The Bar Towel

Heading over to San Fransisco next month...looks like a lot of good suggestions for the city on this thread but I'm renting a car and heading up north for a couple days hitting Lagunitas, Russian River and Bear Republic...wondering if anybody's been up that way (sounds like you have Cass) and if I'm missing something or if you have any recommendations of the best place for an overnight stay? (I'm thinking Russian River because of their brewpubs rep and the fact Pliny the Younger should be available).

Lackey wrote:Heading over to San Fransisco next month...looks like a lot of good suggestions for the city on this thread but I'm renting a car and heading up north for a couple days hitting Lagunitas, Russian River and Bear Republic...wondering if anybody's been up that way (sounds like you have Cass) and if I'm missing something or if you have any recommendations of the best place for an overnight stay? (I'm thinking Russian River because of their brewpubs rep and the fact Pliny the Younger should be available).

I have. I drove up highway 1 through Bodega Bay and along the Russian River to Santa Rosa and back down. However, I camped in the state parks.

Russian River was awesome - I had the full beer sampler for lunch. I was a bit grubby after camping though

I had a few hours to kill in SF recently on a layover, so (using the excellent advice in this thread) I headed to Magnolia in Haight Ashbury. Great time. Terrific brewpub with five cask beers, great staff, interesting food. As has been pointed out, the beers are in the English style, rather than west coast. Very interesting area to walk around as well, as I'm sure most know. The BART makes it pretty straightforward to get to central SF from the airport. Highly recommended.

but takes 3 hours from downtown to get to RR in Santa Rosa

It takes an hour and a quarter from SF up to Santa Ross and I would highly recommend an overnight trip up there. Stop at Lagunitas on the way up too. If you have a little more time take Highway 1 along the coast on the way
back.

My favs in SF were Magnolia and Tornado. Tornado is the best dive bar I've been to and seems to have frequent and long happy hours as I was paying $3.25 a pint whenever I was in there. Big selection of RR if you can't make the tip to the brewpub.

Anything new in San Fran? Heading down on Friday

I'll add an update to the post since I was just there last week!

There's a new brewpub in SF called Social Kitchen & Brewery. It's at 1326 9th Avenue in the Inner Sunset neighbourhood.

I remember the space from visiting last year - it looked like it used to be a brewpub that closed up - and I think about 3 months ago this new place opened up in the spot.

It's a great addition to the neighbourhood - a large main floor open space with long bar (including a "bar spit" where you can sit on both sides of the bar, which is cool and unique) and half-level upstairs overlooking the main area.

Nice beers on tap, including an alt, kolsch, a couple of Belgian styles and IPA. Didn't have the food as we usually ended up there quite late. Friendly bartender and a nice place to drink. Excellent addition to the neighbourhood as Alembic and Magnolia aren't too far away.

Just up the street is a cool restaurant called Park Chow that also has a couple of decent beers on tap.

I was also impressed with the 21st Amendment brewpub which is a great stop before a ballgame at AT&T Park. About 8-9 house beers, lots of good stuff to try.

As I start to get excited for the CBC in a couple of weeks, I was recommended this site which looks like a great resource for anyone visiting SF:

http://beerbybart.com/

Is Brotherly Love still the way to go down there?

Cass wrote:As I start to get excited for the CBC in a couple of weeks, I was recommended this site which looks like a great resource for anyone visiting SF:

http://beerbybart.com/

Great looking site! Thanks, will use.

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.

Derek wrote:What's their licensing like? Anyone know if I can take my daughter into a brewpub for dinner?

I had no trouble taking my daughter (10 yrs old) to the 21st Amendment brewpub and the Rogue pub for dinners a few weeks back.

Derek wrote: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/

Thanks Lackey! I looked over the email you sent after your trip. Unfortunately the route and timing won't work out for most places, but I might try to hit Moylan's on our way north.

Or Moylans sister brewery Marin which is closer to San Fran. We had a better time there too