Lan's #7: Bar 821

Bar 821
821 Divisadero Street
San Francisco, CA 94117

J & I walked from our place on a Friday night to Bar 821 to check out this wine bar. We walked in to find all of the seats filled except for one stool at the bar, so we parked it there to survey the menu.

Based on the drink menu, I wouldn’t exactly call this a wine bar, as the wine menu isn’t very focused. It is more of a former dive bar without a liquor license, half-assedly fixed up to resemble a wine bar. However, they do have REALLY cheap happy hour drinks--all cocktails & beers $3 from 5-7pm, but we were too late for this. Luckily, drinks aren’t much more expensive during regular hours. My ginger champagne (ginger syrup + champagne) was only $5. My only complaint was that my drink was only filled to somewhere between ½ to ¾ full…but I suppose that’s what you get for only $5.

Owned by the same people as Nihon Whiskey Lounge (Lan’s #8) this seems to be a neighborhood hangout filled with locals. Rather unpretentious…and on a street surrounded by other bars that also don’t have liquor licenses (Café Abir and Fly Bar). However, I’m glad this isn’t my neighborhood, because there are only so many soju cocktails and saketinis you can stand before you JUST WANT A REAL DRINK.

After a drink, we left to see what other bars we could find on this strip of Divisadero near the Panhandle.

This bar also mark's Jason's first new bar of the year!! Since "J" as a tag is also taken, I hereby declare you "YB"