10 Best Bars in SoMa, San Francisco

The Palace Hotel's clubby, wood-paneled watering hole takes its name from the 1909 Maxfield Parrish mural The Pied Piper of Hamelin, which covers most of the wall behind the bar. The Pied Piper lures an upscale clientele for stiff two-olive martinis, Manhattans, and other trad libations.

The city's best brewery within actual walking distance of downtown resides on a warehouse stretch of SoMa that is better known for Bay Bridge on-ramp traffic than food and drink. The cozy, colorful tasting room is always friendly and full of great fresh, gluten-removed beers on tap. It's hard to pick from the extensive list of brews, but there's a wide variety of styles, from classic lagers and pilsners to uniquely flavored sours and imperial stouts.

The music changes nightly at the venerable DNA Lounge, with Monday Night burlesque and gothic-synthpop shows, themed weekend dance parties, and a wide range of music styles each evening. With two stages and multiple dance floors on two levels (plus a restaurant and several bars), the festivities are rarely uncomfortably crowded and always huge amounts of fun.

History and great cocktails collide at one of the city's most legendary bars. There are rumors that President Warren G. Harding met his final fate here, but other accounts say that happened across the street at the Palace Hotel. Today, over a century after pouring its first drink, it's a favorite watering hole for the Financial District happy hour set, then a quieter, casual date spot later on. The cocktails are prepared with the same care and quality as at its flashier, newer peers.

Slowly but surely San Francisco is developing a reputation for great rooftop restaurant-bars high above the city. Among the best is on the 12th floor of the Hyatt Place near Oracle Park, where the setting looks like a tropical rainforest in the middle of urban sprawl, and the food and drink focuses on Nikkei cuisine (Japanese-Peruvian). Reservations are recommended, and make sure to bundle up. Its chic sibling restaurant at the base of this building has a more ambitious menu and is also well worth a dinner visit.

The sibling to Union Square bar stalwart P.C.H. is just as compelling for locals and travelers alike looking for some of the city's greatest cocktails. With colorful lighting and wall decor made of comic book and karate film prints, the space is a feast for the eyes. But it's really all about the outstanding cocktails with unique ingredients like bay leaf, calamansi, and pandan in the Boracay Old-Fashioned.

This watering hole is popular with bikers, bears, and the men who love them. The inside bar has an old tavern feel, with a pool table and a long wooden bar you half expect the bartender to sling a beer down. Weekend "Beer Busts" unfold on the great outdoor patio bar. The action can get steamy during events like Gay Pride or the Folsom Street Fair.

This stylish restaurant and trendy bar has an outdoor patio perfect for sunny days with pizzas, burgers, and beers. But, this fan favorite is really all about its proximity to Oracle Park—it's the ballpark area's unofficial gathering place before and after games.

This spacious indoor-outdoor leather bar is a holdover from the days before SoMa's gentrification. The Sunday afternoon "Beer Busts" remain a high point of the leather set's week, Mondays are for karaoke, and there are DJs and live music generally Thursday and Friday. This remains a welcoming place for people from all walks of life.

Art-deco-influenced floor-to-ceiling windows frame superb views on the 39th floor of the San Francisco Marriott Marquis. You won't feel out of place here just getting a drink or two rather than dinner, but the small bites are usually delicious. It can get crowded at happy hour on weekdays and all night on weekends.