The Saloon on Grant Avenue has been pouring since 1861, and the story told inside is that it survived the 1906 fire because the neighborhood put the flames out with buckets to save the whiskey. Twelve old rooms, ranked by age and by how much of the original fittings are still in place.
Several of these are cash friendly and card grudging. All of them are better before eight, when you can still hear the bartender.
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1
The Saloon
San Francisco's oldest bar, on Grant Avenue since 1861, with live blues nightly.
1232 Grant Ave, San Francisco, CA 94133 Full write-up → -
2
Old Ship Saloon
A Jackson Square saloon on a Barbary Coast site dating to the 1850s.
Barbary Coast history and a heavy wooden bar. A solid downtown stop.
298 Pacific Ave, San Francisco, CA 94111 Full write-up → -
3
Elixir
A Mission corner saloon on a site that's held a bar since 1858.
One of the oldest saloon spaces in the city.
3200 16th Street, San Francisco, CA 94103 Full write-up → -
4
Comstock Saloon
A restored 1907 Barbary Coast saloon with a pre-Prohibition cocktail list.
Order the Pisco Punch. Live jazz and a sawdust floor.
155 Columbus Avenue, San Francisco, CA 94133 Full write-up → -
5
House of Shields
A 1908 SoMa saloon with no clocks, where Warren Harding reportedly had his last drink.
Old fixtures, no clocks, a long mahogany bar. A classic downtown saloon.
39 New Montgomery Street, San Francisco, CA 94105 Full write-up → -
6
Tosca Cafe
A 1919 North Beach institution known for its coffee-free house cappuccino.
Order the house cappuccino: brandy, chocolate, steamed milk, no coffee.
242 Columbus Ave, San Francisco, CA 94133 Full write-up → -
7
Buena Vista Cafe
The bar that brought Irish coffee to America, perfected here in 1952.
Get an Irish coffee at the cable-car turnaround. They pour about 2,000 a day.
2765 Hyde Street, San Francisco, CA 94109 Full write-up → -
8
Vesuvio Cafe
The North Beach bar where the Beats drank, across from City Lights since 1948.
Kerouac's bar. Order The Jack Kerouac and take a window upstairs.
255 Columbus Ave, San Francisco, CA 94133 Full write-up → -
9
Tonga Room
A 1945 tiki bar in the Fairmont basement with an indoor lagoon and rainstorms.
Mai Tais by the lagoon while a band plays on a floating barge. It "rains" every 20 minutes.
950 Mason St, San Francisco, CA 94108 (Fairmont Hotel) Full write-up → -
10
Li Po Cocktail Lounge
The 1937 Chinatown dive famous for its secret-recipe Chinese Mai Tai.
916 Grant Avenue, San Francisco, CA 94108 Full write-up → -
11
Pop’s Bar
A Mission dive on 24th and York, a Legacy Business with block history back to 1937.
Pool table, photo booth, jukebox. Open 6am to 2am.
2800 24th Street, San Francisco, CA 94110 Full write-up → -
12
Red’s Place
Bills itself as the oldest bar in Chinatown.
672 Jackson Street, San Francisco, CA 94133 Full write-up →
Last checked August 17, 2026
