High Spirits: The Legacy Bars of San Francisco

by J.K. Dineen, Mike Buhler (Foreword)

Community, heritage, architecture—oh yes, and stiff pours: these are the hallmarks of San Francisco's Legacy Bars. High Spirits leads readers on a neighborhood-by-neighborhood pub crawl in search of the city's most remarkable nightspots. Atmospheric photographs accompany descriptions of each bar's colorful history, unique architectural features, idiosyncratic owners, and quirky clientele. As we dip into one barroom after another, we see that these establishments function as unofficial cultural centers, offering kinship and continuity amid an ever-changing city; indeed, all of the bars shown are at least forty years old and sites of significant historic or cultural value as deemed by San Francisco Heritage. Whether we are following in the footsteps of Beat writers in North Beach's Vesuvio Café, tossing peanut shells on the floor of The Homestead in the Mission, or selecting jukebox songs (three for a quarter) at the Silver Crest Donut Shop in Bayview, High Spirits welcomes us as regulars at every spot, showing off the conviviality that makes San Francisco one of the great saloon towns.

Genres: Nonfiction, History

240 pages, Paperback

First published October 6, 2015

About the author

J.K. Dineen is a San Francisco author and journalist. He is the author of two books: Here Tomorrow, about historic preservation in California (Heyday, 2013); and High Spirits (Heyday 2015), a book of essays about legacy bars of San Francisco. He joined the staff of the San Francisco Chronicle in 2014, focusing on real estate development for the metro group, a beat that includes land use, housing, neighborhoods, the port, retail, and city parks. Prior to joining The Chronicle, he worked for the San Francisco Business Times, the San Francisco Examiner, the New York Daily News, and a bunch of newspapers in his native Massachusetts, including the Salem Evening News and the MetroWest Daily News. A graduate of Macalester College, Dineen was a member of Teach For America’s inaugural class and taught sixth grade in Brooklyn, N.Y.

Reviews

[Bill · Rating 5 out of 5]

You may notice a common thread in a lot of my reviews, but pretty much any book about music, bars, or San Francisco is as close to a lock for five stars as one can get, and this book combines two of those into a wonderful snapshot of the city in a time when I probably went to each of these bars that year (save one or two). Though I have to add that it's sad to think that two legacy bars have shut down in the 7 years since this book was published.

It's a quick, light read, and I don't know that I'd usually say this about a book, but the photos really add a lot of the "feeling like you're there" aspect of the book. I think that might be what I liked best about this book in general: since most of the narrative comes from interviews, it really feels just you've pulled up a stool with a bunch of regulars who are sharing stories and history about their favorite bars.

If you're not a San Franciscan, or interested in local histories of the city, I can't imagine this is for you, but since I am both, this book was absolutely up my alley.

[Fresno Bob · Rating 4 out of 5]

would have liked to see more bars of the Mission