The Bars That Time Forgot, an occasional series, vol. V: The Embers

I lived on Frederick Street in the early 90's, not far from the now-trendy Inner Sunset, which back then just Just a Neighborhood and not a thing real estate agents put on flyers.  It was just regular stuff.  Still a great neighborhood, just relatively undiscovered, I guess.

One place that didn't want to be discovered was The Embers, a depressing and frightening dive bar at 627 Irving, between 7th and 8th.  The Embers was a small dark room with the usual dive bar accoutrements, like old guys chainsmoking in front of Bud bottles and a surly (at least that's how I remember him) bartender.  You can still get all that stuff today if you know where to look.  But the Embers had one terrifying feature that other dive bars lacked: the walls were covered in pictures of CLOWNS. AAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!

It's surprisingly difficult to find pictures of this haunting decor online.  Of course I was young and stupid and it never occurred to me to take pictures.  Back then, taking pictures required carrying a camera around with you, so it wasn't as convenient.  Also, parking was easier.  Anyway.  Luckily, I found some pics on Snapcity.com, and hopefully the owner of Snapcity.com doesn't get mad at me for using them here.

You can get kind of a sense of what was going on from these pictures, but it doesn't really convey the full horror of walls covered in clown pictures.  It was really something.

Jack Boulware wrote a great piece on the bar for SF Weekly:

Neither clowns nor smokes have ruined business for the Embers, which Jack has operated since 1969 at its present Irving Street location, and run in other Geary Boulevard incarnations since 1955. The clown motif began with Jack's wife, who installed four clown pictures originally to fill up a blank wall of the joint. Customers latched onto the idea and kept bringing in more and more clown artifacts, many from all over the world, until today the bar is literally packed with clown images.

"Some girl brought me in one last week," says Jack, a spry 70-year-old in blue striped sport shirt and khakis.

The Embers sadly passed in 1996.  Now it's Pluto's, some kind of faux health food place I think?  I went there once and couldn't figure it out.

The Bars that Time Forgot, an occasional series, vol IV: The Jack's empire

Today's TBTTF is a little different because we're not talking about just one bar, but a whole chain of bars that used to dot the city.  When I first got here in 1990 there were at least 6 of them and there may have been more before then.  I'm assuming that there was a real "Jack" who opened the ur-Jack's at some point and then his empire grew and grew but I don't know for sure.

Here's an ad from a 1994 SF Weekly:

As you can see, six bars are listed there.  I did some research and by research I mean Googling for 10 minutes and here's what we've learned:

Jack's Bar - Maybe the flagship?  Who knows.  It was at 1601 Fillmore and is now the Boom Boom Room.  I can remember going there when it was still Jack's.  According to "Historic Walks in San Francisco: 18 Trails Through the City's Past," Jack's originally opened in 1933 on Sutter and was the first bar in the area to cater to African-Americans.  Pretty cool.  When I went there it seemed like it catered mostly to drunk white boys like myself.  I remember a lot of taps?  Was that their thing?  Maybe.

Jack's Cable Car - at 1548 California, now the horribly-named "Soda Popinski's."  In the interim it was apparently at some point called "California Dream'n," as referenced in this SF Weekly piece that notes that the Jack's Cable Car sign is still out front.

via SF Weekly, natch

Jack's Red Bear - 1176 Sutter, where R Bar is now.  I have no memory of this ever being Jack's Red Bear!  Prior to R Bar, the space was An Sibin, a DJ bar back when there were "DJ bars."  Again, SF Weekly proves helpful by informing us that before it was An Sibin it was Mulligan's so who knows when the Red Bear bit the dust.

Jack's Elixir - is now, unsurprisingly, Elixir, at the corner of 16th and Guerrero.  According to Elixir's own website, it was a Jack's only from 1990 to 1998.  I can definitely remember coming here when it was a Jack's.

Jack's Taps - This is the one that blew me away.  At 1300 Church (at 25th), it's now a "Purely Physical Fitness," which I guess is the opposite of a bar.  Walking by there, there is no indication that it used to be a bar.  I had no idea.

Jack's Presidio - Well, I guess this one surprised me too.  3490 California, now a UCSF Primary Care center, which I guess is just as opposite of a bar as a gym.  I have no memory of ever hearing anything about Jack's Presidio, but apparently it was a bar as late as 1994.  Street view for 3490 California gives no hint:

Based on that picture (which looks like it could be in Anytown, CA, BTW), I would say the building housing Jack's Presidio has long since been demolished.

So that's about it.  I have this feeling there has to be a much better history of the Jack's chain of bars somewhere so if you know where that is, please point me to it.  It's kind of amazing that this whole chain just disappeared without a trace.

(Postscript: I have no idea if Jack's Cannery Bar is a holdout or is in any way related to the original Jack's chain. I kind of doubt it but I could be wrong.)

UPDATE!!!!!  Reader Stephen has reminded us that the current home of Emperor Norton's Boozeland (which is a fine bar in its own right and worth a visit for the $3 Anchor California Lager on tap alone [but that might just be for happy hour]) used to be Jack's Deco and then just Deco.  In fact, if you had the magical ability to see to the left and right of the ad pictured at top, you'd see the next door neighbor ad on the left is for the uni-named "Deco," indicating that Jack had already left the building,  Thanks, Stephen!

FURTHER UPDATE!!!!  Another helpful reader writes in with memories about the mysterious Jack's Presidio:

Re Jack's Presidio location:  I have lived in LH since 1986.  The picture you have on your web site shows a mixed-use building with apartments, Charles Schwab, a high-end sandwich place, etc.  Before that building, however, there was a big diner called the Sugar Plum, which was a much larger version of the Zim's and Miz Browne's Feed Bag diners across the street in Laurel Village.  It had a small cocktail lounge built inside it.

Yes, at one time there were three diners in the hood, and now there are none.  But we do have an eatery with the ridiculously precious name Beautifull!, which sells yuppie catnip at stoopid prices.

Anyway, sometime circa the early 1990s, the Jack's Bars began to explode throughout the city, grabbing on to the early microbrew explosion in SF, which began in the mid-1980s.  From my memory, the Jack in the Mission was the first one, with all other ones branching off from that...but my memory only goes back to 1984, when I moved here.

So, the small cocktail lounge was replaced by a Jack's branch.  Absolutely nothing was done to the interior to modify or upgrade it.  It was still a hole-in-the-wall, just with a better beer selection.  It offered the nice opportunity to do a beer "runner" between that location and the Pig and Whistle, which opened up a Geary/Laurel circa the early 1990s.  Jack's Presidio only stayed open a few years, though, maybe 2-3.

The Bars That Time Forgot, an occasional series, vol III: Great Water Bar & Cafe

(In The Bars That Time Forgot, we will, on occasion, pause to remember a drinking place that has shuffled off this mortal coil.)

This installment is a twofer and has a surprise twist ending!

Great Water Bar & Cafe was, incongruously, a bar with a Thai restaurant inside.  

I couldn't find any actual pictures of Great Water.  This is what 373 Broadway looks like now, anyway.

In fact, now that I think about it, almost everything about Great Water was incongruous.  It was at 373 Broadway - where today sits uber-utzy Coi, a fancy-pants restaurant where dinner costs $195 and features things like "fermented carrot" - which is in the heart of the Strip Club and Douchebag Dance Club District (next door to Centerfolds, in fact), but had nothing in common with establishments of that type.  No doorman, no oonce oonce music, no fancy cocktails.  Just drinks and pool and Thai food served through a window in the back.  I used to live up the hill in North Beach and went there pretty regularly because it was one of the least annoying bars in North Beach and that's really saying something.

Inside it seemed like they were going for sort of a British colonial Caribbean theme, with ferns and lots of wood and high ceilings.  There were a couple of pool tables and an excellent bartender named Tim who was affable and remembered what you like.  A couple of years after Great Water closed, I ran into Tim smoking outside Elixir on 16th (and coincidentally, Elixir will feature in an upcoming episode of Bars That Time Forgot) and he said he'd gotten a job on a cruise ship.  Hopefully things worked out for Maritime Tim.

As I mentioned, there was a window in the back wall from whence one could order and receive Thai food.  I never ate there so I don't know what the deal with that was.  

I'm not sure when Great Water closed. Maybe around 2005?  I guess there was nothing that special about it - it certainly wasn't a destination bar - but it was the kind of place you'd automatically feel comfortable in and it was a nice respite in a part of town with lots and lots of bars but very few you'd actually want to spend any time in.  

WHOA WAIT A SECOND.  I was just doing some followup Googling and discovered to my surprise that this same location was also home to something called "Bierhaus on Broadway"!  In fact, this guy recommends it, says they have "over 100 microbrews," and, amazingly enough, says, "The bartender Tim, was very helpful between free sample shots and other brewpubs and breweries to visit."  I assume Bierhaus on Broadway was before Great Water (that review is from 1995), so I guess Tim came with the bar!  

The Bars That Time Forgot, an occasional series, vol II: Silhouettes

(In The Bars That Time Forgot, we will, on occasion, pause to remember a drinking place that has shuffled off this mortal coil.)

Silhouettes was a vaguely '50s-themed bar in North Beach, on Union and Cadell alley.

Here's a picture of the exterior, as it approximately looks today.

 There was a large front room/bar, and then a back room with a fireplace and some pinball machines.  Not any place you'd go out of your way to go to, but it was nice to have in the neighborhood.  When I lived up the hill on Union in the very early 90's, we would occasionally go there because it was the closest bar to our house, everyone there was friendly, and it was completely scene-less, which was nice.  Come to think of it, though, most places in North Beach were pretty scene-less back then.  It wasn't really like it is today.  There were still strip clubs on Broadway but it wasn't like the crowds of shitheads starting fights on the sidewalks at last call that you get now.

Since Silhouettes vanished long before the Internet came along, there is very little about the place online.  However, I did find this FASCINATING reference on a site called ReelSF.com, which appears to catalog movie locations in San Francisco and to whoever runs ReelSF.com, GREAT JOB.  I'm warning you now: DO NOT start looking at ReelSF.com unless you have an afternoon free.

According to ReelSF.com, Silhouettes was once the "Paper Doll Club" and was in a movie called "The Sniper."  Here's a shot of the place from the film, courtesy ReelSF.com:

Looks like they opened it up with some windows.  Much better now!  According to ReelSF.com, the Paper Doll Club became the 524 Club, Russo's, and Cadell Place before Silhouettes.  I think the Paper Doll Club is maybe the best bar name of all time and somebody needs to jump on that shit right away.

AS A MATTER OF FACT, we should Kickstarter this shit because, drum roll, THIS BAR IS CURRENTLY FOR RENT.

OHMYSHIT.  We will get this place open, rechristen it the Paper Doll Club, maybe with a '50s theme again?  But not '50s drive-in, doo-wop Grease-type theme, but '50s noir, Frank Sinatra, martinis theme!  I know $7000 a month is a big nut, but fuck it, we can charge $12 for a sidecar now.  Who's in?

(I should note that after Silhouettes, this became an Irish bar called The Field for a while and persisted in that incarnation well into the second time I lived on Telegraph Hill, in the early '00s.  It's been vacant ever since.  It's just WAITING for us to roll in and take over and make it our clubhouse.  LET'S DO IT.)

[POSTSCRIPT: I just realized I've been doing this stupid blog for SIX YEARS NOW.  1100-odd posts.  Christ.]

The Bars That Time Forgot, an occasional series, vol 1: Doctor Bombay's

(In The Bars That Time Forgot, we will, on occasion, pause to remember a drinking place that has shuffled off this mortal coil.)

Doctor Bombay's was on 16th between Guerrero and Valencia, where Double Dutch is now.

Photo found on MisterSF.com. Thanks!

As you will see, most bars that fold become other bars.  I guess it's because once you have all the bar stuff in a room, it makes sense to keep it as bar.  After Doctor Bombay's closed, around the time of the first dot-com boom (another recurring theme), it became Cama and then Double Dutch?  Or was there something else in the middle?  I can't recall.

Anyway, Doctor Bombay's was a vaguely tropical/desert mishmash inside.  There was bamboo and hieroglyphics on the wall.  Maybe some kind of fake palm trees?  It's hard to remember.  It's hard to remember because the house specialty was something called "Pixie Piss," which had a kind of Sweet N Sour candy taste and, if memory serves, was pink or red? I think?  It had a lot of spirits in it too, so the details are vague.

DB drew an eclectic crowd, typical of the Mission back then.  I do remember they had better-than-average DJs, and an especially good Britpop night.  Remember when having Britpop nights was a thing?  It wasn't a Destination Bar for me, but I was always glad to find myself there.

Doctor Bombay's probably closed around 1999-2000, somewhere in there.  RIP.