The weirdest novelty bars in San Francisco

cheap drinks, charmingly weird ambiance

speakeasy + escape room hybrid, Middle Earth-inspired

8-seat Horsies bar inside Royal Cuckoo Market, Western aesthetics with contemporary art

candlelight, white tablecloths, Miami Vice-style neon signage, blocks from Dolores Park

piano bar with show tunes, encyclopedic-knowledge pianist takes requests

experimental synthesizer artists, free jazz / world music mashups

indoor 14-hole mini golf course, full bar inside

dozens of ping-pong tables, DJ nights

Bay Area's first 100% solar-powered brewery, dog-friendly

30+ year SF nightlife institution, two stages, four dance floors, seven bars

walls covered in decades of oddities and memorabilia, down a tiny alley

Battle of the Decades Fridays — music starts in the 50s at 5pm, advances a decade each hour, drinks start at $1 and climb hourly with the decades

a quirky Larkin Street bar, kung-fu movies as ambiance

legendary Hot Boxxx Girls drag cabaret, last classic gay dive in the TL

named after wrestler Hank and boxer Ralph (1947), original phone booth

Art Deco building, Emperor Norton SF history theme

no signage out front, second-smallest bar in SF

disguised as pawn shop, pick up gold phone outside to negotiate with 'pawn master'

immersive tiki paradise — full-room theming with thatched roofs, idols, shrunken heads, homage to mid-century Oakland's Skipper Kent's Zombie Village

small queer-friendly TL dive, karaoke regularly

jungle plane crash theme, airplane fuselage seating

waterbed booths, porn loops on TVs

converted railroad dining car welded onto a Polk Street facade — actual streetcar interior, open until 4am — one of SF's most reliable late-night options

a cute, cozy cat-themed bar, low-key, post-show-friendly

glamorous lounge in the Beacon Grand, all-vinyl DJ sets

private themed karaoke rooms, half-off rooms Monday & Tuesday

Simpsons-themed bar (opened Feb 2025), Simpson & Son Revitalizing Tonic (elderflower/ginger/lemon/agave/tonic)

max capacity ~15 — genuine speakeasy scale, not a gimmick, cocktail program by Patrick — ask for his off-menu favorite

60+ pinball machines, working silk screen print shop attached

Persian-styled bar, cash only

replaced Virgil's Sea Room, funkified space-age decor

dimly lit, welcoming, and low-key, unusually good spirits selection for a NoPa neighborhood bar

insane craft beer selection, famously surly bartenders

punk-rock dive, two pinball machines, $1 games

a pirate-themed Polk Street bar, a pool table + flat-screens

Polk Gulch institution — Victorian-meets-fern-bar interior, frozen in 1979, hanging ferns everywhere, red velvet everywhere, brass everywhere

legendary trademarked Chinese mai tai ($12), cavernous red interior

red lanterns and icicle lights year-round, wall-spanning Buddha mural

smallest bar in SF — fits maybe 25 people, beer only — keg in a bathtub of ice, no cocktails, no taps

century-old Richmond institution, virtual golf simulator (the surprise)

a newer Clement Street izakaya bar, creative drinks + late-night bites

tiki dive since 1937, scorpion bowls

continuously open since 1908, no clocks or TVs allowed

indoor rainstorms over a pool, band on a floating raft

40,000-sqft urban canvas, premier underground EDM/house music venue in SF

San Francisco's first sake brewery, small-batch unpasteurized nama sake (most sake you've tried is pasteurized — this changes that)

a low-key Japantown karaoke bar, free songs (no per-song fee)

since 1933 (Playland at the Beach roots), 300+ coin-operated machines

the Long Now Foundation's bar/cafe — house of the 10,000-Year Clock project, Stewart Brand's curated library shelves the walls (3,500 books for the long-term thinker)

hofbrau-style cafeteria attached to a full bar — opened 1947, exterior covered in folk-art murals; you cannot miss it