April 2008 What a diamond of a discovery!! Thanks to the tip of Chris and Meredith at thebeergeek.com, whom we visited with. Conveniently, we stayed right around the corner ... so if we had nowhere else to go or if I’d lived in the area, I’d have grown roots. Fronting as a small retail outfit with a impressive West-coast-leaning lineup, this turns out to be an uber-friendly cafe, where you can crack open your lucky finds and enjoy a gourmet cheese plate with the friendly owners and even friendlier clientele. They also happen to have ~5 quality taps. I’m stealing their business plan and doing this in some other city. Awesome!

A fine small beer store where you find a bit of everything, focusing on very good stuff. The concept is particularly interesting since plenty of beer geeks seem to hang around in the ridiculously small space. A very small 1$ corkage fee lets you try a bottle on location to determine how many you want to come back and the 4 taps seem to feature rarities. I was also quite impressed with the prices, I expected a huge SF premium, but nothing was more than 2$ above what we’d seen in Southern California.

I really didn’t expect such a tiny beer shop! Apart from that, I liked their selection, but I would have liked a few more breweries to be well covered. They have a few taps, but they weren’t running the day I visited. The ambiance doesn’t really call for sitting down here and enjoying a few brews, unless you like to do that in your usual convenience store, but I admit these taps might make a nice icebreaker with the friendly owners. There doesn’t seem to be many more good beer stores in SF proper, so I would definitely come back here, but when you compare it to Bottle Barn in Santa Rosa (for example), this one might be disappointing.

Stumbled on this place with a couple of friends when we were in San Francisco recently. Sort of hollowed out cave with a bunch of boxes kicking around. There are about 4-5 deli cases scattered throughout along with a small shelving area as well. A few bar tables out by the window and the center of the room has a short polished steel bar with six beers pouring at any time. The bar selection is quite well-selected with a variety of styles represented. The owner was very friendly and knowledgeable and was quite chatty about her impression of the beer scene in San Francisco. I like the fact that any bottle can be pulled out of the fridge and for an extra buck you can open it at the bar. I wish we had a place like this here in NYC. One of the cooler spots I’ve been.

Looks like a grocery store when you first pass by. I need parking if you want me to buy multi-bottles. Enter, and 2 coolers and several shelves of beer; a few tables, a small bar. What’s on tap? Had to ask tap by tap, gave up quickly, as objective was to get several bottles for hotel room stay. Bout half the bottles were Belgians, Quebec beers I have had. The other half included some very hard-to-gets had had me drooling. Took the best of the lot, a small percentage of my wish list. Almost everything was sold out, the Net List being quickly out of date.

Nice industrial decor. Street parking worked just after the weekday lunch period. Early lunch at Rocco’s across the street recommended (food - not beer), followed by CB visit. 1 hr parking so moved car across street to CB. Picked up 14 new to me beers. There are many bottles, but I’d expected many more. I’d say the selection rivals Beer Revolution and Healthy Spirits. Obviously it’s a pretty good place to get beer.

The store is a bit hard to find, so make sure you right down the address and pay attention to the buildings. Parking can also be a bit difficult, so just take the first spot you can find that’s within a reasonable distance. The store itself is rather tiny with plenty of coolers, boxes, and shelves full of beer. There’s also a bar where there are several beers on tap and also some snacks available for purchase (like cheeses and crackers). The prices vary quite a bit, with some things being quite reasonable (or even a good deal) and others being on the high side. I was primarily there to pick up bottles of 50/50 Imperial Eclipse, but I certainly took a look around. The service was good, but not necessarily anything amazing. But, as I said, I mostly just picked up a few bottles. There are some beers that are fairly difficult to find in CA, which I appreciated. They also had some vintage offerings which are nice, but you, of course, must be willing to pay the premium.

Overall: this is the type of place I would love to own, or have located really close to me.

Visited on early evening on a Wednesday. It was a hot day in San Francisco, and the place was crowded with folks enjoying beers and shopping. It was hot in the store, but not overly so (I am sure this is pretty rate). As others have noted, its a small bar, a couple of tables, and surrounding shelves and coolers of beer. I love the focus of the 6 tap options, as well as how well chosen the bottles are. Whether you stay or go, this place is really chock-ful of options. I stayed for three taps, and had a cheese place. The service was great, really friendly and comfortable. I just really loved this place.

Nice place to hang. quite crowded when I went, but they had an event on. Tap list was decent but not overly impressive. Bottles same. Lots to choose from. Owner was very friendly and of course knowledgeable. I would go if I lived there, though hard to agree fully with the adoration it’s gotten here. Doesn’t compare to Toronado in selection or price.

A fun little place - only the second time I’ve been to a combined bottleshop and bar - this one even with easychairs, but besides them and the barstools it was mainly concrete wall and floor and steel fridges and metal shelves - so the ambience of the place is so-so for me. Came in on a late Thursday afternoon and all the chairs were occupied, so I just bought some bottles to take away - after vacuumcleaning CA for beer for more than 10 days I was surprised to find quite a few new ones to me - that is a big heads up on the selection. The prices are maybe a bit higher than other places - but with the USD/EUR exchange rate it is a bargain. I must visit if in SF and in need of bottled beers.