The Top 39 Places to Drink Near Rancho Caymus Inn

1. Esquire The Best Bars in America

1. VinePair Winemaker of the Year · The Next Wave Awards · Katy Wilson

1. VinePair Sommelier of the Year · The Next Wave Awards · Alexandria Sarovich
2. The New York Times The Restaurant List

1. James Beard Awards 2026 · Winner · Outstanding Professional in Cocktail Service · Kevin Diedrich
2. James Beard Awards 2024 · Nominee · Outstanding Bar
3. 50 Best #41 · North America's 50 Best Bars

1. Food & Wine Les Eggs · Best Dishes Our Editors Ate This Year
2. James Beard Awards 2022 · Semifinalist · Outstanding Bar Program
3. The Infatuation The 25 Best Restaurants In Oakland

The salad arrives spinning in a metal bowl over ice chips, which tells you everything about how this prime rib shop operates. Servers wheel cuts of roast beef tableside and carve thick slabs to order, with mashed potatoes, creamed spinach, and gravy all part of the deal. Ask for the English cut if you want thinner, juicier slices. The martinis have their own reputation. An old-school institution that treats a Tuesday like a special occasion.

1. Esquire Martini · The Best Martinis in America
2. James Beard Awards 2022 · Nominee · Outstanding Hospitality
3. San Francisco Chronicle Best classic San Francisco restaurants

1. Esquire The Best Bars in America
2. Spirited Awards 2025 · Regional Top 10 Honoree · Best New U.S. Cocktail Bar – U.S. West
3. Spirited Awards 2026 · Regional Top 10 Honoree · Best U.S. Hotel Bar – U.S. West

Fried chicken wings stuffed with andouille dirty rice tell you everything about this Southern-leaning cocktail bar and dining room in the Jay Hotel. The chef's Alabama roots show up in pimento cheese dressed with trout roe and banana cream pie reimagined as a chocolate-pretzel tartlet, dishes that straddle Sunday supper and something more deliberate. The room is dusky and quietly glamorous, the kind of place that makes a Tuesday feel like a reason to dress up.

1. Bon Appétit America's Best New Bars
2. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant
3. Eater The 38 Essential Restaurants in San Francisco

1. Esquire The Best Bars in America

The dining room was overhauled in fawn and sage, the ceilings soar, and there is velvet, which tells you exactly what kind of evening you're walking into. Quince is a tasting-menu restaurant in Jackson Square where the kitchen draws heavily from its own farm, and the chef holds three Michelin stars and a James Beard Award for Outstanding Chef. Service runs seamlessly without tipping into ceremony, which at this level is the harder trick.

1. Michelin Guide 3 Stars
2. James Beard Awards 2026 · Winner · Outstanding Chef · Michael Tusk
3. Forbes Travel Guide Forbes Four Star

The bar seating glows aquatic blue, ceiling windows let the light pour in, and the outdoor terrace looks straight out at the bay traffic. This Peruvian seafood restaurant on the Embarcadero is the rare Embarcadero spot that earns its view. Ceviche is the main event, and the tasting lets you work through several styles at once. A pisco sour while watching boats maneuver past is a reasonable way to spend an afternoon.

1. Difford's Guide 4 stars · Difford's Guide
2. San Francisco Chronicle Best seafood restaurants in the Bay Area
3. San Francisco Chronicle Best restaurants for outdoor dining in the Bay Area

The bar faces San Francisco Bay, with Alcatraz and the Golden Gate framed in the windows, which does a lot of the work before you even sit down. The Buena Vista is an old-school saloon that claims credit for introducing Irish coffee to America, and the bar staff still make them in assembly-line batches. Come at 9am or midnight; the order is the same either way. It won the Spirited Awards' Timeless U.S. Award in 2024, which is about right.

1. Spirited Awards 2024 · Winner · Timeless U.S. Award
2. Difford's Guide 4 stars · Difford's Guide

1. Esquire The Best Bars in America

1. Punch Best New Bartenders · Kat Parsons
2. Spirited Awards 2026 · Top 10 Nominee · Best U.S. Restaurant Bar
3. Spirited Awards 2024 · Regional Honoree · Best U.S. Restaurant Bar – U.S. West

The cocktail bar up front does brisk business before anyone looks at a menu, which tells you something about Prospect's priorities. This is a polished New American restaurant on the ground floor of a Financial District high-rise, with high ceilings, roomy tables, and a room full of people who expensed lunch and stayed for dinner. The cooking is straightforward and well-executed, leaning on good ingredients and restraint over anything flashy.

1. Difford's Guide 4.5 stars · Difford's Guide
2. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant

1. Esquire The Best Bars in America

1. Esquire The Best Bars in America

1. Spirited Awards 2026 · Regional Top 10 Honoree · Best U.S. Cocktail Bar – U.S. West
2. Spirited Awards 2025 · Regional Top 10 Honoree · Best New U.S. Cocktail Bar – U.S. West
3. Spirited Awards 2026 · Regional Top 10 Honoree · Best U.S. Bar Team – U.S. West

1. Eater Best New Bar · The 2025 Eater San Francisco Award Winners
2. James Beard Awards 2026 · Semifinalist · Best New Bar

The bullet holes in the walls are original, and so is the escape route through the ladies' lavatory. This Tenderloin cocktail bar started life as a Prohibition speakeasy, complete with a trapdoor and password, and neither gimmick has been retired. The 1920s painted wallpaper and marble staircase survived intact, and you still need the password to get in, which is either charming or exhausting depending on your mood.

1. Difford's Guide 5 stars · Difford's Guide

The vintage jukebox leans Glenn Miller and Rat Pack standards, which tells you everything about what kind of night Tosca Café is selling. This old-school North Beach cocktail bar has been around forever, all dark wood and faded glamour that a sympathetic restoration polished back to a shine. Come late, order something simple, and let the room do its thing. If the playlist sounds like your grandparents' wedding, you'll fit right in.

1. Difford's Guide 4.5 stars · Difford's Guide

The ceiling is woven from the staves of 300 bourbon barrels, which tells you everything about where Rickhouse's priorities lie. This whiskey bar in the Financial District is styled as an old-school saloon, with floor-to-ceiling shelves of bottles behind the counter and a library ladder to reach the top shelf. A back room holds a second bar and a hayloft gallery for looking down, literally, on everyone else.

1. Difford's Guide 4.5 stars · Difford's Guide

1. The Infatuation The Best Martinis In San Francisco

1. The Infatuation The Best Martinis In San Francisco

1. The Infatuation The Best Martinis In San Francisco

1. The Infatuation The Best Martinis In San Francisco

1. The Infatuation The Best Martinis In San Francisco

The mahogany bar dates to 1906, which means it survived the earthquake and a few other things San Francisco would rather not discuss. Comstock is an old-school cocktail bar in North Beach, all wicker ceiling fans shaped like steamboat paddles, vintage drink signs, and a piano someone actually winched up to the balcony so the music drifts down. Pickled eggs and rye toast handle the eating. The martinis have a following.

1. Difford's Guide 5 stars · Difford's Guide
2. The Infatuation The 25 Best Meals For Under $15 In SF
3. The Infatuation The Best Martinis In San Francisco

Fluted columns, plush banquettes, and a hand-painted dance-hall mural above a mahogany bar: Bix has been doing Great Gatsby glamour in a Gold Street alley since forever, and it has no interest in updating the brief. The cocktail menu plays it classic, which suits the room, since no one comes here for novelty. The crowd tends to dress for the occasion without being asked, which tells you most of what you need to know.

1. Difford's Guide 3.5 stars · Difford's Guide
2. The Infatuation The Best Martinis In San Francisco

1. The Infatuation The Best Martinis In San Francisco

1. The Infatuation The Best Martinis In San Francisco

1. The Infatuation The Hit List: New San Francisco Restaurants To Try Right Now
2. The Infatuation The Best Martinis In San Francisco

1. The Infatuation The Best Martinis In San Francisco

1. Difford's Guide 4 stars · Difford's Guide

Concrete floors, steel girders, and a smoking area the size of a small parking lot set the tone at this Tenderloin cocktail bar. The utilitarian look is clearly intentional, the sort of space that can survive a rowdy Saturday without complaint. A chalkboard cocktail of the month keeps things moving, and the menu spans pisco punch to rum-and-port builds with house-made Swedish punsch. Not where you go to catch up quietly, but volume was never the point.

1. Difford's Guide 4 stars · Difford's Guide

Leather booths, wood paneling, and casual taxidermy give this cocktail bar the feel of a gentlemen's club that decided to relax a little. It sits inside Tyler Florence's Wayfare Tavern, and the bar downstairs splits the room between cocktails and food. Local lore insists a gangster is buried somewhere in the foundations, which does make the old-fashioned taste slightly more interesting.

1. Difford's Guide 3.5 stars · Difford's Guide

A top-floor hotel cocktail lounge perched above Powell Street, the Starlight Room is essentially a finishing school that graduated half the notable bartenders in San Francisco, Tony Abou-Ganim and Jacques Bezuidenhout among them. The room got a significant makeover not long ago, all plush red furniture and gold accents, which makes it feel like old-school glamour with a fresh coat of ambition.

1. Difford's Guide 3 stars · Difford's Guide

The original redwood paneling dates back forever, but Philippe Starck's redesign layered in an illuminated Venetian bar top, a floor-to-ceiling light-box back bar, and plasma screens set in classical frames that slowly animate the portraits hanging in them. A Martini in hand when a painted subject blinks at you is a specific kind of San Francisco evening. It's a cocktail bar that reads as a grand room first, a drinks destination second.

1. Difford's Guide 3.5 stars · Difford's Guide

1. Difford's Guide 3.5 stars · Difford's Guide