Could I Get a Drink With That Hanging Plant?

Two Jews walk in to a bar and what do they do?

They get confused about whether they actually walked into a bar or a strange carpeted greenhouse, and don’t know if they should order a drink or buy a plant.

Seeing as we live in the Inner Sunset, Ben and I thought it would be a good idea to review the rest of the bars in the area.  I’m not sure if you can do this on a blog, but our hope is eventually to sort all of the reviews based on area or district.  Stay tooned for reviews of a few bars in the Lower Haight, Mission, and Nob/Russian Hill, but for now, on with what I will call the “I.S.”. 

We are not meaning to write these in any order, but the other bar in the area we frequent is Yancy’s.  Now just like the previous review of Blackthorn, our initial opinion of this bar was not so favorable.  The first time we went in there, the girl bartender ignored us for a while, and when she finally came down, she had a terrible attitude.  We actually ended up walking out.  Ben actually left his wallet right on the bar and had to run back a little later on to collect it.  At this point in our friendship with Yancy’s Ben was completely surprised to have the afore mentioned bitchy ‘tender return his wallet, she even seemed to recognize him!  It took us a while to warm up to the bar, but now we love going there. 

Yancy’s is different from most bars in San Francisco, but we don’t mean this in a bad way.  Even more so than Blackthorn, Yancy’s has one of the most diverse crowds in the city.  Ranging from the young Chinese local youth (20’s), college students, townies, and sometimes the older crowd.  I even saw a couple times a group of nerds, a couple lesbians (not that there’s anything wrong with that, it’s just not something you see every night in Sunset), and every so often you’ll find a chick or two that look like they belong on a runway somewhere.  

I (meaning Ben wrote this paragraph) met up with a girl at Yancy’s one night recently.  I had met the previous weekend at the Elbo Room (another awesome place, though not in inner sunset; yes, they do have a photo booth).  It was a really good night following  a very shitty day at work.  This is often the case with the overworked and the underpaid, and to top it off this underpaid/overworked hard worker has to schlep his ass 30 miles south in the morning traffic and 30 miles back up through even worse traffic.  Damn you 280, and damn you 101!.  All a guy wants to do sometimes is come home from a stressful day and meet up with a cute girl and couple pints, this is exactly what I did.  The bartender was wicked cool, and friendly, and all credit due to him, he made very strong Jack and Coke’s, keep in mind, I’m a beer guy.  Yancy’s is usually relatively empty on a weekday night, this Wednesday night was no exception.  This is what I need out of a neighborhood bar some weeknights, I don’t want loud obnoxious people waiting for a knee to the nuts, I just want a couple TVs going, and some soft music playing in the background you can barely hear.  Good times…

When you walk into Yancy’s you are immediately hit by a bevy of green plants.  They are all over the place.  They hang in drones from the ceiling, especially near the entrance and bar area.  The place looks like the god damn Hanging Gardens of Babylon!!  The place is divided into roughly five areas.  The two larger sections of Yancy’s consist of the bar itself and the larger seating area.  The seating area has a large number of tables, chairs, and couches.  The bar is long and somewhat narrow, with stools along the bar as well as separate counter area running parallel to the bar.  Next to the bar are a couple of booths and a small smoking patio (although it is very small and most people just go outside to smoke).  Next to the larger seating area is a smaller one with three or so large tables for big groups.  The final section of Yancy’s is the darts area, which are free, just leave your ID as collateral.  The dart area is spacious, allowing for good size groups to come up and play darts without leaving the rest of their party elsewhere in the bar.  We were shown a small knife buy some punker one time, unprovoked by us, we think he was just showing off to a girl he was with, although we thought she was his sister.  Other than that the dart area is spacious enough, fun, and danger free.

I would say Yancy’s has an overall cozy feeling, even though it is quite large.  What helps with this besides the plants and couches is that the entire bar is carpeted, which I have never seen in a bar before.  All of the tables and chairs are old wood and create  a comfortable atmosphere .  If you choose to go there by yourself or with only one or two other people, sit at the bar.  The people there are more willing to talk and have friendly conversations, and many of them are locals.  At the larger seating areas, you get larger groups.  This is not a statement on Yancy’s, more on the groups that show up, but the groups tend to be more cliquey.  It’s not easy to walk up to a group of people who are already established friends and start hanging out, and that’s at Yancy’s or any bar in any city.  It is what it is. 

The bartenders and servers at Yancy’s are very nice, although they can get a bit overwhelmed on some nights.  There will be some random nights when you plan on going down there for a quiet drink with your local friends, and for some reason they have a huge crowd.  When this happens, and it’s not on a weekend, it is unexpected and they get understaffed.  But despite this, they will do their best to serve everyone, just be patient.  If you are cold and/or need a pick-me-up, they have a large selection of fun coffees that, even if they forget what goes in them, are all very tasty.  They make solid mixed drinks and have a good selection of beers.  And if  you’re a fan of both a shot and  a beer, you can always order a “Damon”, and they know that you want a shot and beer back (although our friend Damon usually gets Jaegermister and Stella).

As for specials, much like any bar, they vary throughout the year.  Usually there are cheap various beers during different sporting events.  They always have big games on a large selection of flat screen TVs, including a very large big screen that is visible from most parts of the bar.

After warming up to the place and thinking back on it over this review, we’ve decided that Yancy’s is one of our favorites in the Sunset.  It’s got everything you crave in a local bar on the weeknights and for the most part, the weekdays, except for those understaffed, overwhelming, and unexpected nights; although these can be a nice surprise too.  Yancy’s…  Good stuff.

Yancy's

734 Irving St  (get off the MUNI N Judah at 9th and Irving)
San Francisco, CA 94122-2410
(415) 665-6551

They don't have a website, but for more you can always check out yelp

High Style: Virgin America

Two Jews walk into a bar, and what do they do?

OK, well one Jew walks onto a Virgin America plane on his way to LA, and what does he do?

He gets to sit first class for the price of coach, and drink for free!!!!!!!!!

So this review is coming to you live from a Virgin America flight from San Francisco to LA.  It will probably be full of grammar errors, because I wanted to put it on this thing live.

Yes, I have my secrets, but  I was able to sit in first class for the price of coach.  This is my first time in first class, so I figured since I just started this bloggy thingy, it would be perfect for a review.  And look at that, just as I am starting to write this, the plane is starting to land. 

This was awesome.  You get on and are offered a drink right away (a double gin and tonic).  That’s two.  The flight attendant Art was great.  Offering to put stuff up above my seat and letting me know that I shouldn’t worry, drink-wise, I will be taken care of.  If you have a chance, first class or not, Art is the one of the best flight attendants ever.  And I got to see the assholes that usually fly up here, and they are f#%^&*(*(&*% demanding.

Anyway, as soon as we got up in the air, I was able to recline, and Art brought me the biggest double of scotch (Glen Livet) I have ever seen.  I mean this thing was more like 3 or 4 shots.  Along with it he brought a cheese plate.  I told him, “I have a tooth issue, so is it cool if you take the really hard crackers so I don’t try to eat them like an idiot.”  This great guy brought me double cheese.  DOUBLE CHEESE!!!!!!  I can’t speak more about how great this guy was. 

After I finished and as I was starting this review, I asked him if he minded if I used his first name in the review.  He said sure, and made sure I knew how to spell ART hahaha.  Then he brought me a champagne.  I had to tell him “Don’t worry, I am already saying good things, and to prove it, I showed him the review before I wrote this paragraph.

OK, well I have to end this because we are about to land, but I highly recommend this experience.  Not just first class though.  I will only fly Virgin, and have had this policy for a while.  If you have to fly to one of the few places they go, take my advice: fly Virgin.

Yay!!!!!! Our First Review: Blackthorn

Blackthorn:

Two Jews walk into a bar, or in this case, walk out of our apartment and down the hill and into a bar…

And what do they do?

They play free pool.

OK for our first bar review, we figured it would be a good idea to start easy and local.  This meant starting with our own neighborhood, the Inner Sunset. So for our inaugural review, we will take a look at Blackthorn.

If you were to ask us about this place 6 months ago, we would have given you a very different opinion than how we feel now.  At about that time, the bar switched owners, and it was the best move they could have made.  Before, it was cash only with a lousy jukebox.  The bar tenders, although many of them are still the same, just seemed unhappy.  There were never too many people there, and it was just not a fun place to go.

Now it’s one of the best bars in the area.  The bar tenders are great, serving you with a friendly smile, and even a joke here or there, and that’s even if it’s busy.  They do have one New Yorker bar tender, but I don’t hold it against him.  The drinks are strong and the prices are very reasonable.  They have replaced the Jukebox with one of those new online boxes that allows you access to tons of songs.  They have two pool tables, a pinball machine, a nice smoking patio, and a PHOTOBOOTH!!!!.

OK, a quick side note:  Ben and I were at a bar in the Castro on Pride night, and we saw a photo booth.  We were very drunk and took photos.  Since then, we have come to love this concept.  Whenever we are out with friends and a photo booth is present, we become determined to get pictures.  And the drunker we are the more adamant about getting tons of photos.

Anyway, back to Blackthorn.  The crowd is nice and diverse, ranging from CSSF and UCSF students, to the occasional hipster, to sports fans, and even the 30+ crowd.  You can always find a range of different people there and most of them are friendly.  A good amount of locals and if you go more than a few times don’t be surprised to see some familiar faces.

As for specials, nightly deals, and events, they vary throughout the year.  During the football season, they have a BBQ on Sundays and most of the games, and then on Mondays they have the game followed by trivia.  Karaoke on Tuesdays, which we have actually not been to yet, but Andrew loves himself some karaoke and will check it out soon.  Wednesdays and Thursdays are live music with the Smokedaddies and Hotpockets, and Fridays is 80’s and 90’s night. 

Now you might be reading this and saying to yourself: didn’t they mention free pool?  Well sirs and ma’ams, we did.  Our favorite thing about Blackthorn has to be their Sunday nights where the pool tables are open and free.  It’s a great end cap on your weekend.  You don’t really want it to be over, so you want to go out and have a drink, but you are not bar hopping, and not drunkenly hitting on the opposite sex.  So what can you do?  Well come down to Blackthorn, where it’s not too crazy, and as we mentioned, there is free pool.  The bartender (whom we forgot his name) is great.  He has a little more time to experiment and make fun new drinks, and if they don’t work, he will make a different one.  It’s the perfect ending to a great weekend that you don’t want to be over.

As mentioned above, there is a smoking patio, which is very convenient.  At most bars, you have to put your drink down and go outside to smoke.  We aren’t smokers, but when you’re out with a group, it’s nice to be able to all go outside and continue your conversations and drinks.  Blackthorn has a great little smoking patio, with nice wooden picnic benches.  This is also where they have the BBQ that they use on Sundays.  Additionally, you can often find friendly dogs out there, although, if you have a well trained dog, and come in regularly, your dog can even come into the bar.  They do have neighbors, so even if they don’t say it, you should keep it civilized.

OK, well there it is, our first review.  Below is the contact info and address of the Blackthorn.  What would be great is some feedback on this review so we know how to improve the futures ones.  If you’re in the Inner Sunset, definitely go check this place out, and maybe you‘ll see us there.

Blackthorn

834 Irving st. @ 9th Ave (N-Judah)
San Francisco, CA 94122
Tel: (415) 564-6626

http://www.blackthornsf.com/

Welcome to our Blog

Hi Everyone,

Two Jews walk into a bar, what do they do?
They buy it?
No silly, they review it.

OK, so we have never done a blog before, so we will figure things out as we go.  This one here is meant to welcome you to the site, or blog, or whatever you call it. So what we are setting out to do here is review bars in the city of San Francisco.  This is also something we have never done before, but here's the thing;  you either have these books that don't really give you an accurate description, or idiots on Yelp.  Not that yelp isn't great, but there are so many varying reviews, we get overwhelmed, and often don't find a place to go through the site.  So here at "Two Jews Walk Into a Bar," Ben and I (Andrew) are going to review different bars throughout the city. 

        These reviews are not not meant to be from a Jew's perspective, I just thought it was a funny name.  It's meant to be from the perspective of two average guys in their mid to late twenties just looking for a good place to grab a drink, maybe some grub, and a good conversation here or there.  We'll review the bars accurately and honestly, and will not compromise for anything, except maybe free drinks.  Our hope is that you will read the reviews we create on this site, and get inspired for great places to go; and maybe get a laugh here and there.  Now we are still working on the kinks, so bare with us and stay tuned for more, but I hope you enjoy.