ET,

Plenty of good options for whiskey and/or football between Caltrain and La Mar. PM me if I don't post a followup before then.

Will do, thanks.

ET,

Zero zero restaurant is a few blocks north from the train station and has one tv at the bar and a great whiskey selection and awesome craft cocktails.

Hard water is right next door to la mar and has a very expensive but insane selection of American whiskey. Check out the menu. No tv though, but you could easily kill a couple hours there and run up a very fun and hefty tab. If you decide to go there might want to get a res. not sure if they are open all day or close between lunch and 5.

21st amendment brew pub has great beer and a few TVs. Right next door is Nova, more of a traditional neighborhood bar with a number of TVs. This is a couple blocks east of train station.

Public house is a big nice bar at the ballpark with all kinds of stuff and lots of TVs. Across the street is a GIANT sports bar Pete's with its Mexican version Pedro's next door. This is pretty much right at the train station.

Hi-dive is maybe halfway from the train station to la mar and is a dive bar with one big tv right on the embarcadero looking out over the water.

Depending on how much time you have, I might hit up one of the other bars first, then hard water for an hour or two before dinner.

ET,

Other places that will come up if you're checking yelp around there with logical keywords for what you're looking for are zekes, momos, paragon, polo grounds, americano, marketbar, jillians. I don't recommend any of them for you.

Hard water closes from 130 to 5 I think, but definitely insane selection

Diablo,

Excellent recommendations, thank you!

Since I should be arriving around 12-1 I will first go to the public house so I can check out the end of all the early games (I'm second place on my spread league so I'll be sweating all the games). After the games are over I can walk to zero zero for lunch, the place looks awesome and somehow it didn't come up in my previous yelp searches. Since klwines is on the way I'll stop by for some whisky porn there. From there I may walk towards hard water which indeed looks like a great place for bourbon/rye drinking. Do they have a bar area where it's just first come first serve?

ET,

K&l is awesome but cask (alas closed Sunday) is where the real whiskey porn is at. Note that at k&l they have a little corner display cabinet by the cash register w a small handful of higher end stuff. Cask has a cabinet of stuff like that w some real crazy stuff.

Hard water has changed their seating system around a couple times, but last time I was there all seating was from one big pool. Get a res even if going just to drink. Opentable shows 5/515/545 available for 1 on Sunday, grab one!

PM me for some potential whiskey drinking, good chance I'll be in the area til about 230.

It may be good for my pocket that cask is not open on Sunday. The way I've been buying bottles lately I don't know if I could have the restrain not to drop a lot on money at cask.

I'll get a reservation at hard water, I think that will definitely be my last stop before dinner.

Check your PMs for potential early Sunday whisky drinking.

My wife works downtown - she went in late today, so we figured we'd get lunch at the Ferry Building. Went to Marketbar, and admittedly, we made a super tricky order: 1 beer, plate of shi****o peppers, a salad, and a bowl of chowder. Got the beer and the peppers, and ~40 mins later, we left, having not gotten anything else.

oT,

Kinda your fault for not going to Gott's.

Thumbs up for all of diablo's recommendations. On Sunday went to public house to watch the end of the morning games, then to zero zero where the drinks and food were great, them he pointed me to jillian's to watch the end of the afternoon games, and ended my drinking at hard water before having dinner at la mar. Had like 10 drinks total during the day and no hangover the day after, that's a successful day of drinking.

went there first, huge line, not enough time (so we thought)

so my lease is up in Chicago at the end of the summer and I've been thinking about where to move next and am casually considering san francisco. I work from home so it's important the the immediate area that I live in have a lot of cool stuff to do. as I understand things would be pretty expensive. What areas would you be looking at and what would you expect to pay for a 1br?

2k-3.7k for a 1br

sounds great thank you.

Hey guys- going to be in San fran for 2 nights at end of month with wife. Looking for some dinner recommendations and bars to hang out at. We are staying in union square. Money isnt an issue but would rather goto places that are unique experience than a top notch steak house. Thanks in advance

gary danko
masa's
chapeau

Danko is super disappointing now and has been for a while IMO.

Two more suggestions:

Coi is very good and creative. Good choice if you are into new ideas in food.

Acquerello is really underrated among all the great Italian places in SF. Much more classic style.

Rbk: masa's closed over a year ago and he couldn't get a res at GD that soon.

Potato: I don't totally agree re GD. The food isn't terribly creative, but execution is always solid and service is awesome. I was just there last week and had a really good experience. But it certainly isn't pushing any fine dining boundaries for sure. I disagree re: coi, I've been there a few times and think they just miss the mark on dishes too often trying to be overly creative. I'd send someone to saison, atelier crenn, benu, sons and daughters, commonwealth, alta and central kitchen before coi in terms of places doing creative stuff. Totally agree re: acquarello being awesome, though I prob wouldn't send someone there who's looking for something new/different. But it's great.

Plotty: what are you looking for? SF has all sorts of amazing restaurants and bars, and tons very close to you.

wow can't believe masa's closed. was it just too expensive? was one of the most creative meals I've had (thought it might've been better then French laundry).
disappointing if GD has really slipped that much in quality.
went there quite a few times when I lived up there and it was always outstanding.
not the most creative and menu rarely changed but the service and execution were always top notch.
the frog legs were phenomenal.

acquerello was pretty good but dunno guess I was just expecting more as I was a bit underwhelmed.

I never had anything less then an outstanding meal at chapeau.

but I would just go wherever el diablo suggests, his reviews are always 100% correct

Rbk,

I've been going to Danko for over a decade now and IMO the food and service has remained consistently excellent.

el D,
any idea why masa's closed?
also have you been to chapeau?

Thanks for the suggestions guys. Definitely gives me some good menus to dig thru. Would definitely be looking to try one of the more creative/unique to San Francisco spots.


Any thoughts on bars with good craft beer lists or whiskey options.

Plotty,

Of the creative/unique places I mentioned, I am particularly fond of Atelier Crenn and Commonwealth. Cotogna, Flour and Water, Delfina, SPQR and A16 are a few Italian places with a local twist. Lots of great sushi, seafood and Asian places. Lots of artisan Neapolitan pizza places. So for more recs it really just depends what you like.

Craft beer: Mikkeler Bar, Monk's Kettle, Church Key are a few. There are many more excellent beer bars and brew pubs.

Whiskey: Rickhouse, Hard Water, Nihon, 83 Proof are a few with great whiskey selections.

Quick TR from 3 days in SF with my wife at the end of March before a 4 night stay in Napa Valley. First time to SF for both of us, so we did plenty of touristy stuff (Fisherman's Pier, Alcatraz, Irish Coffee @ Buena Vista, Twin Peaks.)

Stayed at: Four Seasons. Dinners at: Acquerello, House of Prime Rib & La Folie. Lunch at Brenda's Soul Food. Brunch at: Top of the Mark (Intercontinental Hotel.)

Four Seasosns is right on Market St & was in reasonable walking distance to some cool things and central to take a cab anywhere. The bar is decent & service was good. The bartender let us in on the fact that the Marriott Marquis around the corner has Pliny the Elder on tap, so that was a plus!

I thought Aquerello was really good (risotto dish & veal dish both excellent,) House of Prime Rib was good other than not being seated for 30 mins after our reservation time & La Folie was excellent - the 2 owners acted as sommeliers and service was as good as the food.

Brenda's is outstanding if you like southern food. We had oyster po boys, biscuits & gravy, cheesy grits and more and all were really good - we spent the week after Christmas in New Orleans and were still impressed with the food here.

Really enjoyed brunch at Top of the Mark. We got a high top table that was the best seat in the house. The brunch was a big buffet with all sorts of food (carving station, raw bar, asian influenced foods, caviar bar) & great service (plenty of mimosa refills...) I highly recommend this place for a nice Sunday brunch.

I thought Fisherman's Pier was pretty touristy and probably wouldn't go back if I visited again. Overall, I enjoyed what I saw of the city and would certainly spend a weekend if I'm in the area again.