San Francisco pub recommendations

by **rthomson** » Tue Feb 20, 2007 10:08 pm

In a few weeks my girlfriend and I will be heading directly from work to SeaTac airport to fly to a conference. We'll be arriving in San Francisco a little after 8pm and we'll be looking for a nice spot for dinner. Any recommendations for a friendly pub with good beer and food? Ideally, it'll have a nice malts list as well. We'll be staying in the Union Square neighborhood.

We're arriving on March 23, a Friday night, anyone up for a dram? It'd be great to meet some more forum members.

Cheers,
Ron

by **peergynt323** » Tue Feb 20, 2007 10:36 pm

O'Farrell and Mason. Johnny Foley's Irish Pub. Good food. Good beer. Decent whisky. If you want a better selection, head to Geary and Taylor, a place called SWIG. It gets crowded, but they have a lot of single malts.

by **The Fachan** » Tue Feb 20, 2007 11:22 pm

Ron,

Would love to join you for a dram but only get to San Fran about once a year. I do agree with Peergynt on Johnny Foleys, its a fantastic pub. Havn't been lucky enough to visit the rest.
There was a pic in Foleys of me with a wood chair on my shoulder pretending it was bagpipes (rather drunk), if its still PLEASE take it down and destroy it.

by **rthomson** » Wed Feb 21, 2007 2:35 am

Peergynt and Fachan, thank you for your suggestions. I took a look at Johnny Foley's website and it does look like a worthy destination. We'll likely be heading there and I'll keep an eye out for that photograph :lol:

Thanks again,

Ron

by **Deactivated Member** » Wed Feb 21, 2007 2:37 am

Be sure to get a scan....

by **WestVanDave** » Wed Feb 21, 2007 7:32 am

Hi Ron - I'm not up on all the places in San Fran - but have great memories of a little Irish Pub tucked in a back alley near Union Square... had a great chat with the bartender from South Africa who suggested that I check out The Ritz as they (then) had some prized Springbank 21... So after a few at the Irish Pub my wife and I trekked up the hill to the Ritz - where we were offered a "sample" of the Springbank 21 (well worth the hike)... We watched the sun set and delved into a few more - before having the Concierge suggest a restaurant and make a reservation on our behalf...at Bacar.

http://www.bacarsf.com/home.html

Now maybe all restaurants in SF are wonderful (we were never disappointed) - but having the Ritz make the reservation seems to add an "extra plush red carpet" effect...

The other spot worth the trek is Yoshi's... across the Bay in Oakland - if you need a Jazz fix... http://www.yoshis.com/

Cheers, Dave.

by **rthomson** » Sun Apr 01, 2007 5:05 am

Again, thank you for the recommendation. We stayed at a hotel that was in the same block of buildings as Foley's. That was a life saver as our flight was delayed and we arrived later than we had anticipated. We dropped our bags in our room and headed round the corner to Foley's. The hostess informed us that the kitchen was only open for another five minutes! We had a nice meal and several pints of Anchor Steam.

Fachan, you might have find some relief knowing that I saw no pictures of anyone playing the barstool bagpipes. However, a section of Foley's, "The Cellar", was closed all weekend and perhaps it still lurks in there :wink:

Cheers,
Ron