Specs’ 12 Adler Museum Café Dive Bar

North Beach / Telegraph Hill, San Francisco –

Frozen in a state of perpetual disorder, Specs’ 12 Adler Museum Café is a chaotically-themed little dive where North Beach’s historic Beat vibe lives on.

With its ramshackle furniture and disorganized collection of city history, Specs’ is a bohemian paradise that’s worlds away from the porn peddlers and strip joints just up the street. A cigar-store Indian statue, an Egyptian mummy wearing glasses, and hundreds of newspaper clippings are just the tip of the iceberg in terms of décor, which also includes a collection of nautical memorabilia and animal bones in glass cases.

Even the regulars – comprised mostly of aging intellectuals and the old guard who make up the neighborhood’s hefty Italian population – probably discover something new each time they walk in, whether it’s the flags draped from the ceiling or the dried walrus testicles above the bar.

North Beach is a major weekend party scene, so come Friday the joint is always packed with a younger mob of hipsters, wannabe poets, and “hippies” born long after the 60s, but bartenders are known for swiftly booting anybody who gets too rowdy, and the boisterous conversation is more often centered around art or politics than pop culture.

A cross between a museum and a schizophrenic’s shopping spree, Specs’ 12 Adler Museum Café gives its creative patrons plenty to talk about.