San Francisco bars with atmosphere

One block over from the Treasury on Sutter Street is Per Diem, a cozy brewhouse of brick and darkened corridors.  The Treasury may be the place for cocktails, but Per Diem is more of a beer house, albeit with the air of an English country manor. A sense of the kind of life one might have had could one have but finagled their way into any of the academic social clubs, as a janitor if not as an outright member. The bathrooms alone are glorious enough to retire in.

For most of the city’s history, LGBTQ patrons on the lookout for a bar and a partner had to go to windowless bars that opened on alleyways in Polk Gulch or the Tenderloin. That only started to change with the opening of the Twin Peaks Tavern. In the early 1970s, the tavern was bought by a lesbian couple specifically because of its street-facing, floor to ceiling windows. They wanted people walking by on the street to look inside and see patrons enjoying drinks, talking to each other, hanging out, acting, you know, normal. They wanted to remove the mystery of what went on in gay bars, and to let everyone – gay and straight – see and celebrate their neighbours. Twin Peaks Tavern may no longer be the Castro’s cornerstone, but it is the bar that changed the Castro a neighbourhood to ‘the gayborhood’.

From a balcony to a basement, the list of exquisite bars in hotels continues with the Fairmont’s Tonga Room & Hurricane Bar, a vintage tiki bar beneath one of the city’s most luxurious hotels. All that foliage, faux thunderstorms, and floating orchestras in this tribute to tropicalia makes the Tonga Room feel simultaneously technicolour and noir. Neither Carmen Miranda nor Gloria Swanson would appear out of place, toasting one another, afloat upon the sunken lagoon. Somewhat ironic, given the Fairmont’s location at the very top of Nob Hill, that the best place for a drink should be located under it.

The roar of the Jazz Age lingers on at Bourbon and Branch, a speakeasy-style bar in the Tenderloin. The bar’s atmosphere could best be described as mysterious, in keeping with the Prohibition-era vibe. (Alcohol was illegal in the United States from 1920 to 1933) But the B&B is not a by-the-number reproduction of 1920’s schtick. Patrons can rest easy at this speakeasy. No need to come attired as though en route to West Egg and another of Jay Gatsby’s to-dos. But please do observe the house rules, inspired by many of the era’s social mores. No cell phones, no photography, and please ‘speakeasy’. Which is to say, enjoy your conversations, but do keep the brouhaha to a minimum to avoid rousing the coppers to the gin joint in their midst.

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