Tradition

Civic Center / Tenderloin, San Francisco –

An old-school cocktail den intended to celebrate the American bar, Tradition walks the line between a private tavern for SF’s coolest clientele and an in-vogue saloon for those who just want a quick ‘n’ proper drink.

Run by the same guys behind speakeasy Bourbon & Branch, the bar features the requisite barren façade and inconspicuous entrance, as well as a monochromatic main room that’s mostly undecorated save for a few vintage alcohol signs and antique lights.

Walk-ins usually must sit at the long center bar or in the barrel-stacked mezzanine, but the rows of stools – many reclaimed from an old courthouse – fill up fast with hipsters and yuppies and curious tourists ready to snort some good spirits or sling the Prohibition-era mainstays that make up the limited walk-in drinks menu.

Savvy patrons know to reserve one of the nine private booths – known as “snugs” – which reflect different themes and can accommodate up to nine people. Snug occupants are welcome to order anything on the extensive menu, but most of the trendy friends and savvy cocktailers stick to their booth’s individual theme, sipping tropical drinks beneath carved masks in the Tiki snug, old rye in the shadow of Gaelic crests in the Scottish snug, and so on.

Those who prefer whiskey, meanwhile, can head to the second bar on the mezzanine, whose barrels of in-house hooch lure mature connoisseurs to belt the night away…

…as doe-eyed newbies try to remember to make a reservation before hitting Tradition next time.