San Francisco keeps its best bars small and unmarked. Behind a Linden Street door. Down the stairs from Market Street. Upstairs above a restaurant in North Beach. Most of them have names but not signs.
Russian Hill · 1113 Polk St, San Francisco, CA 94109, USA
A speakeasy bar in Russian Hill where every cocktail is an original recipe built around Chinese baijiu and Asian regional ingredients, all inspired by the Journey to the West folktale. Walk-in only, password required: f…
Hayes Valley · 292 Linden St, San Francisco, CA 94102, USA
Eight seats, a door on Linden Street that most people walk past, and no reservations, the setup is part of the draw. The cocktails build from the farmers' market: celery root with green Chartreuse in the Root of It, str…
SoMa · 1148 Mission St, San Francisco, CA 94103, USA
Every drink at this 12-seat hideaway inside Merchant Roots contains at least eight ingredients, the house Fernet-and-Coke riff uses nocino from a staff member's backyard walnut tree, foraged spruce tips, and a spritz of…
SoMa · 10 Annie St, San Francisco, CA 94103, USA
Art Deco lamps, a glowing sign that still reads "DANCING COCKTAILS ENTERTAINMENT," and nightly jazz anchor the basement of the Monadnock Building, where a speakeasy first opened in the 1930s. The whiskey program spans r…
Financial District · 691 Market St, San Francisco, CA 94105, USA
Down the stairs from Market Street, beneath the Hearst Building, sits a subterranean cocktail lounge lined with vintage press clippings and printing equipment from SF's newspaper era. Live jazz (jump blues and swing fro…
North Beach · 644 Broadway, San Francisco, CA 94133, USA
A Shanghai-inspired cocktail bar on the second floor above China Live on Broadway (follow the bats to the gold door) with an intimate room and a cocktail list that takes Scotch as seriously as it takes house originals. …
North Beach · 256 Columbus Ave, San Francisco, CA 94133, USA
A North Beach cocktail bar styled as a Barbary Coast apothecary, with staff in leather smocks and cocktails listed as 'remedies' on a menu built around obscure spirits and period techniques. Reservations are standard; t…
North Beach · 28 Waverly Pl, San Francisco, CA 94108, USA
An upstairs lounge rotating its cocktail menu through the Chinese Agrarian calendar. Twelve seasonal chapters, each with its own spirits and flavor profile, so what you drank last month doesn’t exist this week. Natural …