San Francisco Cocktail Bars
Historic Lounges and Watering Holes in San Francisco
Visitors to San Francisco can follow a historic route of bars and soak up turn-of-the-last-century ambiance over classic cocktails.
San Francisco is a city filled with historic bars, some of which have been around since city’s post gold rush (1848), pre-earthquake (1906) party years. In those days, the men of San Francisco left their offices and hit a string of bars around Market, Kearny and Sutter known as the cocktail route.
Pied Piper Bar
The Palace Hotel opened its doors in 1875. Inside the Palace is the Pied Piper Bar. Sitting amidst the elegant, wood paneling and under the mural by illustrator Maxfield Parrish, it’s possible to imagine eating lunch with Mark Twain, who worked across the street, or receiving a bottle of fine wine from the bartender when the Palace caught fire after the 1906 earthquake.
Lotta’s Fountain
At the intersection of Market, Geary and Kearny is a bizarre (some say hideous) public drinking fountain given to the city in 1875 by gold rush era performer and Broadway star Charlotte “Lotta” Crabtree. Lotta’s Fountain is the oldest surviving landmark in San Francisco. After the quake it served as a message center. To this day, survivors of the disaster mark the moment of the earthquake by returning each year on April 18th at 5:13 a.m.
Seasons Bar
Just down Market from Lotta’s Fountain is the Four Seasons Hotel. While there is nothing historic about the Seasons Bar, it is on the traditional route, the drinks are perfection, and there is a never-ending supply of olives and wasabi-covered peanuts.
Bars of the St. Francis Hotel
A turn onto Powell follows the cable cars up to the St. Francis hotel, a meeting place since it opened in 1904. Actor John Barrymore (Drew’s grandfather) often hit the local bars after playing theaters like the Orpheum. A guest at the Palace when the earthquake hit, the chaos didn’t prevent Barrymore from retiring to his room to sleep it off (or so claims the hotel’s website). The hotel has two bars, Caruso’s in the lobby and the Oak Room.
Nob Hill Mansions
The Occidental Hotel and Reception Salon was where everyone on the cocktail route began or ended their evening, as well as where legendary bartender Jerry Thomas worked while in town. The Occidental is long gone, but whereas the cocktail routers would return to Nob Hill to their wives, today a journey to Nob Hill takes you to three legendary hotels.
Top of the Mark
Mark Hopkins was the founder of the Central Pacific railroad. Where his mansion used to be is the Mark Hopkins hotel, home of the Top of the Mark. With a phenomenal view of San Francisco and a one hundred-martini menu, it is the perfect place to watch the sun go down and the fog roll in.
Laurel Court
Across the street is the 1907 Fairmont hotel. While many tourists head to the kitchy Tonga Room, those who like a more refined experience sink down in a couch at the Laurel Court where they can order classic cocktails like the Sazarac or the Martinez and check out the murals on the walls of this former hotel dining room.
Big 4 Restaurant
Just down California Street is a hotel named for another of San Francisco’s “big four” railroad barons, C.P. Huntington. The Big 4 Restaurant in the Huntington Hotel is dark and moody with haunting portraits, a piano player, and some of the best bar food around. If there is anywhere you are going to find San Francisco’s ghosts, this is it.
Sources
Caughey, John W. California: A Remarkable State’s Life History. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1970
Wells, Evelyn. Champagne Days of San Francisco. NY: D Appleton Century Company, 1939.
