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Lauren Saria

18 Exciting Wine Bars in San Francisco

It’s a great time to be a wine lover in San Francisco

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For some, the words “wine bar” still conjure cliché lounges from the ’90s, when buttery Chardonnays were the drink of the day. But a new generation has paved the way for a diverse selection of varietals, styles, and environments in which to enjoy them. Now, San Francisco wine bars come in a wild array of shapes and sizes to suit every mood. Wander into a lush wine bar-slash-plant shop, dance the night away under a shimmering disco ball, or take a trip to Spain without leaving the Mission. Here are 18 exciting places to drink wine in San Francisco right now.

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Bodega North Beach

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Whether you’re catching up with friends around one of the outdoor tables or snuggling up at the bar for a date, Bodega delivers good vibes and a long list of wines brought in from all over California with a few European options mixed in. It’s as approachable a list as they come with sections divided by flavor — think headers like “flirtatious” whites, “funky/fresh/sometimes chilled” reds, and “bring me the funk” for the orange wine lovers out there.

California Wine Merchant

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An impressive California-centric wine list and a friendly welcome ensure this rather small wine bar punches well above its weight. The combination wine store and wine bar has been a Marina fixture since 1974, and handmade redwood shelves display wine bottles from floor to ceiling. They’re pouring in elegant Reidel glassware seven nights a week.

Habibi Bar: Wine Shop & Bar

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Is there anything quite as cool as an al fresco pop-up wine bar inside another wine bar? Probably not, which is why Habibi Bar, which opened inside Russian Hill’s Bacchus Wine Bar in August 2020, has become such a hit. By-the-glass options change weekly but usually include about a dozen domestic and European selections with the owners favoring wines made with few additives and organically farmed grapes. The food menu, also ever-changing, might include hummus, charred eggplant dip, or a visiting pop-up in its own right.

Roaming Goat

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Roaming Goat is San Francisco’s Mediterranean wine bar, found in a long and narrow space off Union Street in Cow Hollow. The list highlights wines from California, Armenia, and Georgia offered along with a menu of small plates like olives, hummus, and baba ganoush plus kebabs for a heartier meal.

The Barrel Room

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The Barrel Room returned from its extended pandemic closure in October 2022, and the bottle list is as deep as ever with more than 1,000 options on the digital list. But if you’re going by the glass, look forward to an exploration of domestic selections; the menu focuses on America’s 17 wine appellations offering red, white, and sparkling wines as well as an impressive selection of flights. By the way, the flights are served blind and mostly focus on specific and somewhat unexpected varietals including Albarino, Blaufränkisch, and skin contact wines.

The Barrel Room

Key Klub

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This sister bar to North Beach’s Bodega opened in early 2022 flooding Lower Nob Hill with natural wine and New American food. It aims to be all things for all wine drinkers: pair a plate of steak frites with a bottle of something old and European or come by a little later in the evening when the music turns up to split a bottle of low-intervention sparkling rosé from Berkeley’s Hammerling Wines with friends.

Inside Key Klub, a bar with brick walls and modern round light fixtures. Key Klub

Press Club

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Located in a sleek underground space, the Press Club is sophisticated enough for a “going out” outfit but casual enough for post-work drinks. The list skews toward biodynamic and organically sourced California wines but you’ll find imports in the mix, too, including bubbly Spanish cava, Italian Chianti Classico, and Portuguese vinho verde. Stop by between 2 and 4 p.m. Monday through Friday for happy hour or on Sunday nights when some bottles are half off.

Press Club

High Treason

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Tucked between the Clement Street lineup of pan-Asian eateries and old-time Irish pubs, veteran sommeliers Michael Ireland (The French Laundry, Quince) and John Vuong (Ame, Gary Danko) delivered just what the Inner Richmond needed upon High Treason’s 2016 arrival. Customers are offered a taste before selecting from a well-curated selection of wines by the glass. The list rotates while they spin the vinyl, and occasionally, High Treason hosts live DJs.

This Hayes Valley wine bar, with a scant number of tables inside and on the covered back patio, has a slightly pastoral vibe with its interiors of plain white and wood. The kitchen produces snacks, lunch, and dinner to accompany primarily European wines. In Italian, Birba means "little troublemaker,” but at this namesake spot, the only trouble is making sure you’ll get in.

Birba

Fool's Errand

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This subterranean wine bar off Divisidero stretches back farther than you might expect from the street and spills out onto the sidewalk thanks to a small number of tables outside. But no matter where you sit, you’ll enjoy more than a dozen options by the glass and even more by the bottle — plus plenty of beer for anyone not drinking wine. It’s a small but eclectic glass list spanning Portugal, Slovenia, California, and Greece, and the bar has a special affinity for Riesling with three options by the glass including two German and one made in California.

Fool’s Errand

Bar Part Time

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To say Bar Part Tims is absolutely not your average wine bar still feels like an understatement. In fact, it’s a full-on bacchanal wine party with a dance floor lorded over by a glittering disco ball and populated with hip young people pounding that good juice and grooving to music from a truly impressive lineup of DJs. As for the wine, it’s all-natural, of course. On Tuesday nights come through for $10 off bottles to drink on-site.

A glass of orange wine. Lauren Saria

In a crisp white space with bright neon accents just off Market Street, this wine and sake shop offers bottles that you feel good buying. Wines produced without additives, using biodynamically farmed grapes, and by women winemakers are clearly marked and can be opened on-site or taken to go. There’s also a smaller selection of wines by the glass but if you’re interested in exploring sake, look forward to more than 60 options.

InoVino

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Sure, this small Italian restaurant and wine bar is a popular gathering place for the Cole Valley neighborhood — but it’s also a worthy destination for a causal date or afternoon outing regardless of where you live. Grab a table on the sidewalk or in the low-ceilinged dining room to peruse the list of about 30 Italian wines by the glass. Food options include pinsetta, pasta, and salads, and there are another 100 or so wines by the bottle to explore with a specific focus on selections from Piedmont and Sicily.

InoVino

Ruby Wine

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This small Potrero Hill wine shop and bar gives off a bit of an if-you-know-you-know attitude. Not only is it quite small, but it’s also primarily a retail operation with just a few options available by the glass daily. All the bottles are available to open and enjoy either inside (if you can find space) or on the parklet for a $10 corkage fee. Still, it’s worth a visit for anyone looking for low-intervention wines from smaller producers.

Palm City

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Head to this Outer Sunset destination for a primo combination: fat-stacked, Philly-style hoagies and natural wines. By-the-glass options range from Champagne to an organic Sicilian white to a Sonoma Valley cabernet sauvignon. There’s a broader list available by the bottle, with the option to take your wine and sandwich to-go (perhaps out to Ocean Beach) or to enjoy on-site for an additional $15.

Ungrafted

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A roomy wine bar, restaurant, and retail shop from a married couple of veteran sommeliers, Rebecca Fineman and Chris Gaither, Ungrafted is a wine drinker’s paradise in Dogpatch. A full kitchen turns out snacks and larger plates to pair with drinks. Want to learn something? Take a class with Fineman, Gaither, or others on the all-sommelier staff. They’re some of the smartest around.

El Chato

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This effortlessly charming Mission District newcomer channels all the energy of a Spanish-style tavern with great success. Step up to the counter to order a copa (glass) or a smaller chato of Spanish wine including less-common grape varietals like merseguera and listán negro. Pair whatever you’re drinking with a few of the small plates or a platter of jamon serrano and other cured meats. There’s also a small selection of bottles to take home.

Lauren Saria

This plant store/natural wine bar/art space is a Millennial fever dream brought to life. Located off Mission near 21st Street, Arcana allows its super-cool clientele to lounge under an enormous dracaena or a trailing philodendron while sipping natural wines like Vinca Minor chardonnay, Domaine Les Enfants Sauvages “Bouche Bee,” or an orange biodynamic Reisling from France. Check the business website for a calendar of live music nights.

Arcana

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Bodega North Beach

Whether you’re catching up with friends around one of the outdoor tables or snuggling up at the bar for a date, Bodega delivers good vibes and a long list of wines brought in from all over California with a few European options mixed in. It’s as approachable a list as they come with sections divided by flavor — think headers like “flirtatious” whites, “funky/fresh/sometimes chilled” reds, and “bring me the funk” for the orange wine lovers out there.

California Wine Merchant

An impressive California-centric wine list and a friendly welcome ensure this rather small wine bar punches well above its weight. The combination wine store and wine bar has been a Marina fixture since 1974, and handmade redwood shelves display wine bottles from floor to ceiling. They’re pouring in elegant Reidel glassware seven nights a week.

Habibi Bar: Wine Shop & Bar

Is there anything quite as cool as an al fresco pop-up wine bar inside another wine bar? Probably not, which is why Habibi Bar, which opened inside Russian Hill’s Bacchus Wine Bar in August 2020, has become such a hit. By-the-glass options change weekly but usually include about a dozen domestic and European selections with the owners favoring wines made with few additives and organically farmed grapes. The food menu, also ever-changing, might include hummus, charred eggplant dip, or a visiting pop-up in its own right.

Roaming Goat

Roaming Goat is San Francisco’s Mediterranean wine bar, found in a long and narrow space off Union Street in Cow Hollow. The list highlights wines from California, Armenia, and Georgia offered along with a menu of small plates like olives, hummus, and baba ganoush plus kebabs for a heartier meal.

The Barrel Room

The Barrel Room returned from its extended pandemic closure in October 2022, and the bottle list is as deep as ever with more than 1,000 options on the digital list. But if you’re going by the glass, look forward to an exploration of domestic selections; the menu focuses on America’s 17 wine appellations offering red, white, and sparkling wines as well as an impressive selection of flights. By the way, the flights are served blind and mostly focus on specific and somewhat unexpected varietals including Albarino, Blaufränkisch, and skin contact wines.

The Barrel Room

Key Klub

This sister bar to North Beach’s Bodega opened in early 2022 flooding Lower Nob Hill with natural wine and New American food. It aims to be all things for all wine drinkers: pair a plate of steak frites with a bottle of something old and European or come by a little later in the evening when the music turns up to split a bottle of low-intervention sparkling rosé from Berkeley’s Hammerling Wines with friends.

Inside Key Klub, a bar with brick walls and modern round light fixtures. Key Klub

Press Club

Located in a sleek underground space, the Press Club is sophisticated enough for a “going out” outfit but casual enough for post-work drinks. The list skews toward biodynamic and organically sourced California wines but you’ll find imports in the mix, too, including bubbly Spanish cava, Italian Chianti Classico, and Portuguese vinho verde. Stop by between 2 and 4 p.m. Monday through Friday for happy hour or on Sunday nights when some bottles are half off.

Press Club

High Treason

Tucked between the Clement Street lineup of pan-Asian eateries and old-time Irish pubs, veteran sommeliers Michael Ireland (The French Laundry, Quince) and John Vuong (Ame, Gary Danko) delivered just what the Inner Richmond needed upon High Treason’s 2016 arrival. Customers are offered a taste before selecting from a well-curated selection of wines by the glass. The list rotates while they spin the vinyl, and occasionally, High Treason hosts live DJs.

Birba

This Hayes Valley wine bar, with a scant number of tables inside and on the covered back patio, has a slightly pastoral vibe with its interiors of plain white and wood. The kitchen produces snacks, lunch, and dinner to accompany primarily European wines. In Italian, Birba means "little troublemaker,” but at this namesake spot, the only trouble is making sure you’ll get in.

Birba

Fool's Errand

This subterranean wine bar off Divisidero stretches back farther than you might expect from the street and spills out onto the sidewalk thanks to a small number of tables outside. But no matter where you sit, you’ll enjoy more than a dozen options by the glass and even more by the bottle — plus plenty of beer for anyone not drinking wine. It’s a small but eclectic glass list spanning Portugal, Slovenia, California, and Greece, and the bar has a special affinity for Riesling with three options by the glass including two German and one made in California.

Fool’s Errand

Bar Part Time

To say Bar Part Tims is absolutely not your average wine bar still feels like an understatement. In fact, it’s a full-on bacchanal wine party with a dance floor lorded over by a glittering disco ball and populated with hip young people pounding that good juice and grooving to music from a truly impressive lineup of DJs. As for the wine, it’s all-natural, of course. On Tuesday nights come through for $10 off bottles to drink on-site.

A glass of orange wine. Lauren Saria

Millay

In a crisp white space with bright neon accents just off Market Street, this wine and sake shop offers bottles that you feel good buying. Wines produced without additives, using biodynamically farmed grapes, and by women winemakers are clearly marked and can be opened on-site or taken to go. There’s also a smaller selection of wines by the glass but if you’re interested in exploring sake, look forward to more than 60 options.

InoVino

Sure, this small Italian restaurant and wine bar is a popular gathering place for the Cole Valley neighborhood — but it’s also a worthy destination for a causal date or afternoon outing regardless of where you live. Grab a table on the sidewalk or in the low-ceilinged dining room to peruse the list of about 30 Italian wines by the glass. Food options include pinsetta, pasta, and salads, and there are another 100 or so wines by the bottle to explore with a specific focus on selections from Piedmont and Sicily.

InoVino

Ruby Wine

This small Potrero Hill wine shop and bar gives off a bit of an if-you-know-you-know attitude. Not only is it quite small, but it’s also primarily a retail operation with just a few options available by the glass daily. All the bottles are available to open and enjoy either inside (if you can find space) or on the parklet for a $10 corkage fee. Still, it’s worth a visit for anyone looking for low-intervention wines from smaller producers.

Palm City

Head to this Outer Sunset destination for a primo combination: fat-stacked, Philly-style hoagies and natural wines. By-the-glass options range from Champagne to an organic Sicilian white to a Sonoma Valley cabernet sauvignon. There’s a broader list available by the bottle, with the option to take your wine and sandwich to-go (perhaps out to Ocean Beach) or to enjoy on-site for an additional $15.

Related Maps

Ungrafted

A roomy wine bar, restaurant, and retail shop from a married couple of veteran sommeliers, Rebecca Fineman and Chris Gaither, Ungrafted is a wine drinker’s paradise in Dogpatch. A full kitchen turns out snacks and larger plates to pair with drinks. Want to learn something? Take a class with Fineman, Gaither, or others on the all-sommelier staff. They’re some of the smartest around.

El Chato

This effortlessly charming Mission District newcomer channels all the energy of a Spanish-style tavern with great success. Step up to the counter to order a copa (glass) or a smaller chato of Spanish wine including less-common grape varietals like merseguera and listán negro. Pair whatever you’re drinking with a few of the small plates or a platter of jamon serrano and other cured meats. There’s also a small selection of bottles to take home.

Lauren Saria

Arcana

This plant store/natural wine bar/art space is a Millennial fever dream brought to life. Located off Mission near 21st Street, Arcana allows its super-cool clientele to lounge under an enormous dracaena or a trailing philodendron while sipping natural wines like Vinca Minor chardonnay, Domaine Les Enfants Sauvages “Bouche Bee,” or an orange biodynamic Reisling from France. Check the business website for a calendar of live music nights.

Arcana

Related Maps