Gino and Carlo Sports Bar Sports Bar

North Beach / Telegraph Hill, San Francisco –

Part community center, part museum, and part hangout for the old-line Giants faithful, Gino and Carlo Sports Bar has been a Telegraph Hill institution since the 1940s, and continues to attract a mix of both die-hard fans and patrons who couldn't care less about sports games.

The long bar, which looks out onto old chairs and chipped tables full of old Italians with chipped teeth, runs back toward two pool tables and a gallery of various accolades the bar has gathered over the years, as well as many photos of celebrities – Joe DiMaggio, Tommy Lasorda, Frank Sinatra, and Francis Ford Coppola – who drank here in one decade or another.

Eschewing the pigeonhole of a traditional sports bar, the venue hosts all walks of life, and it’s not abnormal to find a Broadway Street stripper sharing a pint with a local fireman, police officers rooting at the TVs alongside yuppie Downtown business folk, or young college kids getting schooled by Sopranos-style grandpas in the proper way to drop an eight ball.

A blue-collar vibe still prevails, however, and friendly conversation outweighs both the financial shoptalk and the moaned complaints of ever-disappointed local sports fanatics. Even on weekends, when barhoppers and trendy clubbers occasionally spill in, regulars at Gino and Carlo Sports Bar don’t seem to mind – maybe because they know those kids will be gone soon, or maybe because they know this old landmark will never really change.