Max continues to run down his trip to San Francisco as seen through the bottom of a beer glass. In order to keep momentum going we'll be running Max's travelogues of SF every other day or so. Unless, we don't. Stay tuned.
There are a MILLION beer bars in San Francisco, but you have to pick
and choose which bars you want to hit while you’re in my favorite
little city by the bay. On the 4th of July, I had to make a decision,
so we decided to make the trek down North Beach (pretty much the
Italian district in SF) and into Fisherman’s Wharf for the fireworks.
So seven of us set off around noon and sought out someFOOOOOOOOOOOOD
What better place to get some tasty grub than Rogue’s Public House,
which is pretty much a fancy way of saying a bar that primarily
features Rogue Ales. They have a beautiful outdoor patio and when we
arrived they had to unlock it just for us. No one else was there!
Perfect.Unfortunately for us, and the server, that was not the case for long.
Some of us got their Morimoto Imperial Pilsner thinking that, just
because it was a pilsner, it would be a great first beer for the day.
At 8.8% ABV this is not necessarily the case. I got one of their IPAs (I
know, shocker) that I can’t remember the name of for the life of me.
It was OK. The server just got waaaaay too busy so the food took
forever, and some of us didn’t even get out food until the others were
already finished. Oh, and the food was COLD! All in all this was not
the best experience that I’ve had at this particular location but I
used to go there all the time and this was the worst experience I’ve
had, for what it’s worth. I say give it a try, but be careful when
you go and when you order because they do not always staff as needed.
This particular trip I give Rogue a D grade, but overall I give them a
B. Worth checking out for sure.
We went to Kennedy’s next, but I’m going to skip this for now and go
to Jack’s in the Cannery first. My friend Ali G works there and with
82 beers on draft and a full liquor license I definitely recommend
this joint. They have kind of a crappy outdoor patio and it’s a little
too dark inside for my liking, but the baseball game was on TV and did
I mention that they have 82 DRAFT BEERS AND A FULL LIQUOR
LICENSE?!?!?! They also serve food but that’s not really what you go
to this bar for. Most of their beers are from California although
they do have a healthy selection of foreign beers on draft. We
covered the gambit of California IPAs and Stouts, everything from
Marin and Moylan’s beers to Racer 5 and down through to Ballast
Point’s Sculpin IPA. It was kinda funny too because there were only
ladies working this particular shift, so every time they needed a keg
changed they batted their eyes at me and promised me free booze. OK…
twist my arm! Service = A. Beer Line-up = B+. Food = ? (doesn’t
look great.) Location = D (Right in the heart of Fisherman’s Wharf.)
Overall = B+. You will not find too many locals here and it’s never
really tooooooo too busy.
KENNEDY’S! This place will forever hold a soft spot in my heart as I
worked there for over a year back when I was in my early twenties and
is a huge reason that I am as big of a beer nerd as I am now. They
have upped the amount of beers on tap from 33 to about 45 and Elana
Salzman is their new head bartender and has upgraded their beers from
good to damn good (still not quite great as their fearless leader,
Brahma, is still stuck in his ways.) So, let me give you the skinny
on Kennedy’s Irish Pub and Curry House. No, no, you heard me right.
Nice, quaint outdoor smoking patio, several fooseball tables, pool
tables, video games, a huge dining room complete with bar food and
good curry, 40–some-odd beers on tap, and a couple hundred in the
bottle. BOOM! And if you need a fleece sweatshirt at 10 pm like my
friend Jerren did, there is a gift shop just down the stairs (yes, part
of the same building.) I LOVE THIS PLACE! Like I said, it might have something to do with the fact that I worked there for so long and
still love most of the people that work there, but I really do think
that this place kicks much ass! Highly recommended. Beer = A-. Food
= A-. Ambiance = B+. Service = A. Overall = A+. DID I MENTION THAT
I LOOOOOOVE THIS PLACE?
Join me in the coming days when I review Toronado San Francisco,
Zeitgeist, and 21st Amendment. Shortly after, I will be straying from
the typical beer blog and covering one of the coolest cocktail bars
that I have ever been to, Blackbird, and a pretty cool punk bar called
Lucky 13 & Hemlock Tavern, as well as giving a brief overview of the
whole trip to San Francisco. You got a question? You know what to
do.
Until next time my beer loving brethren, have a beer for me.
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