| The
Quest for the Holy Grain - Best Beer Bars |
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Hollingshead's Delicatessen OK, so it's one of those a-bit-hard-to-find places. Just drive north on Main Street off the 5 for about a mile - go a bit past Mainplace Shopping Center...the mall, moron.... Look for Duke's Hamburgers on the left and turn in to the nondescript strip mallaza behind it. Voila! Hollingshead's; a beer Oasis with football smack to boot. At two store-fronts wide, Hollingshead's is: (1) a sandwich deli, with about fifty combinations of meats, cheeses and rolls - nothin' fancy but great to absorb brews.
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Lucky Baldwin's British Pub and Cafe In the heart of Old Town Pasadena, Lucky Baldwin's fancies itself to be a British pub and cafe. There's British pub food - yes - but the 63 taps and 150+ different bottles of beer are heavily Belgian (and that's a good thing). But don't even go there for the Belgians; go there for the Craftsman Brewery beers (from Pasadena) which seem to turn up and turn over often. During our most recent visit we had a Craftsman Fireworks saison (6.8% and a bit heavier than a traditional saison) and a Craftsman Triple with white sage (9% and sage up-front). Lucky Baldwin's is divided into a number of rooms that are dimly lit and pub-loud; pleasant outside seating provides a view of the passing crowd. Several TVs are usually turned to soccer matches. This place is worthy of return visits.
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Tornado Pub You are in the Haight and you are in the 21 st century... until you cross the threshold of the Tornado Pub . Inside it wants to be the 60s. If I lived in San Francisco this would be my home bar. There is no food, no macros. There is only good beer and lots of it. Sandwiched between a carry out pizza hovel and a great sausage sandwich hole-in-the-wall, you don't have to go far for sustenance in case you want to spend some time here. And many people do. This is not your happy hour-on-the-way-somewhere-else crowd. The Tornado feels more like part of your life's destination. It is an alcoholic portal-of-entry to the 60s. The crowd feels laid back, very unlike the intense San Francisco that cares way too much for its liberal causes, man. I mean...this place is cool. The choice of beers...it has to be 40 or more taps...is out of sight, man, and some of the offerings are primo, especially the Russian River beers, we can't get back east. It's the kind of place you might drop in to find out what condition your condition is in. The décor is simple. Dark and beer. Beer taps adorn the walls and intrude on the ceiling. A scattered deer trophy keeps an eye on the denizen drinkers. Did that deer just wink at me, man? Far out. The bar runs from the door to the walk-in refrigerator. Opposite the bar is a line of tables against the wall that sit four people each on raised stools. It is a worn and comfortable place. The patrons were all born in the wrong decade; they are flower children at heart. The clothes are contemporary slovenly. No one was dressed to impress here, no one was returning from a high pressure anything. There were no fashionably dressed men or women sitting anywhere with their legs crossed. The Tornado is the release valve. And great beers are the release. I wish I'd taken better notes, dear reader, but it was an eastern Questor's nirvana of hard to get West Coast beers. There were four Russian Rivers on tap and with a selection of Moonlights, Lagunitas, and lesser known “I wish they all could be California beers” beers. Some Deschutes and a nice array of German wheats and beers of most styles, although stouts and porters were under represented for the most part. I enjoyed the RRs and fell prey to some repeats I had only had in bottles, like Aventinus, hardly a West Coast beer. All the beers were served by a friendly and knowledgeable but minimally so beertender, who could have been extolling the virutes of Columbian or hydroponic weed. I think he just returned from a love-in; just the right level of personable. A list of beers is available at http://www.toronado.com/draft.htm but consider it representative rather than up-to-date. This place is groovy and it just may be San Fran's best beer bar.
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Goat Hill Tavern One word: dive.
Bros bar for locals. We were here in the early afternoon on a Monday - nobody around except Monty working the bar. All was quiet. No food this early, but we grabbed a burrito from BC Broiler up the block and brought it back to enjoy with some new beers - Goat Hill's own pale ale (passable) and a high gravity malt-bomb ale from Oceanside Brewing Company (passable +). The bar's 141 taps include several multiple taps of the usual fizzy yellow beers, so maybe your choices are really down to about 100. Nice collection of old tap handles screwed into the rafters.
We visited Goat Hill in the early evening several years ago - the place was packed and loud but still enjoyable, in a packed and loud sort of way. These days: not so much, at least as far as the enjoyability part goes mature Questor-wise speaking. If you're looking for a beer experience but can't afford to make bail, show up during early-bird special hours and the leave the dark times to the bros.
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Yard House Another beer bar chain with 25 locations in nine states, about half of which are in Southern California. We ate and drank at the Irvine restaurant in the Spectrum Center. The food was typical American chain restaurant stuff. With about 170 beers on tap there was something for everyone but nothing unusual worth seeking out. The kegs and beer lines were visible through a long wall of windows - an impressive sight and nice backdrop (if you're a beer geek). The beer list included several beer blends, and there was a decent wine and liquor selection as well. This is a good place to take the family, meet friends, or for an office lunch.
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Musso and Frank Grill If you're going to Hollywood looking for movie stars, start here, at the bar. Musso and Frank's is classic mid-20th century adult: dark wood, faded wallpaper, grilled liver, shrimp cocktails, and the like; waiters and bartenders are attentive and discreet and include three guys named Manny. The beer? Let's just say you can probably get any beer they sell at a well-stocked convenience store, but you're not here to be a beer snob. So settle into the Mickey Rooney booth, order a Newcastle with the corned beef hash platter, and enjoy the show. Another great place to have a beer, and you're gonna like it regardless of the label.
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Gold Dust Lounge
247 Powell St San Francisco, CA 94102 (415) 397-1695
I steered some friends to the Gold Dust and said. “Let’s go in here.” A semi-respectable native woman of some vintage turned without prompting and said, “We call it the toilet.” It has the best beer selection in the Union Square area. Ten great European taps and a good selection of bottles make this a must stop for a Questor in Gaytown.
It was decorated by a whore with no taste at all...where were the gays when we needed them? Red velvet furniture, couches, and booths; nude paintings, cherubs on the ceiling and a clientele that is ready to go. Entertaining bartenders who ignite lemon rinds and fling bottle caps 90 mph make this a must stop. Everybody needs to use the toilet sooner or later.
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Lefty O'Doul's
San Francisco sports photos and a dinner buffet overshadow the beer and miserable décor of this establishment. Dark and dingy with a piano surrounded by stools you can find Big Daddy, Fat Tire, Bitburger, Guinness and many other tasty beers struggling to outsell the Bud trio. The barmaids are foreign - the bartenders could be gay, but who is definitely not in San Francisco? You might find a beer you’ve never seen here; we’re told the taps rotate somewhat. Come on in an argue Lefty vs. Barry. No contest.
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Little Prague Czech please! The best selection of Czech beers in all of Davis is found in this Slavic treasure on G street. Good drafts in third, half and full liters for sale with a selection of some harder- to-come-by bottled beers from the Czech Republic. Good soups and desserts made by a goddess, for Questors with plummeting blood sugar, and decent food round out the menu An unusual happy hour featuring any size and brand of beer for $3 provides some nice opportunities for the cost- conscious Questor. Czech is spoken here and the clientele and waitstaff make you think you could be in Prague. The only thing missing is those Slavic gams with the to-die-for calves sculpted by climbing those stony winding streets, and punishing hills, of the real Prague.
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Dawson's If you're a Questor and you find yourself in Dixon, look for Dawson's where Heather sets them up and local folk knock them down. Three beers on tap, Bud, Bud Light and Sierra Nevada assure you'll score few new beers here and the seven bottled beers reenforce the point with Heineken being the exotic one. But Dixon is not big and this is one of the few places where you get to urinate in a trough with constantly running water. They say 80% of California's water goes to irrigation; if Dawson's is any clue, the other 20% goes to flushing. But in Dixon, it's gotta be Dawson's. Tell Heather the cute one says hi.
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Froggy's
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