders, decent beer selection, foosball table… the place would actually make a decent bar if it wasn’t for all the idiots that were there. after one drink, richard refused to go back inside but the rest of us toughed it out and had another drink. then, we got the hell out of there.

also, i’m still not sure why this place has a hawaiian name seeing as there is nothing else hawaiian about it.

Mauna Loa is at 3009 Fillmore Street in San Francisco

Bar#14 Aub Zam Zam

After reading a million reviews about this bar, I was totally intrigued. apparently it used to be owned by a guy named Bruno, who was notorious for kicking people out if they ordered a drink he didn’t like, or asked to have their martini served with vodka, or really for any damn reason he chose. this guy was the best bartender ever and everyone loved him. unfortunately, he passed away a few years back, so when I went to the bar a couple weeks back, there was no Bruno there. *sigh*.

walking into this bar felt like taking a step back in time. the bar itself was a very small horseshoe bar with only a few stools around it. there were a few other tiny tables, but really this place is all about sitting at the bar. I wrote earlier that the Lone Palm bar reminded me of an old movie, but this place reminded me of that even more so. light jazz was playing on the jukebox, the waiter was dressed nicely, and the place mainly served martinis. I really dug the vibe there. also, oddly enough, it also had a kind of middle eastern feel to it too.

I’ve never really drank martinis, but decided that I should give it a shot since I was here. it’s great when you can just give the bartender free reign to make whatever they please and they invent something great for you. I hate it when you ask the bartender to recommend something, and they can’t be bothered to choose a drink for you or be creative at all. the bartender at Aub Zam Zam whipped up a special martini for us made from Hendrick’s gin, which is infused with rose petals and cucumbers. she also added cucumber garnish and some other stuff and the drink was really good… super refreshing. Later in the evening, we overheard her mention the “Hillary special”. when we asked what that was, she said it changes from time to time, and we decided to go for it. she ended up making us two completely different drinks, one of them a sour one similar to a sidecar, and the other one was some crazy chocolate concoction. both were super good.

there was really something about this place that makes me want to go back. I so wish this could be my local neighborhood bar…

Aub Zam Zam is at 1633 Haight Street in San Francisco

*v

Bar#13 Club Waziema

We were walking towards “The Page”, a bar that we’ve been to a bunch of times, when we randomly noticed the sign for club waziema across the street. what was this mysterious place? was it a club? was it a restaurant? what does the saxophone on the bar’s sign have to do with anything? our curiosity got the best of us, and we wandered in.

the place turned out to not be a club at all, but more of a bar/restaurant. we tried one of their specialty drinks: the bourbon decay which was Makers mixed with ginger ale and lemon. hella good. caryn got some mango drink that was really good too. the drinks were fairly cheap and pretty strong. but what really made this place cool was that the people who worked there were super nice. everyone behind the bar was way friendly and when they found out that it was our friend’s birthday, they played a happy birthday song over the speakers. everyone there genuinely seemed to want us to have a great time, even though it was 1:30 am, only half an hour before closing.

apparently during the day, they also serve Ethiopian food, but from the reviews I’ve read, I can’t imagine it being too good…

Club Waziema is at 543 Divisadero Street in San Francisco

*v

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#11 Philosopher’s Club

I used to live in the inner sunset and drove by this bar every time that I drove to or from SF. I’ve always wondered about it. in my mind, this place would be all historic looking on the inside, with lots of armchairs and people smoking pipes. people would be sitting around and playing chess with each other, or lazily leafing through thick books while they drank cognac. possibly a person or two inside would be wearing a monocle or maybe even a top hat. who knows.

well, my dreams of this place were shattered when I finally went there. instead of the philosopher’s club, they should have named it “Nondescript Bar” or possibly “Just Some Bar”. or, I guess they could have named it after the very weak drinks that they pour. none of us were very impressed by this place. oh, and they had a bunch of big screen TVs which just really don’t seem to belong in a “philosopher’s club”. the only thing this place really had going for it was that it was pretty much the only bar in the area. I guess if you are in the West Portal and are stranded, this could be your local bar. luckily, we weren’t stranded, so we left after 2 drinks.

Philosopher’s Club is at 824 Ulloa Street in San Francisco

*v

Bar#10 Rickshaw Stop

i randomly won tickets to a show that was here so we went to go check it out. the space was pretty cool with rickshaws set randomly throughout the room so people could sit on them. there’s also a rather large upstairs area too. the bar itself was super small, or maybe it just seemed really small since the room that it was in was pretty huge.

-v

Rickshaw Stop is at 155 Fell St in San Francisco