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Now this is a GAY BAR!!!!! I love going to SOMA and the Powerhouse. The things I love about it....
1. Friendly people and staff
2. No attitude
3. Guys there just wanting to have fun
4. DIVERSITY!!!!! (Something the Castro bars care nothing about)
5. The Music ( It is one of the few bars that play a lot of R&B/good & classic Hip/Hop. They actually care about wanting to bring ALL men of color together, unlike the bars in the Castro.)
6. It is a bar where you can actually dance in if you want.
7. I almost forgot...NICE STRONG DRINKS and they are CHEAP!!!!!!
8. They have an amazingly cheap happy hour on Sunday. $1 Miler Lite Drafts till 10pm.
I took my mother there for a drink when she came to visit. She wanted to go cause she heard my buds talking about it and she loved every minute of it. She did not go in the back because she already knew what was going on. But she did encourage me to go back there while she tried to hit on the hot Latin bartender/bar back. I hope this bar never closes and they never change the vibe and music. The gay community coming together...all races, ages, body types together for good time.
If you are used to the Castro and are just a stuck up gay man...stay away. We would not want you there anyway. Stay in the stuck up Castro...and let down to earth, humble guys stay in SOMA and have fun. Also they have a bartender their on Saturday night and Sunday named Rick. He is the nicest, most humble bartender I have ever met and the best in the Powerhouse. He is sweet as pie and can make an AMAZING drink!
"Girl, I wanna take you to a gay bar!"
2nd and 4th Thursdays the Powerhouse hosts the best underwear party around. Bring your booty, and check your clothes at the door. Friendly studs mix the drinks stiff, and the men in the backroom bring it stiffer. YEOW!
I want to like Powerhouse more than I do. It's close to home, it's cruise-y, the drinks are relatively cheap and the Crisco can lighting fixtures probably didn't have their contents used to bake any oatmeal cookies. The music is your generic bathhouse trance. The guys are alright, but I still have more fun at 440.
well.
I have no excuse for spending an entire Friday night here acting like a complete wasted fucktard and watching back patio blow jobs while trying to talk to the only guys not inserting their penises into something about Britney Spears.
No excuse for this whatsoever.
But I'm not gonna lie, i enjoyed myself thoroughly and cant make any promises that this wont ever happen again.
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At Powerhouse's recent Saturday night event "Hooker" they had a special visitor: ME!
I had a feeling things were gonna go terribly "bad" when I arrived with Nick R. and Robert P. and I was already rather loaded from our brief stop-over at Midnight Sun. (Our cab ride was very interesting - where in ten minutes we had established that one of us was a bottom, one of us was a top, and one of us was 50/50...)
My initial reason for going to Power-blouse tonight was because a few friends were going - there was some sort of fundraiser for the AIDS Ride. Needless to say, one friend bailed out, the other friend I barely saw, and I did not buy a single benefit jell-o shot.
My admission got me a free Jaeger shot. I believe I had a few more. After that I really don't remember much. I think I knocked over several drinks, I think I was making out with some guy who was celebrating his birthday, I think I went into the back room to "smoke".... It really was a blur.
I do remember Powerhouse was PACKED wall to wall - not all leather daddies but a cool mix of smokin' hot men. The music was great and you can't beat the risque videos (I think Nick had made note of how at Midnight Sun we watched Mariah videos but at Powerhouse what we saw was quite different).
I seem to remember minding my own business when that angel Robert P. appeared out of no where, grabbed my hand and led me through the throng to a waiting cab. Thanks Nick and Robert!!
Jaeger is a foul and evil drink and I think my reputation will never be the same. But then Powerhouse is not about your reputation - its about having a blast. And I did!
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We were in SF from 7/22 to 7/28 for Up Your Alley Weekend and visited the Powerhouse a few times. Positives: Great crowds, nice sized bar with a nice patio area and good drinks (poured well). The staff could have cared less if you were there or not...not very friendly (even on slower nights). Probably the worst thing about the club was the restroom by the stairs...it smelled so bad of urine that it filtered out into the club. Sure, it's a leather bar...but do something like clean the bathroom.
It's a seedy, dark, dingy bar with a backroom where disreputable men smoke and do what ever. Normally this would be the intro to a 1 star review, but this is what the Powerhouse is meant to be. And it definately delivers. From the ceiling porn, to the 2nd thursday clothes check, to the meet a friend bathrooms Powerhouse is a retro throw back that will shock and awe. The bartenders are very friendly and personable. The drinks are very reasonably priced. Do not go to Powerhouse if you have any inhibitions, you won't enjoy yourself.
I've been to this place a number of times and usually the staff is okay. Last night, I experienced the rudest door person ever in the club. What is wrong with being polite to people? On top of that, this club is still charging people $5 cover in the middle of a recession. There's NOTHING in this club that makes it worth $5. There are much more fun clubs in SOMA. Try one of those!
Cigar daddies? Back patio blow jobs? Porn on the TVs? Crisco cans as light fixtures? Yellow hankie action in the restrooms?
Yep, this place has it all.
Even if none of that is your style, it's worth it for the cheap drinks and the fun bar staff. They will take excellent care of you. The patrons are not aggressively sexual and will leave you alone if you are clearly uninterested.
I highly suggest doing at least a walk-through for the fun of it. However, if the "shady" sorts of bars creep you out a bit, stay up front at the bar and don't venture upstairs or out back.
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It's a cruise leather bar, one of the few left. If Badlands and the Midnight Sun are your normal hangouts, this probably isn't the bar for you. If you like masculine men who know how to cruise offline, you'll like it here. If you've never been and are curious, don't be afraid, it's not THAT serious. Just wear jeans and a T-shirt (or no shirt!) , leave the cologne and the cute bag at home, relax and you'll be fine.
The bartenders are great, especially Carlton, Ray, and manager/often MC Scott. I tend to like the weeknight events such as the once monthly Underwear Party, better than weekends, which can be a bit stand and pose.
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At this bar anything goes. Which I think is why I like going there because I know I can make a fool of myself and there definitely is going to be someone else making a bigger ass of them self.
The bartenders are fucking awesome and the drinks are cheap and good. The crowd is pretty down to earth and a very diverse. I love taking my friends from out of town here to experience something totally different from what they probably will ever experience.
I'm not a fan of the back room but whatever its pretty funny. The porn playing just adds to the style of the bar.
The best nights I would say to go are underwear night on Thursdays and Sunday nights when the beer is only a dollar.
I tell my friends that I go here and they automatically assume I'm a big hoe. Which is not the case. At least at this bar. LOL!
The place smelled like piss. There were cages. There were lots of big men, some wearing leather. Some wearing chaps. I saw some whips. I didn't want to be whipped. I hid in a corner with a friend. I didn't even get a drink. I was enticed by the back room but didn't dare look. I hate bathrooms with troughs. I get pee shy. I felt more suburban than I ever had in my life. I clearly was not dressed for the occasion. There was porn on the tv. There's a pinball machine and you can't play it because there's a sign that says not to stand there or else a door will open on you. If I'm not going to play with leather daddy balls, can I at least play with those?
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wow.wow. I really got the folsom experience last night. I was just fascinated by the things I saw. This is a culture with no inhibitions, no guards, freer than I'll ever be. we went to the smoking room and it was so crowded that we couldn't even move, all we could do was watch... I was a voyeur for about 15 minutes!!! definitely not me, but it was fun to step into another world for an hour or so...
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The only thing wrong with this place is that I haven't won the underwear contest. Seriously, the drinks are cheap and kickass, the bartenders are cute and great at what they do and even when there's 10,000 people on the street, this place is still cool. There are many types of guys, too.
Points for pinball and pool on top of it all.
The only bar in SF where I have seriously *feared* that at the end of the night I might wake up in a scary Hostel-style basement tied to a cross with strange marks on my body and something huge in an orifice if I didn't keep my wits about me and a friend on my arm.
The way some of the men in there look at you...and the way some of the men in there LOOK, period....
So, I stay sober(ish) when I'm there and LEAVE EARLY.
I dunno, if this is a taste of what the glory days of the gay 70s were all about......whatever. I'm okay with the more responsible, if a tad more boring, 00s.
Smells better now.
All that said, I'm going there tonight, so...
UPDATE: Within 10 minutes of arriving, I was making out in the back with a quality tonsil tennis partner so....I'm adding a star...maybe I should let myself like the glory days...
Oh yeah, baby.
Seedy, seedy, sexy. Bartender favorites.
Just, not quite the glory days anymore.
They call themselves leathermen, but most are just poseurs with tons of attitude who think S&M means Stand & Model. The backroom is shared by smokers and sex fiends with either a fetish for public scenes or a boy friend waiting at home. Even the porn is boring. One star better than My Place, only because it's not filled with tweakers and pickpockets.
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I liked Powerhouse. A lot. When I went, there was some type of contest going on on-stage, and there were all kinds of great things to look at. The crowd wasn't as rugged as I had hoped for, but what they lacked in toughness, they made up for in attractiveness. The drinks were heavy handed, ALWAYS a good thing, and the bartenders were very...friendly. To say the least. I for one can't wait to go back there. I imagine during Folsom this place would be out of control! Can't wait.
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The bar is dark, and dirty. It smells of sweat and smoke. In the corners are men rubbing their crotches, trying to get you to look at them and MAYBE go home with you. There are mirrors over the piss troughs so everyone can see your business, and thats just the beginning as to why I love this bar. Unfortunately the city has begun to crackdown on fun, sicking the Department of Public Health into bars regulating on porn and backrooms. SOMA is under siege, number one by the city, number two by horrible dance clubs, and number 3 by uppity gay video bars that offer "class" minus the "ass". There was a day when you would walk thru the Powerhouse's backroom, and in a matter of minutes, some stranger would have your stuff out and doing what he knows best to it. The submersive gay culture that once reigned SOMA, is being pushed out by the socially acceptable mainstream clean cut gay clone, that no one fears.
The Powerhouse, is not a leather bar, but some leather men go there. It is not an S&M bar, but you can catch a good flogging there now and then. The beers are cheap at happy hour, just a $1 for a high life. On a good night there are at least 5 porn stars there. The bartenders and bar-backs are hot and nice guys. The porn is tame, but hey at least there's porn. the wrestling nights are hot and steamy, and testosterone fills the room. Everytime I go, I have a great time, but fear that if the city continues this moral rampage, we might lose another great bar.
RIP: My Place and The Loading Dock!
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The last stop on my 21st birthday. My best friend Erik and I had painted the town with more than a dozen drinks each before we stumbled into this leather bar. Way intense for a couple of skinny 21 year olds and only one of us being gay. I felt like a little bunny rabbit in a pen with a bunch of smelly coyotes. Much of my time there is a blur and I lost Erik for at least 15 minutes. When I found him again he was pushed up against a wall in the bathroom by some very very hairy gentleman who had his hand down Erik's pants. Erik still had a vodka tonic in *his* hand. I gently pulled Erik toward me saying, "Honey, we have to go now." and we left the bar, with our drinks, in search of a cab, . I have never been this hungover, before or since, and Erik still thinks I'm his hero.
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Twisted horny sissies in leather drag having unsafe sex in public isn't my idea of fun. Why does anyone think he has the right to put his hand anywhere on me without even saying hello first? I came here for a beer not to be someone's sextoy. If this place closes next I won't miss it.
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This is a fun leather bar but you have to be really gay to go here. And I mean REALLY gay. My super-queen neighbors had to protect me from creepy gropey old men. But regardless this place was actually pretty fun. Maybe it was cuz my super-queen neighbors had loaded me up on coke before we went.
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This place is dirty - just like I like it. Favorite SF bar.
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My local bar hangout. Yes, it is dark, dirty, smelly, and ripe with testosterone, but that's why we love it. Many come here to get laid. If you love Badlands, this is not the bar for you. Cheap beer in plastic cups, and friendly bartenders. I have the most fun on off-nights. Saturdays, the place is packed shoulder-to-shoulder, and it's a bit too much for my taste.
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Ah that lovely old canard about the best place to find "real men." Haven't we all gotten tired of that yet?
The Powerhouse does have a lot of classic SoMa gay bar atmosphere if that's what you're into. It is also the only place where I've ever gotten my pocket picked. Dirty, sleazy, stinky, public sex, yep, that's pretty accurate. If that's your scene, run, do not walk, to the Powerhouse. On the other hand, it also feels a bit like something crystallized in amber from about 30 years ago, when many of the patrons were no doubt looking a little less haggard than they do today.
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Bartenders Carlton and Michael are fantastic friendly sweethearts that make everyone feel welcome. I usually come with a friend who is a regular-he's the one that introduced me to this sweet, slightly stinky near the door bar. I'm usually gone by 6, but the happy hour can't be beat! Of course, I could also be especially thrilled to be off work, but still!
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TOM OF FINLAND IS ALIVE AND WELL
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Yeah it's shady! Yeah it's dark and seedy and a leather bar! Yes that's vintage porn playing on the tvs behind the bar! Walking in with a polo shirt on and jeans, I was approached and asked what a guy like myself was doing and if I was having a good time. Don't miss the backroom which was what made the Powerhouse so much fun: you can watch all sorts of sex acts going on back there, or even participate if you're so bold. It's like a gauntlet of leather daddies and a bit tougher crowd than you'd find in the Castro. Basin urinal so if you're pee shy, forget about it!
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Bone D. got it right. An why y'all complaining about a place an givin it 2 stars. Seems like you had a good enough time back there. Or didn't they tell ya. Oh well, a queen is a queen is a queen. An you tourists, ya you lookin for da reefer and 2 be dragged home to the piss palace overlooking this beautiful city? The locals are friendly.
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I really did not like this club we went right after Folsom street fair and it was WAY TOO CROWDED and everyone was trying to grab me and wanted me to go home with them! They were not cute and old!! I highly disliked the club and do not recommend it.
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Ahh, the Powerhouse! It's like a Pilsner for the SOMA crowd. Great bartenders, dark corners, awesome DJs (Andy rocks), and interesting theme nights (It's the home of the Bare Chest Calendar). Can you fault any bar that's also been a porn set?
I like how I'm the second female to review this place. Probably because I'm the second female thats been in the place. I went because I didn't know what I was getting myself into and found myself thoroughly enjoying the fine cinema playing on the televisions and the leather. God, this place is awesome!
This place is dark, skanky, and smells...however, the staff is really nice, they have benefits for good causes and chances are good that you'll end up taking somebody home.
The Powerhouse definitely passes the cruise bar test. It is often filled with sexy guys looking for trouble... and who doesn't like a little trouble now and then? The bartenders are great, and the bar itself is host to many community events (Kudos for supporting so many good organizations!) It's one of the few places left for leather/levis guys in their 30's-40's. The best night is Saturday... but they often have fun events during the week - check their website.
This is a very cruisey SOMA bar...not quite leather, but definitely got a blue-collar vibe going on. The music is excellent and the men are decent. Avoid the back if you don't want to come home smelling like an ashtray. There usually isn't much action going on back there anyway, despite what people say. I've had some fun times so if you just want to get some action this is the place to go.
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I couldn't think of a better bar to spend ones 21st birthday (well I'm sure there are better bars... but that's besides the point). after eating dinner at schnitzlehaus, my birthday posse and I started walking the streets looking for our first watering-hole. That's when we came upon powerhouse! i had seen powerhouse before during the day and was always curious to see what took place there during the p.m.. Let me just say the minute i walked inside the door i was more than impressed. the entire place had a very unique decorative style. from the gold wall paper of nude men making love, to the porn flashing on the t.v.s and lets not forget the pinball machine! The bartenders were both very friendly and did free birthday shots with me and all of my friends. the drinks were CHEAP and strong. there was a mysterious back room that i didn't go into... let me rephrase, didn't want to go into. and there were a few seedy characters lurking about. but all in all i had a very good birthday at powerhouse. so good i didn't even make it to any other bars that night... ha ha
i first went here drunk during folsom fair 06. it was soo crowded of course i couldnt even stand and basically just did 2 walk thrus, losing all my friends. its not a usual place i'd hang out, so didnt go again till last week, over a year later. it was a wednesday, the day before thanksgiving at 12 something. i wasnt drunk but i was confused as to where we were going, all stuffed in a car like clowns coming from one party to the next. yes i expected lots of people, and a party there, but our group was almost half the people in the bar. it was dead. i guess powerhouse people have better things to do, like get ready to cook their thanksgiving dinners. :) i liked the music, i wish there were dancing, because it was good house not too poppy or too trance. it was one of my friends first time there and he said he felt like he was getting eye raped lol. i also told him we shouldnt go outside to the patio, i had a feeling it might be the best place for me to be. we went anyway. it was so dead nothing was really going on. not that i get shocked easily. but yes normally there is stuff happening there the others said. so, i guess a good bar to chill, but try to go where theres more people than the day before thanksgiving and less than folsom fair. oh and no cover, that nite at least.
Half Priced Sangria every…
Neighborhood: Mission
Winery of the Month!
Neighborhood: Financial District
Neighborhood: SOMA
Category: Bars
Neighborhood: SOMA
Category: Gay Bars
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Category: Adult Entertainment
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