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It seems like San Francisco is awash in bars these days, from old-school dives to beer-focused brewpubs to high-end cocktail bars. Esquire Magazine has released their list of Best Bars in America 2015, part of a comprehensive list of America's quality drinking establishments that grows each year.
Of this year's 15 inductees, three Bay Area bars made the cut, including Specs and Trick Dog in San Francisco and Emeryville's Prizefighter (perhaps compensating for zero recognition on last year's list). The bars were chosen by "the world's foremost cocktail historian," David Wondrich and listed by region. And although it's unclear how the bars were chosen or why, these three drinking establishments are worthy choices in a competitive booze landscape. Here's what Wondrich had to say about SF's chosen bars:
Specs:
"Specs has been here since Sir Francis Drake's ship poked its bowsprit into San Francisco Bay. Father Junípero Serra took his morning antifogmatic here. When the 49ers came, they found the current bartenders behind the stick, waiting for them with foaming mugs of steam beer. That's what the lady sitting next to me at the bar told me, anyway. Looking around, I believed it, and so will you."
Trick Dog:
"Now that the city's rich again, there are lots of new cocktail bars, and top-notch, highly competitive ones at that. Which leads to crazy creative drinks, art-school menu designs, thematic decor—all of the peacock display that competition breeds. Trick Dog is a master at all that stuff, but it also has some of the sharpest, fastest, and most sophisticated cocktail slingers in the country, and despite all that it's still a lively, fun place to drink."
Prizefighter:
"This quintessential California bar is tucked away in a gritty industrial area across the bay from San Francisco and a thousand miles from the city's high-concept ways: low-key and casual, with a large patio and a clientele from all, or at least a great many, walks of life, and only the best of everything to drink."
