Hobson's Choice Bar

The Haight, San Francisco –

Home to more than 120 varieties of rum – quite possibly the largest selection in the city – Hobson’s Choice is a place where real men quickly discover the power of a frou-frou drink.

Haight residents sporting skinny jeans and perpetual five o’clock shadows drop in for Happy Hour, slinging back $3 House Punches as med students from UCSF plop onto antique couches with one of the monthly specials. Tiffany-style lamps and gold-leaf mirrors give the venue a Victorian flare, but the long shelves of bottles set behind the well-lacquered bar are what most patrons are focusing on.

A few older locals in dreadlocks and 60s duds sit at one of a handful of tables, sipping Dark N’ Stormys and watching the Giants finish up on the flat-screens, while barbecue fare from Asqew Grill a few doors up ensures cocktail garnishes aren’t the only thing patrons have to eat.

Once the evening sets in – especially come Friday – it’s normal to find Hobson’s wall-to-wall with barhoppers, large groups of students, and tattooed hipsters unabashedly ordering another round of Wiki Waki Woos – and it’s about that time that regulars know to dart upstairs for balcony views of the sugar-charged madness below.

Showing up at Hobson’s Choice after 10pm means shouldering through a crowd and then fighting some more for the bartender’s attention, but once it’s time to order, all the non-beer drinking visitors face a simple decision: rum…or rum.