San Francisco’s newest hotel, the 159-room, ballpark-adjacent “beyond boutiqué” Hotel VIA officially opens on King Street this month. And with the neighborhood’s first new hotel in a decade comes a swanky new hotel bar to add to the roster. The focus group-named Bar VIA is now open on the ground floor space between Second and Third Streets. From a marketing perspective, Hotel VIA claims to be “defining South Beach.” Visually, on the other hand, the bar and lounge takes its cues from the contemporary design and monochromatic color palate found throughout the hotel.
The location puts Bar VIA in the company of other popular pre-game spots like Pete’s Tavern, Pedro’s Cantina and MoMo’s down the block, but Hotel VIA boasts something those titans of gameday drinking can’t match: an exclusive, 3,000-square-foot rooftop patio where hotel guests and deep-pocketed drinkers can slosh away their afternoons within earshot of the organ tunes from AT&T park. Access to “Rooftop at VIA,” as it’s called, doesn’t come cheap though. You’ll need to either book a room at the hotel or rent one of the private cabanas for the privilege of high-altitude drinking and dining. Cabana rentals start at $1,000 for six people and the entire space can be rented out for your next Kanye-sized engagement party.
Back on street level, however, Bar VIA is open to the general public and offers a menu of small plates that emphasize seafood and raw bar items without allegiance to any particular cuisine. On game days, the menu shifts to accommodate baseball crowds with classed-up snacks like house-made “Cracker Jack,” soft pretzels with beer cheese, pizza rolls and a 4505 Meats Mission Dog on brioche. The requisite craft cocktails, plus local beer and wine round out the drinking options.
Bar VIA is now open at 138 King Street.