San Francisco

[Derek]

Yeah, it was actually Marin that I was thinking about!

[Lackey]

Really close to San Quinton, which is cool. AND, Marin County is where the Too Close for Comfort spin-off the Ted Knight show was set!

[cannondale]

I'm doing a road trip in a couple weeks. We'll probably spend a night in San Fran if we can find something for a reasonable price.

What's their licensing like? Anyone know if I can take my daughter into a brewpub for dinner? With BeerByBart and Beermapping, I should be able to find something decent while we're doing touristy things.

We're probably heading back up the coast along hwy 1, so we'll miss most of the breweries. What's the best bottleshop recommendation so I can load up? Are any of the Trader Joe's or Whole Food's above par or should I head to a specialty store (Healthy Spirits, City Beer... somewhere with parking?)?

I'm looking forward to the Redwoods and the Oregon coast, but there's not much between Eureka and Newport.

21st amendment is great if you're downtown but better yet IMO, if you are checking out Golden State Park and Haight/Ashbury Magnolia is awesome and kid friendly for sure.
City Beer is easily the best beer store, if not the best place I've ever been. I think you can park right out front. And have a beer or two whilst shopping. Failing that, any Whole Foods I've been to in California is well stocked for sure.
There is a place along Highway 1 that we stopped at during happy hour and got some cheap, fresh oysters and cheap, fresh Lagunitas just West of Petaluma. I think this is it...http://www.nickscove.com/

This is great information, thanks. I'm tentatively scheduled to be in Petaluma for a couple days next month.

[Lackey]

This is great information, thanks. I'm tentatively scheduled to be in Petaluma for a couple days next month.

Make sure to take the short trip (10 or 15 minutes) up to Russian River in Santa Rosa while you're there!

[Derek]

I was looking forward to San Francisco, but I can't say I'm liking it. I know it's the end of tourist season and people are probably getting a little fed up, but I'm still a little shocked at the ignorance and general rudeness.

Cable cars aren't currently running from 3 to 7, but they still told us to 'wait for the next car'. After seeing nothing moving for some time, I walked down to the main ticket booth and got this info. WTF?

So we hopped on the San Francisco "Deluxe" sightseeing 'hop on, hop off'. Except the last bus actually left early (luckily we caught it), but it didn't stop at ANY of the other stops. It actually took a short cut from the 'tour' to offload us sooner (I was hoping to hop off by our hotel, rather than having another hour walk back). Moreover, after they said they ran from 9 am and we bought their 48hr multi-use ticket, we found out that the other tours didn't start until 10:30 am or later in the morning. But there's no refund unless you talk to the manager! Oh, and get seated quickly 'cause there's no warning when they'll take off... not even with a 3 year old on the roof. The manager will definitely be hearing from us.

Unfortunately City beer is closed on Monday's, and doesn't open until noon the rest of the week. Other than having an Anchor Steam with fish and chips at the Worf, I haven't checked out any of the beer scene here...

My general advice... avoid the tourist traps.

[Cass]

Downtown San Fran generally sucks. You need to head out into the neighbourhoods, Haight-Ashbury, Sunset, Mission, etc. to get nice and interesting stuff.

I recommend to anyone who asks me to not even stay in the hotel district (Union Square) as it's pretty awful. There are nice B&Bs in the 'hoods which make for a really nice experience.

Here's some places if you didn't catch it on the home page a while back:

http://www.bartowel.com/?p=2223

[Derek]

Yeah, we stayed in Japan town. We parked the car and used other transit, but it didn't work as well as I had hoped. Apparently when the cable cars are actually running, you can wait up to 3 hrs to get on the Hyde street car.

The Whole foods on 4th has really good beer selection (by Whole foods standards).

If you want to tour Anchor, you need a reservation and it can be up to 6 months in advance. I managed to get in to check out their gift shop and could have easily joined the after-tour sampling... but unfortunately the bar tender was too busy to actually sell anything.

Marin does a huge variety of brews, but didn't have all that many on tap. I'd definitely recommend it if you're driving north of the Golden Gate.

[cannondale]

This is great information, thanks. I'm tentatively scheduled to be in Petaluma for a couple days next month.

Make sure to take the short trip (10 or 15 minutes) up to Russian River in Santa Rosa while you're there!

I'd be staying at the hilton sonoma wine country which happens to be in santa rosa! Under 10 min. from russian river. The facility i'm visiting, according to google maps, is a 1 min. drive from lagunitas. Could be a great trip.

[TheSevenDuffs]

This is great information, thanks. I'm tentatively scheduled to be in Petaluma for a couple days next month.

Make sure to take the short trip (10 or 15 minutes) up to Russian River in Santa Rosa while you're there!

I'd be staying at the hilton sonoma wine country which happens to be in santa rosa! Under 10 min. from russian river. The facility i'm visiting, according to google maps, is a 1 min. drive from lagunitas. Could be a great trip.

I am so jealous...

[Derek]

This is great information, thanks. I'm tentatively scheduled to be in Petaluma for a couple days next month.

Make sure to take the short trip (10 or 15 minutes) up to Russian River in Santa Rosa while you're there!

I'd be staying at the hilton sonoma wine country which happens to be in santa rosa! Under 10 min. from russian river. The facility i'm visiting, according to google maps, is a 1 min. drive from lagunitas. Could be a great trip.

Bear Republic is just up 101 as well... and Moylan's is further down towards SF. It was tough not taking that route, but the old highway 1 along the coast was a hell of a drive.

[Cass]

After our trip to Mammoth and Truckee was closed it out in San Francisco, with a fucking epic pub-crawl over 36 hours:

Night 1:
1. Magnolia
2. Toronado
3. Zeitgeist
4. Sycamore
5. Shotwell's
6. Monk's Kettle

Night 2:
1. Magnolia Smokestack
2. Triple Voodoo
3. Brewcade
4. The Beer Hall
5. Cellarmaker
6. Mikkeller Bar

Recorded a podcast while down there, so stay tuned for more on S.F. in that!

[Cass]

This is crappy news, if it affects Magnolia long term:

http://www.bizjournals.com/sanfrancisco ... uptcy.html

[beerstodiscover]

Some highlights from a quick visit to San Fran

Cellarmaker Brewing - Everything I had there was top notch, loads of hazy IPAs
City Beer Store - Great bar/bottle shop. Extensive selection and knowledgeable staff. Must visit.
Mikkeller Bar San Francisco - Beer list organized by serving temperature. Need I say more?
Toronado - Legendary. Although I found the tap lists above more exciting.