FREE Gameday Grub and Bathroom Beauties at the 3300 Club

Outer Mission iconography. Always hope they'll fix the neon, though. Photo from Christopher Scott.

This place has been around in some form or another for over a hundred years.  I read somewhere that the Graywood Hotel, of which it occupies the bottom floor was, at one time, a grand lodge in the pastoral Noe Valley that city folk would come and rejuvenate themselves at.

I’ve also heard a rumour that the bar was, at one time, a now extinct species of, um, watering hole that was so low, gentlemen could actually relieve themselves without ever leaving their drinks behind…as there was a convenient trough running the length of the bar. Ah, those were the days sonny!  Bet you’ll never look at a foot rest quite the same way again.

At any rate, at least for the past fifty or so years it has been an old neighbourhood standby.  At one time frequented by union labourers, it holds its place on 29th and Mission amongst the ever gentrifying outer reaches of the Mission.

As far as drinking is concerned it shall not disappoint even the hardest and cheapest of livers and if you are fan of free food and sports, well my good man, you’re in luck!

'˜Niners games tend to be the surest bets, but the bar has been known to have some sort of crock-pot delight bubbling away on many random daytime hours – that’s right, this one be an eye-opener kinda place. Down the hatch!

The menu is hard to tack down, but in generally seems to be of the boiled meat and sandwich persuasion.  Not much for regularity granted, but a co-worker of mine told me he survived the first months after moving here on a diet of Budweisers and hot dogs, and really, isn’t that the American way?

Above everything else, however, the 33 is really an art bar.

There are many mediums at hand.  The art of standing up and walking steady has many a master and novice here, but perhaps the place is most renown for its fine selection of paintings.

The ones that adorn the front parlour are choice, but really don’t prepare you for those that lay in store for patrons of the men’s bathroom, though.

It would spoil the surprise to divulge too much, but it can be said that the female form has never been captured in just this way.  Rubens stand aside!

Oh, and if you do drop in and Frankie is working, tell him that Stevie from El Rio blows him a kiss.

The 3300 Club
3300 Mission Street (@ 29th Street)
[Outer Mission]
SF
415.826.6886