Golden Gate Beer Bars

Site header & photo by Troy McClure SF, header art by Andy Lowlife.

The Golden Gate Bridge, Golden Gate Park, AT&T Park, the Academy of Sciences, the Curran Theater, Bloomingdale’s, Chinatown, cable cars… I could go on and on about Things You Should Do in San Francisco.

But I won’t.  That’s plenty well covered elsewhere.

This site is to help you find and consume beer the best beer San Francisco and the Bay Area have to offer.

There are many general resources one can use (listed on the sidebar), but if you’re unfamiliar with the various beer destinations in the Bay Area, it’s nearly impossible to tell what to expect when you get to one.  If you’re looking for a place to have an anniversary dinner, you won’t want to go to a dive like Toronado.  If you and your old high school buddies want to get hammered, you won’t want to go upscale at Monk’s Kettle.  I want to help you, dear reader, find the right beer bar for your mood.  If you want to drink a Pliny the Elder while a dog sleeps on your foot and the Kills blast over the sound system, I will get you there.  If you want a nice sit-down dinner with organic, locally-produced foods and recommended beer pairings, I will get you there as well.

It should be noted that in what seems to be a departure from the rest of the country, San Francisco has many bars that are just plain bars.  No food, no waitresses, and no kids allowed.  I’ll make it a point to mention what each place is like in that regard, but if you’re not reading too closely, don’t assume you can grab dinner or bring your kid to any given place.  As to the former, you’re almost always able to grab a burrito/slice of pizza/carton of Chinese/etc to go and bring it to the bar if they don’t serve food.

If you’ll notice, this blog is about drinking beer. Keeping this in mind, I’ve included public transit information and a Google Map of the location in every post. Google Maps has a “Public Transit” option in the left column that works very well in San Francisco. It’ll tell you exactly where you can catch a bus/train, where to transfer, where to get off, and how much it’ll cost you, so you don’t have to drive drunk (it’s a big enough pain in the ass to drive here sober, anyway). Plus, cabs (of which there are five) are fairly pricey around here, so taking Muni or BART will save you some beer money.

I’ve also added a “While you’re in the neighborhood” section at the bottom of each post. If it turns out you’re not really digging the place you’re at, there might somewhere within a few blocks worth a looksee, and I’ll list them here.  They might not be fantastic beer bars (and I might not consider them worthy enough of a proper post) but I won’t recommend anything that has nothing to offer a beer lover.

Contact:

I’m on Gmail, Google Talk, and AIM as “troymccluresf.”