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Sample the worldly palate of B Restaurant & Bar’s Marjan Simovics

By: Brendan P. Bartholomew 01/03/13 6:26 PM
B Restaurant & Bar An airy, elegant atrium provides a fitting contrast to commanding views of architectural icons as diverse as the Contemporary Jewish Museum, historic St. Patrick Church and gleaming Marriott Marquis hotel. Order one of bar manager Marjan Simovics’ multifaceted drink creations and reflect again on the interplay between clean and complex elements. Originally from Hungary, Simovics started as a bar back in a small New England seafood restaurant in 2001. Read More

BarNotes app connects cocktail enthusiasts online

By: Rhys Alvarado 12/27/12 4:55 PM
The BarNotes app puts the crafty drinker in touch with a community of like-minded enthusiasts who introduce new takes on old classics. Users can like or comment on cocktails, suggest different portions, post variations and even create their own recipes. Curated cocktail lists cater to the holiday, game day or even time of day. Read More

Tradition pays homage to America’s history of bar culture

By: Rhys Alvarado 12/13/12 7:02 PM
Tradition This is a candlelit spot where brunette bartenders in denim collars and suspenders mix cocktails for experienced drinkers. The walls are adorned with vintage posters of Seagram’s 7, Four Roses bourbon and Cutty Sark. Brought to you by the owners of Bourbon and Branch, Rickhouse and Local Edition, Tradition looks back on American bar archetypes — the Irish, the speakeasy, the dive and the tiki. It also spent a spell as Mr. Lew’s before its current iteration. Read More

Beautifully confusing cocktails at Locanda

By: Rob Goszkowski 12/07/12 5:00 AM
Staff members at Locanda, part of Valencia Street’s flourishing restaurant corridor since it opened 19 months ago, have just sat down at the bar for their preshift meeting. Read More

The Knockout’s cocktail menu packs a punch

By: Alexis Terrazas 11/29/12 9:05 PM
Walk all the way down Mission Street and don’t stop until you see a beer-bellied, masked luchador downing a bottle of some feel-good. At that point, you will run into The Knockout. The spacious, lively tavern is famed for its Thursday night bingo, along with its diverse selection of bands and DJs. Bingo rules are simple: buy a drink, get a bingo card. Bartender Josh Yule doesn’t measure his ratios when making drinks — he eyeballs them. Read More

Iron & Gold turns divey joint into lively bar

By: Ben Marrone 11/18/12 8:34 PM
A few blocks south of Cesar Chavez Street, and a few doors up from San Francisco’s only gun shop, you can find a former dive bar wading into the craft cocktail scene. Iron & Gold, known as the Argus a year ago, has added salvaged wood paneling, stylish mining lights and several dozen bottles of specialty liquor to turn a dimly lit Mission hangout into a dimly lit Mission destination. Read More

Faraway tastes, local flavors shine at Chinatown's Li Po

By: Rhys Alvarado 11/15/12 7:25 PM
For a place that’s been around as long as the Golden Gate Bridge, nothing much besides the owner has changed in this Chinatown dive. Same Buddha shrine behind the bar. Same oversized lantern, frayed by the sands of time. Same murals of bonsai landscapes. A basement room is available to rent for private parties. On any given day, the bar attracts an early wave of tourists and an evening surge of neighborhood locals looking to catch a buzz. Read More

Comstock stays true to roots while serving creative cocktails

By: Donna Domino 11/08/12 7:40 PM
Built shortly after the 1906 earthquake and fire, this historic building has been a saloon since 1907. A plaque outside proudly proclaims it “one of the last of the Barbary Coast saloons — site of the infamous Billy Goat saloon operated by pigeon-toed Sal.” Bar manager Karri Cormican notes that it still has a white-tile spittoon trough that runs the length of the bar under customers’ feet. Read More

Qi’s cocktails channel serene philosophy

By: Rob Goszkowski 11/01/12 6:55 PM
It just might represent the new face of a South of Market beset by construction. Los Angeles-based interior designer Yasmine Farahani and the lounge’s owners spent three years renovating the space long occupied by Annie’s Social Club, a divey karaoke bar. Inside, you’ll find a chic interior carefully sculpted around the concept of four elements that make up qi, or the energy and balance of the universe. Read More

Take a page — or a sip — from Two Sisters Bar and Books

By: Alexis Terrazas 10/25/12 5:42 PM
This narrow and dimly lit tavern in Hayes Valley offers bibliophiles and connoisseurs of classic cocktails a chance to chat about literature over drinks. Its monthly book club, which meets the last Wednesday of every month, revolves around novels relating to either San Francisco or booze. And if you want access to the $5 specialty cocktail associated with said book club, you had best bring the book. Read More

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