Distillations: Closing time in the era of COVID-19 and ‘social distancing’

Mar 20, 2020 | Eating Now, Featured, Front Page, Instagram, Mobile, Newsletter, Today's Mission, Topics

A few years ago, in a Mission bar that no longer exists, the bartender friend of mine introduced...

Distillations: Zeitgeist is a timeless wonder. Try not to get 86ed.

Mar 6, 2020 | Eating Now, Featured, Front Page, Instagram, Mobile, Newsletter, Today's Mission, Topics

My most significant memory in Zeitgeist is of a group of people rejecting it. Some time ago,...

Distillations: Memories of Amnesia — a valediction

Feb 21, 2020 | Eating Now, Featured, Front Page, Instagram, Mobile, Newsletter, Today's Mission, Topics

If asked how Amnesia has changed in all the years I’ve known it, I’d be hard pressed to think of a...

Distillations: Pi Bar is not an irrational place

Feb 7, 2020 | Eating Now, Featured, Front Page, Instagram, Mobile, Newsletter, Today's Mission, Topics

I’d been saving my visit to the Pi Bar on Valencia between 25th and 26th for Nicole, because...

Distillations: Life’s off the hook at The Phone Booth

Jan 24, 2020 | Eating Now, Featured, Front Page, Mobile, Today's Mission, Topics

I walked into The Phone Booth on South Van Ness and 25th on a dark and cold night, expecting it to...

Distillations: Beer Nerds is a box, with beer, pizza — and company. And, sometimes, that’s all you need.

Jan 10, 2020 | Eating Now, Featured, Front Page, Inequality, Mobile, Newsletter, Today's Mission, Topics

It was a rainy night and I’d been stood up by a super-extrovert, the kind of high-powered people...

Distillations: Cava22 a warm respite during dark days

Dec 27, 2019 | Eating Now, Featured, Front Page, Instagram, Mobile, Newsletter, Today's Mission, Topics

I spent time in the Mission the night Obama was elected. Oh man, that was a festivity. People...

Distillations: Casanova Lounge is authentically weird. And that’s a high compliment.

Dec 13, 2019 | Eating Now, Featured, Front Page, Instagram, Mobile, Newsletter, Today's Mission, Topics

“My brother said something interesting,” Anselm told me as his Casanova Lounge drink arrived. “He...

Distillations: The Latin American Club may be the Mission’s best ‘chill bar’

Nov 29, 2019 | Eating Now, Featured, Front Page, Instagram, Mobile, Newsletter, Restaurant Reviews, Today's Mission, Topics

The bartender at the Latin American Club was in the process of making a long line of nearly 10...

Distillations: Big Rec Tap Room a study in contradictions. With beer.

Nov 15, 2019 | Eating Now, Featured, Front Page, Instagram, Mobile, Newsletter, Restaurant Reviews, Today's Mission, Topics

Ihad expected the Big Rec Tap Room at 24th and Treat streets to be big. An amateur mistake. Both...

Distillations: Alone together at Lolinda … in the dark

Nov 1, 2019 | Eating Now, Featured, Front Page, Inequality, Mobile, Newsletter, Restaurant Reviews, Today's Mission, Topics

We were in Lolinda, talking about loneliness. “I’m told that I lack a sense of emotional object...

Distillations: Virgil’s Sea Room is a bar that won’t sink itself

Oct 25, 2019 | Eating Now, Featured, Front Page, Mobile, Newsletter, Restaurant Reviews, Today's Mission, Topics

We ended up having an especially intense conversation, so maybe it was for the best that we were...

Distillations: Barrel Proof is an odd hybrid, with dozens of TVs … and super high-end cocktails. And it works. Sorta.

Oct 11, 2019 | Eating Now, Featured, Front Page, Instagram, Mobile, Newsletter, Restaurant Reviews, Today's Mission, Topics

“Hey,” I said, before he went to make it. “So, I’m trying to figure this place out, and here’s the story I’m telling myself about it. This bar was founded by two guys, business partners, and one of them wanted to own a sports bar that would show all the other sports bars up, and the other guy wanted a chill-but-hip whiskey cocktail lounge. And instead of not making a bar together they just each did what they wanted to do, and this is the result.”

The bartender thought about it. “I like that story,” he finally said.