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Category: Dive Bars
Neighborhoods: Nob Hill, Union Square"I am a lucky lady- I've been to many bars throughout several states. I've been from fancy-shmancy to full-on-dive, favoring the latter to…" read more »
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I remember going to Chelea Place like 5 times. Never remember leaving. I do, however, remember a bunch of girls kissing, almost getting into 2 fights with a couple different people, hot bartenders, cheap drinks and ending up in a fountain somewhere. I swear, I'm never drinking again.
Good times.
'Collin is a one-pump chump,' according to a scorned lover with a permanent pen. Whoever this guy is, he must have been a REALLY big jerk for her to grab a marker from her purse and scribble this slur on the bathroom wall in her 8th grade-educated penmanship.
I'm guessing Collin doesn't come here anymore. *pause* Still, that doesn't stop my eyes from grazing over the regulars and wondering if one of them is the alleged minuteman.
In order to get to the bathroom to see what the ladies of Chelsea Place think about their conquests, you'll need to walk through the bar, wind down the stairs, skip through a hallway, beat down some more carpet, and face a very weird padded door.
I imagine the path is similar to one in an old speakeasy during prohibition. But with invisible monsters and stuff. It would make one hell of a Haunted House, that's for sure, so be careful.
The drinks at this dark and dank dive bar are cheap and stiff, especially given the proximity to Union Square.
Not a party place, but a great spot to bring someone with whom you're having a clandestine affair, just make sure she doesn't excuse herself to the restroom with a Sharpie.
I think the only reason that people come into this place is that the management turns a blind eye to the smokers. Either that or they want to flirt with the washed up Asian hooker bartenders. (overheard quote bartender to patron: "Can you give me $2 to play some music?".... He came up with it.)
I know folks want to call I a dive bar, but shouldn't a dive bar have a drink on the menu that costs less than $3.50? Isn't a cheap drunk the whole point of a dive?
As for me, I forgot how much the smoke burns my eyes. I think it's karma trying to tell me something.
I'm pretty sure this bar is what dive bar means. In the time it took to get one drink I stunk of cigarettes on the way out. Dimly lit, drunks screaming, barely any seats that aren't at the bar. This seems like the perfect place to go on a pretty serious bender.
Best dive bar. Ever.
A recent transplant to the neighborhood, my first and only introduction to Chelsea Place had been hearing the ruckus outside of the bar that generally begins around 11:30pm and sometime doesn't stop until close to 3am. It seemed that something in their drinks causes their customers to suffer from Voice Immodulation Syndrome; luckily, I have dual paned windows, and frankly all the noise only piqued my curiosity.
When I finally moseyed on over, I was pleasantly surprised by my experience. The bar had quite a variety of patrons, including a wedding party still in their wedding regalia ordering pizza to the dark back section. The bar tenders are delightfully snarky and know how to have a good time- including playing 1's and 6's with you to test your luck at a free drink (or buying them a shot). Plus, they offer free peanuts and popcorn when you need a little something to soak up the juice, though quite honestly I would have much rather had the king crab leg that one of the bar tenders was voraciously gnawing on behind the bar. Further, the bar offers a pre-January 1st 1995 experience as mentioned in other reviews. Not that this actually applies to me, but something about it makes it all the smuttier- and I like smutty.
To complete this short and sweet review, I affirm all of my supporting points to my thesis sentence are true. (Did that work?) Finally, in closing, I compel you fine readers of Yelp to give Chelsea Place and it's bartenders your hard earned money.
My favorite dive bar in San Fran!
Playing 1's and 6's for drinks is so fun!
This place is seriously cool. Its not fancy or spectacular but it packs some fun. The bartenders, a group of Asian ladies, are all outgoing and outspoken,creating an entertaining and interactive environment. Everyone seems to be having a great time at what would just be normally another filthy bar on the streets.
Drinks are pretty cheap but the ladies are not exactly the best at making drinks so selection may be limited. Great place to stop by before a crazy night out. This is one bar in which I enjoy the lack of aesthetics.
This is a really wierd place. Brown water leaked from the ceiling... and it wasn't raining. The korean ladies were down right mean, when I tried to order a shot, I heard "why don't you shut up and finish your beer (thats her in the picture)." The bathroom is a converted bomb shelter. The locals inside are reasons to go to AA. The jukebox is a joke.
That said, I had a blast, even when they kicked us out. The refrain was ",get the f### out, get the f### out, get the f### out." It has nothing on New Orleans dives, but it is a worthy spot for those seeking authentic absurdity, flavored with good old fashioned bi-polarity.
Bukowski would have loved this place.
I walked in and an overpowering smell of vomit hit me like a rock. I like dive bars and am used to the funky odors but this was a lot to take. I was 30 minutes early to meet some people here so I had to stay and I'm glad I did because this place is awesome. The cigarette smoke, which I usually hate, covered the vomit smell pretty quickly anyway.
This place is full of characters, I could sit and people watch here for hours.
Imagine walking in to your living room to see i't s been transformed in to a mini bar with about 8 30-somethings sitting around smoking cigarettes, playing dice with the hot Asian bartenders while taking down shots of whiskey. That's pretty much how I felt when I walked in to Chelsea. It's cozy to say the least and while it wreaks of cigarettes and stale beer there's something quite alluring about this place. They've got all the primary ingredients for a true dive bar...and I love them for that. You can go in for some pop corn and a beer in a relaxed and chill atmosphere all the while being served by a cute bartender.
Chelsea'a Place...
If your into a great dive bar with crazy people, and hot Koreans this is your bar. Just remember that there are 20+ year regulars there, so mind your manners.
I can't tell if it was it the 50 year old Korean bartender lady in fishnets, or the giant marijuana plant skillfully-scrawled in chalk on the dart scoreboard, but something about this dark, catacomb-ey dive atop the Stockton Tunnel made me smile. I stopped to get some treatment for my HypoMakersMarkEmia (it's vanishingly rare but crippling) after some Union Square sale rack-hopping. As I crunched on free peanuts in front of the long-unused fireplace, my eyes wandered from all the old client photos on the wall to the mix of tchotchkes above the bar from various decades, and I felt at home. Except for the creepy Asian "good luck" cat statuette that I have a phobia for. It just WAVES at you all night.
Anyway, Chelsea Place is a rich old stinky neighborhood dive that I'd recommend any time of day.
I love this place, plain and simple. The liquor is expensive but the beers are fine, just fine. Go here. It's like the Cheers of Nob Hill...only all the bartenders are Asian ladies.
A blase two stars for this oddly-situated-on-Nob-Hill dive, only because it comes fairly close to that dive-bar aesthetic I'm endlessly searching for. It could stand to be a touch darker, but it certainly is dingy, small, and free of modern decorations (all highly desirable characteristics), with an odd mish-mash of wall adornments. Lady Pestlebottom and I sat at an old marble table which was awkwardly placed under a ledge along the back wall, which one could ineffectively hide one's head beneath, or rest one's head upon it after just the right number of cocktails. Upon said ledge were strewn orange crumbs from some cheese-based cracker snack. One aesthetic point.
The bartendresses were nice, and the patrons were of a mixed variety of white males. All were smoking. Three televisions broadcasted sporting events, always a sign of a boring drinking establishment.
Aesthetic points aside, we will most likely not visit this establishment again. I was quite turned off by the rampant cigarette smoking and extremely loud and irritating music. The sort of popular music the kids are listening to these days with the voice-modulated vocals that I can't stand. Although at one point the lights grew slightly dimmer and a Bon Jovi ballad was played. A slight improvement, but overall the ambience was not thrilling for us, and so we made a hasty exit as soon as our glasses were drained, and headed downhill in search of something darker...
(we did not find it that evening. See the Hi-Tide for our next disappointment.)
Good dive bar to stop by if you're in the 'hood. Would give 3.5 stars - it would be 4 if the prices actually reflected the divey atmostphere. $5 for a house vodka soda is reasonable but higher than I'd like for happy hour @ a dive. Bonus points for the free peanuts in shell they give you, and friendly Korean lady bartender - she seemed pretty toasted already at 4:30 as she appeared to be doing bourbon shots with the all male patrons seated @ the bar :p
5 stars for my place. Really, it looks shady as hell from the outside, but this place KICKS ASS.
I'm not a smoker, but I could tolerate it here. It's divey, gritty, but homey in a weird way. Decor varied from Bob Marley to the Beatles, to of course, Chelsea FC stuff. Music varied from Warren G & Nate Dogg to Coldplay to Tears for Fears, and it was pretty loud. If that's not character, I don't know what is.
The bartenders were very friendly and adorable. Giving folks at the bar popcorn and pretzels, taking shots with patrons and giving out thirsty looking fellas shots of Jameson on the house. You could tell clearly who were regulars, but we were treated just as kindly.
-1 star for a prehistoric looking insect that crawled along the bar. Death by Heineken bottle.
This place is AWESOME!!
Me and my friend CHELSEA decided to go to this place after we found that Voda Vodka was closed down. We are definitely happy we came here.
The bartenders are awesome and they offered us free popcorn and pretzels. The drinks were nice and strong but not too strong.. average drink prices for SF. Parking not too hard to find. 2 TVs on the wall and smoker friendly. Would definitely come here again!
I had a good time because i was on a bit of a pub crawl
It was a cool little dive
and to steal from Melanie D.'s review
my irish coffee was 9 dollars!!!!
how could it be 6-7 dollars in the most touristy spots in the city and 9 here?
in any case I still had a good time
beware the stairs (a few more irish coffees and I wouldve fallen down them)
This is the sketchiest bar I have _ever_ been to in San Francisco, and I loved every minute of it.
You couldn't create a shadier environment if you tried. And it's $&@# awesome.
Best divebar in the coutry - make sure you ask Dede to play dice with you!
While I'm having a drink at the bar I usually see a few people peek in to see if it's safe to come in. Usually they poke their heads in, make a funny face, and run off. Yes, this is your typical grungy dive bar. But the cute Asian bartenders make it four stars, as they make all your troubles melt away, literally. Middle aged white men galore, they're all dreaming about taking the cute Thai girl home.
The staff is super friendly and they are very welcoming. It's not pretentious place at all, which I like. It's cozy, the drinks are strong, and there's a jukebox with some classic rock. Oh, and it usually smells like popcorn and cigarettes. Delicious!
I was drawn to this bar because my name is Chelsea, and was delightfully surprised to find good prices on booze and that I could smoke inside. Awesome. I'm also proud to say that "my" place has some hot lady bartenders!
Cheers to Chelsea Place!
Why does this place average a generous 4 stars?
This place is terrible. Its an old run down hole in the wall bar next to Chinatown. Place is dirty, I was hesitant to drink out of their glasses. Bartenders are shaddy and pretty skanky. I wouldn't be suprised if this was a front for a secret brothel. Avoid at all costs. I rather get my drink on at a 7-11.
Yes, it's a dive so I guess dive standards are in order. If you want to show off the fancy schmancy collared dress shirt you just overpaid for in order to spend too much money on lousy drinks and impress the ladies with the cool credit card you're financing with what remains of your graduate school loans, do not come here. Believe me, there are better places in SF to show off your bling and your bad boy self.
If you have a more simple approach to life: Drink alcohol, Scream loudly, Have fun, Fall down, Stand up, Have more fun. Chelsea is a good place. Ah. Simplicity...
It's a Dive! Just so you know what you are getting yourself into this is a typical dive bar. Long single bar, missed-matched wall hangings that build character, retro jukebox and a few small tables.
Once inside you will be greeted by the lovely female bartenders who will gladly dance on the bar with you and serve you up delicous, pipping hot pop-corn (free of course). No worries if the music runs dry because the bartenders will happily give some change to livin-up the mood.
And here's the best part, the insider tip...if you are feeling lucky that is. Go ahead and try your luck against the bartenders at their version of dice. You win = free shot, You lose= you buy them one and take a shot together.
No fancy amenities. Just good old-time fun with tunes, pop-corn and friendly bartenders.
A dive decorated in CFC memorabilia?!?! HELL YES!
One of the guys in my IPRC class found this place for us to drink after our exam - we were all stressed from the exam and needed several stiff drinks so this place was a good call!
The bar is definitely a dive, and cleanliness of the drinking glasses was questionable, but if you're looking to pound a few, who cares? haha, ok, you should still care.
Our bartender was very nice (we never saw the bottom of our glasses), there were free pretzels/peanuts, and the bar has CFC memorabilia!
yeah - a solid 3 star, for the secret smoking bar, but it is a little spendy and for this I am stymied...
3 stars for now...we'll see if they can improve.
first visit yesterday, nothing to write home about.…
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All right, I know this is supposed to be a charming dive bar, but for some reason, this place just creeped me out. Maybe it was the seemingly drunk older gentlemen next to me at the bar, who, it turns out, were drinking O'doul's, which didn't make any sense to me, but I guess perhaps they had tied on a good one early and wanted to stay out. Maybe it was the (bless them, they are very sweet, but...) barmaids. They were amiable, but something seemed so hostess bar-esque about them. And the guys trying to dominate the attention of them seemed more like the over-eager patrons of the lady bars in Thailand, rather than a dive bar in Nob Hill.
This place smells bad, too.
Unless I move into an apartment across the street, there doesn't seem to be much of a chance of me going back to this little hole.
Fernet is chilled. Very tasty chilled (or at room temperature, but variety is good.)
Is this a Chelsea football club bar?
When you want divey-DIVEY, this is the place to be...just don't be too drunk to stumble off the steps going to the bathroom.
I like my drinks strong and served with an attitude and the bartenders there do just that. I've been here on many random nights and they just continue on with my random adventure of a night. I knew I was in trouble when "ONE BOURBON, ONE SCOTCH, ONE BEER" was playing when I got in. Seriously...
When I want to chill out, drink and smoke a cigarette in Nob Hill, this is the place I go. It's my favorite dive bar in the area hands down. The ambience is bizarre and the bar is dirty but it's sure to entertain and there's no pretention here. Everyone's welcome.
Yes! Yes! Yes!
I rolled dice for my drinks and it was as awesome as it sounds!
Soon after entering I saw a guy (Mike) rolling dice with one of the bartenders. After a quick lesson I was ready. For those of you that don't know the rules of "6 and 1" it works like this...
Both you and the bartender get five dice. The objective is to get rid of all your dice, you either do this by rolling a "6", in which case you pass it to your opponent who has to roll it next turn, or you roll a "1", in which case you put it aside and it is out of play. You roll at the same time over and over until one of you emerges as the victor. If you win you get a free drink of your choice and if you lose you have to buy the bartender a drink of her choice ($10 price cap). This is a win win situation really because either way people are getting drunk.
After 4 games...maybe 5, I either broke even or was one up, it gets fuzzy towards the end.
I had a great time and will definitely be back! Thanks to Mike for teaching me the game!
I like this place. Good neighborhood bar feel.
Honestly, it's hit and miss as far as bartenders and patrons go. Some are friendly, some are not. But the drinks can be cheap.
Most of the regulars here are pleasant and easy to chat up, but there are some...I don't know...just plain out fall-down-drunk, digging-deep-in-the-pockets-for-change-for-one-mor e-drink, bums here, too.
One patron in particular, I think named Ben, is a complete waste of a life. What a tiny, bitter loser. LMAO! If you meet him, just move far on down the bar and forget his sad ass. Seriously. Or just spit beer in his face.
All and all, I've had great nights here, and lowlights. I think as long as you're out of the place by 6-7ish PM, you'll enjoy yourself.
Walking into this place at 1pm on a tuesday afternoon I had no idea what to expect. There was an older gentlemen at the end of the bar and me. The bartender was playing the violin and the soda on tap guy was fixing the lines behind the bar. The music from the violin was a very nice addition to the ambiance. Chelsea place looked clean from what I saw and I plan on going back if I'm in the neighborhood.
This bar was less than fifty feet from my apartment for a year so you can bet your ass i was here more than i should have been.
Never in my life had i been exposed to a city dive bar but Chelsea Place left a good impression. Friends from my building and i would hit this place like twice a week after class, and always stop by to say hi to the owner Jen, once a weekend after a night of partying.
The service is.. good. I am reluctant to say so because they Jen hires new bartenders frequently that have little or no experience. After a just a few weeks though, their knowledge expands and you get to know them very well, all very sweet ladies.
The clientele are mostly regulars, all of which are nice people. I have encountered some assholes in the place which were dealt with if they were being too rowdy.
I am not going to be a narc, but i would deduct a star for the lack of air quality on busy nights. Too bad i love the place as much as i do. Nothing could sway me from my five star review. NOTHING.
Memories from this place include a few birthdays, many stumbles back to my place, my longboard being ran over by a taxi, kim-chi noodles, liars die, meeting my first set of city friends and Roxanne by the Police.
cheers to jen, travis, tim, jackie, dan, jenny, and thai pete. You guys are the sickness.
I like it a lot!
Just decided to go check it out after reading all the reviews. I made sure I knew what I was getting myself into. It was hot in there no air-con on one of those its 90 degrees in SF days.
I got the cold beer off tap. It was good. I stepped away from the bar and moved to the far wall because I knew that the ladies behind the bar tended to flirt. I could feel it already. So yeah if your single and have low self esteem then this place would probably pump it up a bit.
When I was finished with one beer, one of them asked me for another pretty quickly. So yeah got the 2nd beer, and now I'm slightly buzzed and writing this after arriving back to my hotel room.
Its a divey atmosphere like everybody says. It has 3 tvs going at it. And the jukebox seemed to have good music.
All in all. It was fun. I went solo so if I can handle it anybody can. This place doesn't have the regulars that stare you down. If they are it's probably becuase they think one of the bargirls is their girlfriend. And its definitely all bargirls.
There is popcorn. There is smoke.
It just seems like a good place to chill out and grab a drink to relax after a long day.
So my friend was hiding from someone, and we were on a bender for the same reason, she had to flee a hotel bar - it was very "on the lam"-- and we figured the maybe the Tunnel Top would be good, it's dark and has a balcony.
Tunnel Top was closed, Chelsea Place was not, we went in, we drank drinks. It was a better time than we'd have had at the Tunnel Top anyway. The decor is rough and the layout confusing (bathroom is lost somewhere downstairs), but the patrons are damn friendly and so was the bartender. She ultimately invited us to her show that night, she was backing up SF's best Japanese singing cowboy at a favorite bar/club of mine the Mission.
The juke box was solid, if not exactly/always my thing and they gave out bar snacks of some kind. I have been here several times now and really it's a nice bar, divey and local but nice. Only drawback is the enormous TVs everywhere - which is bad for me, because as a long time non-TV owner, even car ads can mesmerize me. I have seen none of the dubious interactions and suggestions of immorality others mention, just local patrons and a longtime staff.
After initial hesitation about going into this smoke-filled den of iniquity, I ended up having an awesome time. The charismatic and hilarious cute Asian bartenders are a lot of fun to watch preform. They use crass language and rib customers -- it's very entertaining. The service was good too, since they were practically pouring the liquor down our throats. Peer pressure much? Haha. Chelsea's is a great dive bar experience.
We came here because it was still afternoon and Tunnel Top wasn't open yet. Why is it so hard to find a good, open bar before 5?
Our experience:
- confused drink orders
- a long, dark hair in one of the drinks. Yes, it was then given to us free, but ewwwwwwww.
- a garbage can next to the table we were sitting--complete with smells.
-really strong drinks
-smoking is allowed (although it must be illegal)
- a dart board on the wall with no darts.
Back in the 90's a few friends and I found this place on a night roaming the city looking for drinks. We had a great time at this place partially because of the charm, partially because of the patrons, but mostly from the bathroom. Get your mind out of the gutter... The bathroom at this venerable location is located down this flight of stairs somewhere just above Hades. You remember the worst bathroom ever from Train Spotting? When you're a bit tipsy, the staircase seems a lot longer. It was spooky and we got a kick out of it.
Well fast forward a decade or so and once again while wandering around the city I stumble upon a familiar sign for Chelsea Place. I'm in. Looks about the same and the place is packed. Is this the neighborhood haunt? There were a bunch of guys there for the free sandwich fixins that the bartender put out. Everyone was friendly. I love places like this. And the bathroom is as I remembered it...down the stairs...deep underground... Cool.
Neighborhood: Nob Hill
Category: Dive Bars
Neighborhood: Civic Center/Tenderloin
Category: Dive Bars
Neighborhood: Union Square
Category: Bars
Neighborhood: Civic Center/Tenderloin
Category: Dive Bars
Neighborhood: Union Square
Category: Dive Bars
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