Golden Gate Beer Bars

Toronado– beer bar
Lower Haight
547 Haight @ Fillmore (Google Map)
Official Site | BeerAdvocate | Yelp
Open 11:30am to 2:00am every day
MUNI: J, N, 6, 7, 22, 24, 71
Part of the Haight Beer Crawl

photos by Troy McClure SF

Toronado, as mentioned in the Haight Beer Crawl, needs no introduction.  It’s well-known in the Bay Area as one of the premiere Belgian beer bars, with around 80-90 available, along with a good cross-section of American craft brews.  There’s almost 50 taps and 100 bottles all told, many of which cycle in and out.  (You may want to look at those lists as examples, as they were last updated “around Christmas.”) The taps tend to be West Coast craft brews, while the bottles are mostly Belgian, with some other European and American beers thrown in.

Lines are clean, and proper glassware is always used, but Toronado is most certainly a dive.  It smells like decades of spilled beer, the bathrooms are downright icky, and service can be downright surly (which admittedly stops being cute sometimes).  It’s the kind of place that gets annoyed when Esquire names it one of the best bars in America, which will surely cause an infestation of rookies and douchebags, who’ll no doubt whine that they only take cash, even though there’s an ATM right there in the back.  That said, it’s an especially great place to spend an afternoon, before the happy hour and evening crowds show up (and they will).  That’s when it’s a little quieter, and bartenders are able and willing… well, able to help you find something you’ll like.

photo by ibison4

The layout is a typical SF-style shotgun bar, with a long bar on the right and stools with tables along the left.  When you get to the back, you can head straight to the bathroom, or turn left past the jukebox into the back room, which offers softer seating and tables, another TV, and another bathroom.

Toronado itself offers no food, though Rosamunde sausage is located one door down in the same building, and sometimes its menu will conveniently be on your table.  If sausage & beer isn’t your thing, you weirdo, you can get damn near anything else on that block- pizza, burritos, burgers, dry rub BBQ, Indian, Mediterranean, and sandwiches spring to mind, and that’s without turning the corner down Fillmore (I recommend Ali Baba’s for quick eats).

Also something worth looking out for are special beer events, most notably the Toronado Barleywine Festival, which takes over the bar in February.  Beer dinners are gaining popularity, and they’ll have brewer nights every other month or so.  Fun times, but also very crowded.

While you’re in the neighborhood…
Lucky 13 (GGBB), 2140 Market & Church
Healthy Spirits, 2299 15th St @ Castro (beer store only)