San Francisco's whiskey runs on passwords: Bourbon & Branch pours in a genuine Prohibition-era speakeasy on Jones Street. It ran as JJ Russell's Cigar Shop in the dry years, which the family will appreciate, and its sister bar Rickhouse stacks barrel staves to the ceiling off Kearny. Downtown smoke, hidden pour.
Tap a gold pin to see the bar and jump to its card below.
A true Prohibition speakeasy. It hid as JJ Russell's Cigar Shop from 1921, still pouring serious bourbon behind an unmarked door.
Pip’s Tip Reservation and a password. It hid as a cigar shop from 1921, and the house rules still apply.
Barrel staves to the rafters and a whiskey list to match, the Financial District's after-work bourbon hall from the Bourbon & Branch family.
Pip’s Tip Opens 3pm weekdays but not until 6 on Saturday, and closed Sunday. Financial District after-work room.
A Haight Street fixture where an encyclopedic whiskey collection meets serious bar food, bartenders who know their bourbon as well as their neighborhood.
Pip’s Tip Haight Street fixture with serious bar food. The bartenders know the shelf cold, so ask.
A 1907 saloon in the heart of North Beach pouring Gold Rush-era cocktails and a serious whiskey selection beneath pressed-tin ceilings.
Named for San Francisco's most notorious Barbary Coast block, this apothecary-meets-saloon pairs house-made bitters with a whiskey list built for slow sipping.
A subterranean speakeasy beneath the old Hearst Building, where a three-whiskey take on the Old Fashioned and nightly live jazz make the newspaper-den decor feel entirely earned.
An Art Deco time capsule inside the Clift, where a bar carved from an 800-year-old redwood tree still pours a proper Manhattan the way it has for nearly a century.
Twenty years deep on the edge of the Tenderloin, this whiskey-centric neighborhood bar built its reputation on rare pours at prices that don't punish curiosity.
The Mission's reigning cocktail chameleon reinvents its entire menu twice a year, but the whiskey program stays serious no matter the theme.
A Mission cocktail bar that organizes its menu by spirit, so whiskey drinkers get their own dedicated lineup, from smoky scotch highballs to Japanese whisky sours.
Tucked down a North Beach alley behind the old Basque Hotel, this speakeasy-feeling classic has poured buttered whiskey and deep sherry cocktails for over 25 years.
San Francisco's second-oldest bar, slinging whiskey since 1858 from a corner saloon that survived the 1906 fire and never stopped pouring.
A rustic-modern gathering spot on upper Market where the whiskey list runs deep and the cocktail program never stops experimenting.
Vintage train-station decor and hand-crushed ice set the scene for a Dogpatch cocktail bar that treats whiskey and homemade jerky as equally serious pursuits.
A book-lined cocktail den downtown where a punch-on-tap program and a rotating whiskey-forward menu make the literary theming feel clever, not gimmicky.
A high-energy Marina hangout with over 180 whiskies and a private barrel selection behind the bar, proof a country-bar vibe and a serious whiskey list aren't mutually exclusive.
A speakeasy-inspired Castro lounge that hosts monthly single-spirit tasting nights, whiskey included, guided by bartenders who clearly enjoy nerding out with guests.
A clubby, piano-soundtracked lounge atop Nob Hill inside the storied Huntington Hotel, pouring railroad-tycoon-era cocktails like the scotch-based Golden Spike.
It spent Prohibition disguised as a cigar shop; a century later it's still pouring behind the same unmarked door. The most PIPS whiskey story in America.
One lounge, one whiskey bar, one golden evening. Members hear first.
Every whiskey bar here pairs with a PIPS cigar lounge across town, see the Lounge Guide for the other half of the evening.
