California publishes every liquor licence through a query system that stamps each report with the day you pulled it, and San Francisco keeps a registry of legacy businesses that protects golden Buddhas and trademarked cocktails by name. All five rooms were proved active against the state this week. Two of the road's favourite stories did not survive the checking, and the truth, as usual, is better.
- 1 · The Cold Open
The Buena Vista
The Buena Vista poured its first Irish coffee on 10 November 1952, after owner Jack Koeppler and Chronicle travel writer Stanton Delaplane sat up all night reverse engineering the one Delaplane had drunk at Shannon Airport. The cream trick, aged forty eight hours so it floats, came from George Christopher, a dairyman who later became mayor. The saloon itself is older than the stunt: it opened as the Buena Vista Saloon in 1891 and settled on this corner in the early 1900s, in a building the Niemann family owns to this day. The city put it on the Legacy Business Registry in 2022 and named the row of glasses a feature worth protecting. They still line the counter twenty at a time. Order two Irish coffees and watch the line get built.
the saloon 1891, this corner since the early 1900s, Irish coffee since 10 November 1952 · Mon to Thu 9am till 11pm, Fri 9am till midnight, Sat 8am till midnight, Sun 8am till 11pm; kitchen till 9.30pm · verified Aug 2026
- 2 · The Detour
The Saloon
The house counts from 1861, when Ferdinand Wagner, an Alsatian grocer, turned his shop at what was then 308 Dupont into Wagner's Beer Hall. Oldest bar in the city is the claim on the door, and the licence, number 150198, has been Myron Mu's since 1984. The famous rescue story, firemen saving the bar and its upstairs brothel while the city burned in 1906, is contested: a kite photograph of the block shows it burned out, so enjoy the tale as a tale. What is not contested is the music. Blues seven nights, at 4pm and again at 9.30, on a calendar the bar still posts monthly, cash only, one drink minimum. Order a beer in the can and stay for the second set.
- 3 · The Anchor
Tadich Grill
The 1849 is a lineage, not this room: three Croatian immigrants pitched a coffee tent on Long Wharf that year, John Tadich bought the successor business in 1887, and the Buich family has run it since 1928. Oldest restaurant in California is the house's own accounting, and it leans on that unbroken chain of purchases. This dining room dates from 1967, which the state can prove: licence 5205 was issued on 10 August 1967, the year of the move into the Buich Building at 240 California, city landmark 145. White coats, wooden booths, mesquite charcoal, and Sundays it is closed. Order the cioppino with sourdough for the mopping, and a martini beside it, because in here the century never quite turns.
a coffee stand lineage from 1849, the Tadich name 1887, this room since 1967 · Mon to Fri 11am till 9pm, Sat 4pm till 9pm, SHUT SUNDAY · verified Aug 2026
- 4 · The Wildcard
Li Po Cocktail Lounge
Through the grotto door since 10 February 1937, Chinese New Year's Eve, when Wilbert Wong and William Jack Chow opened the first bar in Chinatown and named it for the Tang poet. Wong went on to found the city's Chinese New Year parade in 1953; Chow was among America's first Chinese American lawyers. The city registered the room as a Legacy Business in 2019 and listed the golden Buddha, the neon lantern and the Chinese mai tai as features to be safeguarded. That mai tai, three rums and a sorghum and rose petal liqueur, has been trademarked since 1997, and Bourdain drank one on camera for The Layover in 2012. Two maximum is not a joke. Cash is safest, and it is a night room. One honest gap the city record itself keeps: who owned the bar from 1967 to 1997 is unknown even to the registry.
opened 10 February 1937; the ownership from 1967 to 1997 is unknown even to the city · a night room; the 2pm till 2am in circulation has no operator source, so trust the evening and verify the afternoon · verified Aug 2026
- 5 · The Last Call
Vesuvio
Henri Lenoir opened Vesuvio in 1948 in Italo Zanolini's 1913 building, and the Beats adopted it: Kerouac, Ginsberg, Ferlinghetti, Cassady, with City Lights across Jack Kerouac Alley, renamed for the man in 1988. The best story is in Big Sur itself: in 1960 Kerouac was due at Henry Miller's for dinner, got drunk here instead, and never went. Vesuvio Inc has held licence 18339 since 1965, the art on the mezzanine still changes, and July's opening went up on the seventh. It is a bar proper, twenty one and over, no kitchen, open from 11am daily. Stained glass, poetry in the rafters. Order a last call among the Beats under the coloured glass, then let the hill take you down to bed.