ThirstyBear Brewing Company Bar / Brewery / Drinking Activity / Restaurant

SoMa, San Francisco –

Tapas and beer are on the menu at ThirstyBear Brewing Company, a cavernous brewery and restaurant that gets chock-full of city denizens in need of Spanish cuisine and freshly brewed pints.

The round wooden tables that surround the central bar and line the exposed brick walls are taken over by tech workers and tourists at lunch, as first-time visitors clack their way across the concrete floors for a view of the onsite brewery’s giant steel vats in back.

Although the standard beer selection hovers around seven choices – ranging from Irish-style stouts to ales infused with vanilla beans – regular connoisseurs know that several cask-conditioned and seasonal options also grace the ever-changing menu.

Evenings see a mix of conventioneers dropping in after a day at the Moscone Center, guests from surrounding hotels, and well-dressed thirty-somethings out for a date, all there to chat over shareable plates of pan-seared chicken and fried kennebec potatoes.

Later on, larger groups and the pre-clubbing crowd head upstairs to lounge around the open mezzanine or hang out in the two adjoining areas – so long as they aren’t rented out – shooting pool, playing darts, and watering at the smaller bar.

Reportedly the first brewery in the country to serve authentic Spanish cuisine, ThirstyBear Brewing Company is a place where patrons don’t even need to drink the beer to feel satisfied – but it sure doesn’t hurt.