San Francisco

[Grimwell]

So, who lives there? I know a few people do, but not the full list. I'm going to be in town in May, and might want advice on a bar, and someone to share the round with. :)

[Samwise]

Me, although I'm going to be out of town for a couple of weeks in May.  What sort of bar you looking for?

[Selby]

I've got a good hamburger joint\bar and have been recommended a pretty decent brew house if you're ever in the neighborhood ;-)

[Yoru]

I used to live there, been about two years now, so you'll want to do some research if you try to hit these places up. No idea if they're still operating.

If you're into beer, Toronado (Lower Haight) is amazing. The Thirsty Bear is nice for a few beers and/or a meal if you're near the Moscone Center. The 21st Amendment was also decent, but not super high on my list. The Beach Chalet has a great ocean view when it's not foggy; they have a number of nice microbrews as well as great steaks if you can afford 'em.

Suppenkuche has excellent German food and German beer.

I used to hit up the Irish Bank a lot; good food and plenty of Guinness.

[Hoax]

All of those still exist, or did last time I checked though I don't know 21st Amendment & Suppenkuche so can't say on those.

I'm not quite in SF these days but its where I'm from and I'm not far.  May is a bad month though since its the end of the quarter and the weekend of the 14th I'll be gone so it just depends on when your going to be in town.

[Grimwell]

I'll be in town for a few days each week, for the foreseeable future.

I have me a new vocation, you won't be excited - but I'll share more about that later.

Right now it's focusing on living quarters and watering holes. :)

[Hoax]

Well post here what you need to know or pm me if you need info.  Not only was I born and raised in SF but I worked in SF real estate for much of the last 5 years.

[LK]

Haight St. is worth experiencing once.

[pxib]

For San Francisco fans: Mount a camera to the front of a streetcar heading towards the Ferry Building...

...a few days before the earthquake and fire in 1906 (also one of the oldest surviving pieces of 30mm film.)

...99 years later (with the stoplights edited out)

[Morfiend]

My best friend lives there, and we went to see him 2 weeks ago. A few cool places that he took us.

Muraccis Japanese curry. Amazing. Its in between downtown and chinatown. Really good. Get the Chicken Katsu Curry.

Zietgiest. Interesting bar. Its a cyclist bar, and the staff's thing was to be rude to everyone. But overall a friendly place. Huge outdoor area.

Kilowatt. Fun little dive bar with darts and pool and some good old metal music like Motorhead.

If you want some one to give you some more ideas I can try to get my friend to come post in this thread. Oh yeah, it would help if I knew what type of bars you liked.

[Ingmar]

San Francisco proper, or just the general vicinity?

[Quinton]

Muraccis Japanese curry. Amazing. Its in between downtown and chinatown. Really good. Get the Chicken Katsu Curry.

Wow, that looks awesome.  They just opened up a second location in Los Altos -- I'll have to check that out.

[Samwise]

Oh yeah, it would help if I knew what type of bars you liked.

I asked this too, but he's being uncooperative.    Asking for a good bar is about as open-ended a question as asking for a good restaurant.  It's really hard to give a good recommendation without a clue as to what sort of drinks you drink and what sort of atmosphere you like while you're drinking.

My favorite, BTW, is the Broken Record.  Modest beer selection, massive whiskey selection, and killer food.  And sometimes a Jackie Chan movie.

[Grimwell]

Sorry, I was remodeling my kitchen for the weekend and didn't have time to come back and give a specific answer to the bars question.

I'd like a place where I can say "Bring me an old fashioned." and the bartender smiles knowingly and gets it done. Not some trendy place where I can people watch the meat market, and not some cyclists bar where I'm going to stick out as the only fucker who does not exercise and ride bikes like a madman. I also don't need help finding dives, they sing to me as I happen by... and I really don't need a true drinking hole.

[Teleku]

Sorry, I was remodeling my kitchen for the weekend and didn't have time to come back and give a specific answer to the bars question.

I'd like a place where I can say "Bring me an old fashioned." and the bartender smiles knowingly and gets it done. Not some trendy place where I can people watch the meat market, and not some cyclists bar where I'm going to stick out as the only fucker who does not exercise and ride bikes like a madman. I also don't need help finding dives, they sing to me as I happen by... and I really don't need a true drinking hole.

The Badlands 

[Samwise]

I'd like a place where I can say "Bring me an old fashioned." and the bartender smiles knowingly and gets it done.

I haven't been there yet, but try Alembic.  It's supposed to be one of the best places for cocktails in the city.

I've also had good luck with cocktails at Vesuvio and Top of the Mark.  I think Vesuvio might have the sort of atmosphere you're looking for; it's not a dive or a hole, but it's not pretentious either.

[Yoru]

Sorry, I was remodeling my kitchen for the weekend and didn't have time to come back and give a specific answer to the bars question.

I'd like a place where I can say "Bring me an old fashioned." and the bartender smiles knowingly and gets it done. Not some trendy place where I can people watch the meat market, and not some cyclists bar where I'm going to stick out as the only fucker who does not exercise and ride bikes like a madman. I also don't need help finding dives, they sing to me as I happen by... and I really don't need a true drinking hole.

Perhaps the Carnelian Room's Lounge?

[Logik]

I'd like a place where I can say "Bring me an old fashioned." and the bartender smiles knowingly and gets it done.

A few places off the top of my head: Bourbon and Branch, Alembic, Absinthe, and maybe Whiskey Thieves (uhm, if you're into great whiskey and pbr).

[Fraeg]

don't make the mistake of neglecting east bay while you are out there.   Yeah yeah S.F. is the shit, however having lived in Rockridge, Oakland, and Berkeley (yeah I got around),  I can say they all have a hell of a lot to offer.

Just my plug :)

either way enjoy your time in CA

[Grimwell]

Oakland scares me.

[trias_e]

Reasonably so, admittedly.  But Berkeley is worth going to at least.  And if you play poker, go to the Oaks Card Club.  Awesome place.

[Fraeg]

Oakland scares me.

Oakland gets a bad rep, sure there are some "don't fucking go here after dark" areas, but around Lake Merritt things are pretty nice, the Rockridge/Oakland interface area has some cool stuff.

Eddie Izzard said it best when he talked about people in SF just calling it "the city".  Having lived in the East Bay I got fed up with the attitude of "if it doesn't happen in *the city* then it didn't happen, or wasn't worth going to"

anyways enjoy CA

[Samwise]

Having lived in the East Bay I got fed up with the attitude of "if it doesn't happen in *the city* then it didn't happen, or wasn't worth going to"

Having lived in the East Bay for several years I finally got fed up with the East Bay and moved back to The City.    There is some cool stuff in the East Bay, but it's spread out over a relatively wide area and not well connected by transit.

The area around the Berkeley campus has a fairly high density of stuff to do, though, and BART goes right there, passing safely underneath Oakland's scariest bits.  Even as an SF native I have to say Telegraph Ave is generally superior to Haight St and very worth checking out if you want to see real live hippies.

[Musashi]

Didn't Jerry Brown gentrify the shit out of Oaktown?  I don't really think it's been that bad since like, at least the 90's.  It's still a city with bad neighborhoods.  But you can just as easily get your ass kicked in San Francisco if you want to be dumb.

[Samwise]

Oakland gets a bad rap because its bad neighborhoods are bigger (if not necessarily badder), and more visible (unlike say Hunter's Point which is tucked off safely in a corner that you won't stumble across by accident).  I could look up crime statistics for various areas to be able to make a more authoritative statement, but I try not to know exactly how dangerous the neighborhoods I walk through at night are are because fear is the mind-killer.

[Teleku]

There are a lot of amazing bars and restaurants in Oakland now.  It is a wonderful place to go eat/drink.  Lots of really cool and original places.  The thing with Oakland is that there are a lot of very nice area's now, since its just in too good of a location for wealth not to move in on it.  However, there are also a lot of really horrible area's that remain.  Very bad ghetto's.  But in general, if your just going out to the cool bars and restaurants, your not going to be walking into the combat zones.  Basically, any of the places that have a BART stop in Oakland are fine (that includes Rockridge, which is a wonderful area.  You need to go to Barclay's if you want great beer).  Except for McCarther.  That's a shit hole, and incidentally, my nearest BART stop.     But at least from there you can hop on the free shuttle to the magical land of Emeryville!

In Berkeley the Triple Rock and Jupiters are two very good Brew pubs, both located right near the Berkeley BART.

[Samwise]

Oh hey, pertinent to this thread.  This week's SF Weekly has a roundup of SF happy hours written by my uncle, who is something of an expert on these things.

http://www.sfweekly.com/2010-04-28/news/the-happiest-hours/