As you probably know by now, I love dive bars. Hell, I’m even the official dive bar columnist for SFGate. And since you also know we cover a whole bunch of art stuff on this site, the Dive Bar Art Crawl is pretty much the perfect thing for BAS, and

Editor’s Note: Smitty’s Cocktails is officially re-opening after a hiatus of over 3-years. After some delays, it’s finally all happening! Opening night is January 26th at 8pm. There will also be a large Grand Re-Opening Party later – date for that TBD.  Smitty’s Cocktails, one of Oakland’s oldest dive bars,

A Big Change to This Year’s Voter Guide We’ve been doing voter guides for a really long time. I’m pretty sure we put our first one out in like 2010 or something. And I know that thousands of you rely on our voter guides to help you make decision. But

It takes guts to go out and own your own business in the Bay Area. Could you imagine what kind of grit it takes to own a dive bar in Oakland of all places? And what if you’re a woman owning said bar in a male-dominated field? This is a

San Francisco’s legendary Lucky 13 might be closed forever, but its famous sign now lives on in infamy at Bender’s. I was at Bender’s on Wednesday night for Richie Cunning‘s Noise Pop show and looked up to see that snarling cat surveying the festivities. I can’t think of a better

Larger than life Chinatown bartender Mama Candy hasn’t been seen much lately, as her famed karaoke dive bar Bow Bow Cocktails has been closed throughout the pandemic. But Bow Bow Cocktails will run a little differently when it reopens in the next few weeks. SFGate reports that Mama Candy is

My grandpa was infamous in the Berkeley, Albany, El Cerrito area. To many, he was an old, drunk cuss of a man who had peeled his share of potatoes on Navy aircraft carriers. To me, he was Bampa and he was awesome. But awesome or not, he did manage to

Jay’n Bee Club had all the elements of a great Dive Bar, it was old, it had history, it had good drink prices and an extremely local clientele.  And it even had bonus features like a patio, a more recently, a very decent pizza oven. The Dive is already closed

Paul Bavaro thinks San Francisco’s dive bar scene may not be long for this world. When he opened Whiskey Thieves at 839 Geary St. 15 years ago, it was the “first true whiskey bar” that at one point served up 275 varieties and although good whiskey does not come cheap,