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I decided that having two personal blogs was short changing them both. I’ve taken the posts from the barsandtenders site and imported them into Mundohood. After all, bars and the bartenders we love so much are an integral part of any neighborhood in the world. Check out Mundohood and subscribe there. This site will eventually go away.

Come to Cortland for the Summer Solstice Stroll, Tuesday! (via Bernalwood)

As the excellent steward of all things Bernal Height notes on his blog, tonight on Cortland Street should be lots of fun with a planned stroll down the street with opportunities to visit and chat with local businesses, neighbors and other interested parties. The weather gods seem to appreciate this event, with one of the hottest days in recent memory on tap. Should be a warm and pleasant evening for a stroll! Bars and Bartenders correspondent(s?) will be on the scene to also document the opening of the new bar where the legendary Skip’s once stood. Come out and enjoy the beautiful night in one of San Francisco’s best neighborhoods!

In winter we wandered Cortland merrily for the Holiday Stroll. Now the days are longer and the weather is (marginally) warmer, so it's time for the 2011 Summer Solstice Stroll! Come on out tomorrow evening, Tuesday, June 21, starting at 6 pm for a neighborly walkabout on Cortland. The stroll is sponsored by  the Bernal Business Alliance and Bernal Bucks, and there will be yummy food, drinky treats, and cheerful people-watching. (Fashion tip: Per … Read More

via Bernalwood

Shhh… Please Don’t Tell

After a warm sunny day of peddling our bikes around NYC’s Governor’s Island, dancing to some pretty funky grooves and drinking beers on a warm sandy beach with a perfect view of the NYC skyline, and afterward taking an unbelievably fascinating stroll on the brand new High Line Park in Midtown, and after completing some rather tedious errands involving a very expensive and failed attempt to get a group corporate discount at Hertz rent-a-car, my date and I finally made our way to the East Village to meet some friends for drinks. Our local NYC friends had decided that we’d meet at a speak-easy called ‘PDT’.

It took some convincing for me at first because at the time the thought of hard alcohol and hot dogs made my stomach turn. We had very empty stomachs and our taste buds had been prepared for sushi and sake as that was our original plan. But our desire to socialize with good friends overcame our desire for the savory flavors of sushi and sake. The much craved spicy tuna roll and unfiltered variety of chilled sake would have to wait. And after our friend’s enthusiastic support of PDT how could we resist.  After all, they are the locals so they know the hot spots, right?

Our friends had convinced us that the place was chic and underground and impossible to get in to.  Yet somehow, luckily, at the last minute six of us were able to secure a booth that was supposed to seat maybe only four.  It must have been a slow night for the PDT.  Which was somewhat surprising when we discovered there are some 517 Yelp reviews that give PDT on average four stars (All of this in spite of the bar being named for an acronym of ‘Please Don’t Tell’), so the running joke for my date and I was that it wasn’t much of a secret at all. We joked that New Yorkers just can’t keep a secret…

For those of you who know about the speak-easy in San Francisco’s Tenderloin, which provides some amazing eye candy décor/design to go along with absolutely deliciously crafted drinks, you’ll be romanticized into believing that PDT is similar. It is not. There is interesting decor with the mosaic mirrored bathrooms and the hidden front door is quite original, but for the most part the place didn’t interest me architecturally or design wise. Even the lights over our booth looked like they had come from Home Depot.  No doubt though that you enter through a phone booth in the back of the hot dog restaurant is intriguing and amusing. But I am not sure it’s enough for me. It’s almost as if the place wouldn’t be popular at all if not for this one gimmick that gets people talking. As for the phone booth itself, if you didn’t know it was an entrance to a bar you’d think you can use it make a phone call on that old vintage phone. As did one unlucky hot dog restaurant patron who entered the booth with the intent of making a call and was understandably startled when the wall beside her opened up suddenly and there emerged some hipster dude with fresh alcohol on his breath.

After making our way through the secret phone booth door and squeezing ourselves into the seating we began perusing the 15 or so page drink menu. There was a food, or rather a ‘hot dog’ menu on the last page that actually had some interesting looking dogs. We opted for the ‘Hummer’, a delicious veggie dog smothered in onions and hummus. The waitress seemed completely oblivious to the irony when later on she returned and asked us if we wanted another ‘hummer’.  After spending way too much time reading about all the different drinks, I decided that I would have the ‘Bee’s Sip’, which was made with a shot of sake (yes, I still needed to satisfy my sake craving). It was a great choice! The most popular drink at our table ended up being the Mezcal Mule. I stuck with the Bee’s Sip for my second round too. The others had opted for a drink blended with egg whites and some serious pepper spice that I found to be downright undrinkable. It should be known that the novelty of drinking your protein with alcohol is not necessarily a good idea.

We enjoyed our drinks, dogs and conversation over some fresh tator tots with nacho type cheese dip and, as it wasn’t too loud (One of the bar rules is to not talk too loud. There are other rules I’ll discuss later), we were able to hear the music without defeaning ourselves. The music was a mix of different styles of pop but was for the most part pleasant. It was definitely not super hip music or anything. Whoever was spinning seemed to be either reliving the 80’s or perhaps discovering it for the first time.

As I mentioned, PDT has some rules to consider if you decide to go. One of which is that there is no ‘PDA’ allowed at the PDT. This doesn’t seem right to me, as you would expect an ‘underground’ place like this to be a likely choice for a first or second date between new lovers. I am quite sure the rule is often broken.  Another rule is that you aren’t allowed to use your cell phone for anything except ‘texting’. I suppose ‘sexting’ should be prohibited in the confines of their establishment as well.

Gimmicks aside, PDT was an okay place with friendly enough service but it was expensive for what you get and some of the drinks were sort of gross. BUT, please don’t tell anyone!

Stray Bar – #BernalHeights #SanFrancisco

Stray Bar #BernalHeights

This won’t be the last time I write about the Stray Bar. First of all, it’s my dog’s bar. Literally. Moxie will pull me in there every time we walk by because she knows there are treats and there may be some of her pals in there (human and canine). Also, Bernal Heights is my home neighborhood. I’ve lived in various parts of Bernal since 2000: Mission @ 30th, Coleridge @ Virgina, and now up the hill on the South side, Crescent @ Andover. It’s a neighborhood I didn’t even know about the first 5 years I lived in San Francisco and until just before I moved there, despite spending countless hedonistic days and nights rampaging through neighborhoods from the tenderloin to the Haight to SOMA and, of course, to the Mission. Now, I can safely say it’s the best neighborhood in the city: The Mission-adjacent part has Mexican bars and food, Blue Plate, Vietnamese, the Front Porch, a supermarket, and is walkable to anywhere. The part near Cortland has a village feel, two fantastic parks, lots of nooks and crannies, good restaurants, and fun bars.

A few years ago, a new bar opened up on Cortland Street (near the end of the commercial area, just before Cortland heads down hill towards Mission Street) in the location of the old Charlie’s (which I never bothered to enter, for whatever reason). The name “Stray Bar” was originally a play on words – combining “Straight” and “Gay” – for the Lesbian-owner who wanted to avoid being pegged as a “gay” or “lesbian” bar.

Much like the rightfully famous and fantastic “Wild Side West” down the street, the Stray Bar is a queer-friendly base for a neighborhood with a high percentage of lesbians. However, more accurately, it is indeed a friendly base for the neighborhood. Period.

Lounging Dog at Stray Bar

I read a couple of stories saying it has a “predominantly” gay clientele, and that may be the case, but it doesn’t feel like

Treating the Dogs at Stray Bar

it. It’s just not noticeable because the clientele are just people, after all, enjoying a beer or a drink, some party food or a bacon dog from time to time, and some occasionally raucous parties. Oh yeah, Bernal also happens to be a neighborhood with a high percentage of dogs and dog owners as well, which also makes the Stray Bar a very popular neighborhood place because the owner made it a point to get the extra insurance coverage and licensing required to make this an officially “dog-friendly” bar. That’s going above and beyond to serve the neighborhood demographic. Very cool.

With the recent closure of Skip’s (pending a reopening under new management), I’ve noticed even more customers lately, but it’s never over-crowded. My recent visit found me visiting with a new-to-me bartender at the Stray Bar – Jones.

Jones Pouring a Racer5 IPA

Turns out, Jones had been there from the start as Manager of the Stray Bar, but had recently returned from an 11 month tour as a machine-gunner in Afghanistan. Not your usual run of the mill hippie liberal the media loves to paint as the only face of San Francisco. Jones didn’t have much to say about the goings-on in Afghanistan as he is still an active member of the National Guard, but he’s a genuinely soft-spoken, interesting guy who had complete command of a ragtag group of locals cheering on the Giants and feeding treats to the various dogs around the bar. I don’t know the name of the gentleman wearing the Dublin tee-shirt or his Irish lass, but I’ve had numerous small talk chats with them both over Guiness, Racer5 IPA, Blue Moon, and dog biscuits. The Stray Bar has become a Saturday or Sunday afternoon regular for Moxie, Yina, and me after a walk and maybe brunch at one of the spots on Cortland. As a neighborhood place – Straight or Gay or Stray or Dog bar, it’s a winner.

Score Bar at Hostel Aqui – Salinas, Ecuador

Salinas is a beach town of about 60,000 permanent residents that more than doubles during the high season (December to May). On the edge of the malecon (boardwalk) is a comfortable hostal (Spanish spelling) run by American Expat William Taylor.

Score Bar at Hostal Aqui - Salinas, Ecuador

We booked the hostal based on a fair price for a clean room with A/C, wi-fi, hot water, and proximity to the beach and the malecon. Little did we know, the hostal comes with a very nice bonus – a full bar filled with a mixture of expats and locals and run by some really nice people. More bonus: awesome grilled food accompanying your crisp, cold beer, mixed drink, or vino. There’s not many things better than returning from a long day on the beach, in the water, on the buses and in taxis than to take a hot shower, walking 10 steps to a comfortable bar seat and a cold “Club” (one of the local Ecuadorian brews) or a Pilsener. Along with proprietors Will and Wendy, we met Peace Corps volunteer/part-time bartender Stephanie and Marine Biologist/weekend bartender Diana (pics below). And, who could forget the trio of four-legged friends playing and entertaining in the bar. Sole (Stephanie’s dog), Chris, and Cassie were great to have around.

Will is a master on the grill – his Fillet Mignon was awesome – perfectly cooked rare for Yina and medium rare for me. He also had an old stun gun with a fading battery, which he demonstrated as very weak (photo below, against his shoulder) when compared to his new powerful one.

As the Heat/Mavs heated up in game 3, the bar kept filling with mostly expats and a few locals (some friends of Diana). We met Kevin (traveling following a Contractor assignment in Afghanistan), Christian (studying and making sure the bartenders and patrons alike were keeping it real), and a varied assortment of others on the cusp of retirement all gathering to swap stories, drink beer, eat meat, and have a good old time.

Thanks to Stephanie, Will, Diana, Wendy and all the customers at Score Bar and Hostal Aqui. We had a great time and, mark my words, we will be back!

Will Demonstrating the Old Stun Gun

Sole Lording over Chris

Diana Pouring a “Club”

Will, Stephanie, Diana

Local Ecuadorian “Pilsener”

The Aero Club Bar – San Diego

Just by chance of timing, my first post isn’t about one of the many San Francisco bars I frequent, but rather a dive-y bar down San Diego way. I’ve seen the Aero Club Bar from the I5 numerous times on my way up to Carmel Valley from the San Diego (SAN) airport. Thursday, I had about 30 minutes to kill while waiting for my flight back to SFO, and I immediately thought to spend the time checking out the bar. Turns out, it’s a very cool place, and very popular, too (see Yelp for just how popular).

Physically, it’s an excellent bar; long with maybe 15 right-height stools and an impressive display of bottles available. There were a few tables that ran along a wall across from the bar and a pool table. They also had about 10 beers on tap, and I chose a nice and hoppy Ballast Point Big Eye IPA.

It was about 5:00pm, and the long bar was about 80% filled with a mix of what looked like regulars, and an after-work crowd.

The bartender, Trish, was friendly and informative, chatting away as she washed glasses and filled everyone’s order. I had to go, but she suggested that next time I try the Ballast Point Sculpin IPA since I remarked about how much I liked the hoppiness of the Big Eye.

Former Ballast Point Big Eye at the Aero

Lots O Bottles

Trish from the Aero Club Bar