Comstock Saloon

Comstock Saloon stands at the point where Columbus Avenue meets Pacific, on the edge of the old Barbary Coast, and is built to look and behave like a San Francisco saloon of the 1890s: pressed tin, a long bar with a foot rail, a mezzanine, and a cocktail list weighted towards martinis, Manhattans, sazeracs and other pre-Prohibition drinks made properly. The Infatuation's guide to the city's best cocktail bars describes it as the kind of old-school bar that feels like it has been around since people rushed to the city to pan for gold, and recommends it for solo drinking at the bar as much as for a date. The kitchen puts out saloon food — pickled eggs, oysters, a burger — through the evening.

The non-alcoholic drinks get their own heading on the menu and are built with the same bar-back ingredients as everything else, which is what separates a real programme from a list of sodas. Five are named. The Torino Spritz uses Martini & Rossi's Floreale de-alcoholised aperitivo with non-alcoholic sparkling wine and seltzer. The No-No Nogroni substitutes Lyre's zero-proof gin and Giffard's aperitif syrup and uses a house kombucha in place of sweet vermouth, a technique that gives the drink the acid and funk that most alcohol-free negronis lack. Sbagliato Sbagliato applies the same kombucha vermouth to a sparkling build. Spruce Goose is made with Pathfinder, the fermented and distilled hemp spirit, cut with black tea, Giffard aperitif and lemon. Freebird is the long, tropical option, built on Ritual's zero-proof rum with Giffard aperitif, pineapple and lime. The bar trades Tuesday to Saturday, opening at 4pm and at noon on Fridays, and closes at midnight; it is closed Sunday and Monday. Notably for a room this classics-focused, the alcohol-free drinks are not simply the house cocktails with the spirit removed — each one is a separate build with its own substitutions, which is the difference between a bar that has thought about the category and one that keeps a bottle of Seedlip behind the well for emergencies. Walk-ins are welcome and dinner reservations are taken.