San Francisco Brewing Company
Categories: Pubs, Breweries, American (Traditional) [Edit]
Neighborhood: Financial District155 Columbus Avenue
(between Jackson St & Kearny St)
San Francisco, CA 94133 (415) 434-3344
- Price Range: $$
- Accepts Credit Cards: Yes
- Parking: Street
- Attire: Casual
- Good for Groups: Yes
- Good for Kids: No
- Takes Reservations: No
- Delivers: No
- Take-out: No
- Waiter Service: Yes
- Wheelchair Accessible: Yes
- Outdoor Seating: Yes
- Good for: Late Night
- Best Nights: Mon, Tue, Sun
- Happy Hour: Yes
- Alcohol: Beer & Wine Only
- Smoking: Outdoor Area/Patio Only
- Coat Check: No
78 reviews
Neighborhood: Inner Richmond
"BEST IRISH BAR I HAVE BEEN TO IN SAN FRANCISCO!! I found out about this place on yelp and was pleased to see this awesome Irish band…" read more »
96 Reviews for San Francisco Brewing Company
I love this place!
Excellent beer
Excellent food
Excellent service
Excellent prices
Excellent location
What more could one ask for?
My favorite is their fish & chips with just about every beer they make.
I like their pale ale, porter and stout.
OK, if your idea of a good pub is 97 types of beer, mirrored walls and hot and cold running bar staff this isn't the pub for you - piss off down to the Marina where you types are tolerated.
If, on the other hand, you want a pub that cares about its beer, has atmosphere and actually feels like people have been carousing there for a hundred years or more than you should drop what you're doing and head down here now.
The pub brews its own beer and usually has 10-14 varieties available, with a wide mix of styles. The staff can give you a good run down on the different flavours and are happy to offer tasters to new customers. I can honestly say I've never had a bad pint here. Happy hour runs from 4-6pm.
The bar itself shows its age - proudly. The original antique ceiling fan is still in operation and the bar hasn't changed in decades, and still has a spittoon/urinal around the base, which is thankfully no longer in operation. There are also tables and chairs outside for smokers.
I could knock half a point off possibly for the ruinous state of the men's toilets (don't know what the women's are like) but that would be quibbling and since I can't do it anyway then it's a five star rating from me.
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This is a straight out review. No additives.
The Beer:
We tried the sampler to find out what beer I wanted to drink a whole pint of. Not a bad way to sample brews from a brewery you haven't been to. Not bad but what stands out is the Bock Obama and the Dragon Ale. My kind of beer.
The food:
We shared the Napa Burger with blue cheese? Not bad either but could have been better. There wasn't an explosion of flavors in my mouth compared to other pub food at that price range.
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I like SFBC because...
It doesn't court hipsters, frat boys, or choads. Witness the number of poor reviews.
The beer changes all the time because it's made in tiny batches. They don't need 50 kinds on the menu to provide variety.
It has absolutely no intention of changing to suit the fads of the day. Some of us appreciate that, some don't .
The bartenders usually know WTF is going on, even if the cute eurotrash waitress of the week doesn't.
SFBC is good for beer, casual business meetings, and respite from the real world.
I don't particularly like the food or the restroom in the basement but I have never noticed anything scarey about it. I like to hit House of Nanking after a few pints anyway. Fries are always good and safe.
The Dragon Ale and the SF Pale I sampled yesterday were fucking stellar. The IPAs are always solid, and I've never visited when they didn't have at least one. And they have a good stout for Christmas.
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A small historic part of San Franciscos North Beach neighborhood, The SFBC is a nice place to chill outside and enjoy the happy hour and the microbrews made here. Not really a great spot to hang out all night, but cool for a stop on a night out in SAn Francisco.
$1.50 Hotdogs and a beer called Bock Obama? YES.
I'M ASKING YOU TO BELIEVE.
Not just in their ability to bring about real delicious beers in San Francisco.... I'm asking you to drink one.
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The beer is always a little flat and green(not ready to drink). Tastes like it was brewed in an amateur's moldy garage. The food is decent enough that I won't complain. The service is very hit or miss. I have had to wait 20 minutes to get a beer when it is slow, so I missed the happy hour cut off. Some of the servers in past years have been phenomenal, but the turn-over is quick enough that it's a gamble. If it was not for the great location this place would have flopped a long time ago.
Total meh. For a brewing company they sure have a deplorable beer selection. The selection is not only limited but is very pedestrian. I think they also need a massive pipe cleaning as one of the beers was described as smelling like "fish sauce". I am a beer freak, so I know my beers, and although these weren't entirely terrible, they were nothing to be excited over. A couple stars for the surprisingly attentive service and the sweet space.
This place is effen great to visit from 1-4 pm on the weekdays.
Yes, I may sound like a raging alcoholic. But I was really just entertaining out-of-town guests! (I'm going to start using that excuse).
There is a large Irish dude- or maybe an English guy, wherever he hails from, he is a sarcastic shit and will make you upchuck your beer mid-sip. He's got a comment on every aspect of the modern world.
I don't care about nighttime at this place. The 1-4 pm shift seems to be where it's at.
Myself, my imaginary "out-of-town" guests, and of course a couple random drunks in a wooden bar at 1:30 p.m.
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I'm not a beer drinker, for the most part, but I love their amber beer. I have a sweet tooth, so this beer suits my taste buds.
I live in LA, and will always return here for their amber beer. I've taken my friend who lives in SF here, and she liked it. We took a gallon of beer home for like $18. It lasted a while, and we had some glasses all day as long as I was visiting. I wanted them to ship it to me, but they couldn't.
It's a nice, little, unpretentious place, and it's comfortable.
Had a couple of beers after work, during happy hour on a Tuesday. The place was virtually empty, except for a guy sitting outside the door smoking. Both beers tasted ok. Just ok. I agree with tim s. that the beer tasted green--kind of wheaty. We didn't have any food, but noticed that the server was asking the bartender if she could go home because there was so few people in and it was a waste of her time to be there. The bartender convinced her to stay, hitting on her the whole time. It was so uncomfortable. The bartender was sort of rude, not very personable, and turned his back to the bar while he hit on the waitress. The atmosphere was dank, kind of damp-feeling. Just didn't get a great feel from the place and won't go back. Looked a bit dirty on the food service side, but that's an observation not based on actually eating there.
Super cute, good music, friendly staff & delicious beer. I went early Friday afternoon so it wasn't crowded and they had awesome happy hour specials. I will definitley tell guests to go to SFBC...especially if they are going to NB to run around and have fun and looking for ideas...
I am not sure why I see so many bad reviews...I certainly didn't feel like I got special attention...The bartender was great with all the patrons...
Thanks for the pint, see ya soon!
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A friend of mine who used to work here invited me to come check him out for good food and good beer. I was excited, because knowing someone at a restaurant is always a good thing.
Well, a group got some food with a cockroach in it. Like, a real live fucking cockroach. Cucaracha for those Spanish speakers out there. Those things that are supposed to survive, along with Cher, after a nuclear holocaust. In their meal.
My friend got in trouble after giving them their meal for free.
I think I'll stick to the beer.
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I only go there for their happy hour, usually for the early one from 4-6. I like sitting outside and watching people walk by.
I enjoy their beer, but the food @ this joint is mediocre...
The dive bar Mr. Bings is right across the street on Pacific- now that's an interesting place...
So, don't expect much in the way of atmosphere when you come to San Francisco Brewing Company. It basically looks like a bar you could drive cattle through or relax after a long day riding herd. I don't mean this in a "charming western motif" way so much as a "unveneered floor, old bar, crappy chairs, kinda way".
The beer is good, but I was disappointed they didn't have an IPA or ESB. That just left me with stouts, ambers, and wheat beers...not really my favorite. With a wider selection I might have given SFBC four stars, but for now, it's just alright.
Thrift store vibe, old SF atmosphere, a particularly friendly bartender (impossible to not notice her, ahem, flaunting--like, "whoa, aren't you cold???"), $1 for a sampler size brew (there were 10 when I was there). I liked the bock a lot: nice, dark, rich, but slightly flat. I didn't feel compelled to eat, so no opinion on the food. I was just thirsty.
Usually when I hear (or read) "Brewing Company" in the title of a place I anticipate some great beer, if not a pretty awesome experience in general.
SFBC unfortunately didn't live up to those expectations.
The late night happy hour is a pretty great feature. The exact hours are a little shady to me, but I think on the Thursday I'm recalling, it was something like 10pm to 1am. Being a person who doesn't work in the City and doesn't get many chances to leave work earlier than 4pm, happy hours outside of the area from 3 - 6p are pretty awesome to me. The space is pretty good as well; it's big and roomy and if you're there on a Thursday, you probably won't have much trouble finding a seat.
This, unfortunately, is kind of where the good stuff stops.
As mentioned before, the place is kind of tomb on Thursday (at least both times I was here), which makes you think something is up (or wrong). I think there might have been like 8 other people here when we got in. There were two bartenders that night and the male one seemed really busy despite there being very few people inside. The female bartender was nice, but didn't mention that happy hour started at 10pm when I was ordering a beer at 9:50p (and getting charged full price). I know that's stuff I should probably have asked before hand, but c'mon, help a boozer out.
The beer was just ok, it was their Holiday/Winter brew and it tasted like they put a little too much work into making it a really heavy and dark beer than putting some good flavors into it. I had another beer and it wasn't anything memorable.
We stayed for a few more beers, but overall it was an average experience. We ultimately had first come here because it was too packed at Vesuvio and this place should probably be used to serve that purpose in the future. I will give the beer another shot as I'm too big of a fan of beer not to.
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If you have a party of friends and just want to go out for some pints of micro brewed beer, greasy food, and good times, the SF Brewing Company will meet those needs.
I really have to give the place a shout out for the good service and large portions of fries that they served us. We were lucky enough to get outside seats so we could watch all the people going back and forth on the street. This is an excellent place to people watch and on a warm summer night, when you get that perfect buzz, you can almost smell the scent of old San Francisco.
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Stopped here on a ridiculous bar crawl a few weeks ago (some may even call it epic) and wasn't that impressed. Have heard they have a decent happy hour (and supposedly even a MIDNIGHT happy hour) so i may give it another chance. But to be honest, on a Saturday night it was pretty much empty. The bartender was nice and the beer selection was fine, but I don't foresee myself rushing back anytime soon.
Have only been here for Happy Hours so I'll give you the lowdown on it. They actually have 2 Happy Hours everyday but I've only been to the early one from 4-6. In any case, it gets pretty crowded at the bar area so it can be hard to get a drink. But once you do, it's okay. The outdoor seats are nice when it is a nice day.
Not sure how their food is but probably would never come here to eat since Chinatown is right here. That way I could get Cheap Drinks AND Cheap Food...
HAPPY HOUR DEETS:
Happy Hour Beer Specials
EVERYDAY 4-6pm and Midnight-1am
Twice daily, 7 days a week we slash our prices on all our beers! (except our King of the Hill Stout and Oofty Goofty Barleywine) Between 4 and 6pm and Midnight and 1am, our 10 oz. glass of beer is only $1 and a pint is just $1.75! We invite you to come by try one of the freshest beers in town at a great price!
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Great pub. I believe this was the first of the modern microbreweries here in San Francisco and for years I've enjoyed their pints, both during and after "happy" hour. Their prices aren't bad and just about anything they brew comes out well, especially the dark beers and ales.
I've eaten in their restaurant on occasion and found their "bangers and eggs" to be a great classic breakfast. Their fish and chips were some of the best I've had in the city also, only to be outdone by the original Edna's Fish and Chips which sadly is no longer more.
Very good place for a change of pace. Done with class and understated elegance.
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It's all about the beer! The staff is knowledgeable, friendly and helpful. The brews are excellent. On the plus side they also have early and late happy hours. As for atmosphere, it's a neighborhood dive. You might run into someone interesting or completely f***ing crazy, it's just a crapshoot. Never had the food, but mostly because the place looks dirty. But if your looking for a good beer, it will do just fine.
On the upside, the staff was friendly and helpful, beer decent, and food meeting (though not exceeding) expectations. On the downside, the place is a bit run down, poor layout, and some patron was trying too sell magical mushrooms.
But I will go back, if only to flirt with the gorgeous staff and enjoy a decent microbrew.
Celebrated my last birthday here. We started here on a late Saturday afternoon, and the back room was empty for our taking. As my friends trickled in, we pushed tables together and ordered beer pitchers (and beer samplers) and food and just had a great time.
I'm a Guinness fan, and I really took to their Alcatraz stout - this place is a microbrewery, which I generally like. Food was decent, standard bar food. Our waitress was very accommodating. Maybe I'll celebrate my next birthday here too.
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I went for lunch with some of the guys from the office yesterday. The waitress was cute, bouncy, flirty, and adorable in a girl next door kinda way. She totally made our day as she skipped around the room, bringing us copious amounts of beer, delicious burgers and BBQ ribs, and checking in on us all the time. As long as she's there, I know the guys are looking forward to our next visit.
The beers were excellent. A lot of microbreweries get a little heavy-handed with the hops, making beer that tastes like rabbit food. SF Brewing Company has their recipes down pat. One of my coworkers liked the stout so much, he even took home a 1 gallon cube for later.
The food was all delicious, although a little expensive. I can't afford to spend $30 on lunch (2 pints, ribs, tax, and tip) very often. Nonetheless, this was an excellent spot for lunch with the boys.
This place has great potential but they don't seem to get the concept of customer service here.
I've been left waiting so long for a refill I've had time to go up to Vesuvio, drink a beer chat with a couple folks and walk back. And no one ever knew I was gone. Seriously.
Serious purveyor's of good brew know to keep the elixir flowing fast. This isn't a wine bar for cripes sake. The location is classic. It's too bad someone can't learn to run the place correctly because their brews aren't bad.
I've never tried the food. Beer is a food...seriously it is. Try drinking a nice thick stout and then try to eat on top of it. You can't because the stout was your meal.
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there's a sign outside "bees $1" tried it. it was a pretty small glass, a pint
or less? bar has an intereting motif.
This is a good spot to grub some lunch durring the week on a sunny day.. they have some outdoor seating (all though pretty limited, 2 tables) but if you can grab one its a nice spot to hang out.
The food here is pretty damn good, they have excellent hamburgers..
the wait staff is quick and friendly..
the beer here is pretty killer.
I think the inside is actually a little depressing so i only give it four stars, it seems like a place like this would be a little more upbeat.. they server booze, its a pub.. come on folks liven it up a lil....
but other than this, good food, good beer, top shelf is available if you really want to get into it on lunch haha.
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The bartender was really cool. The IPA was not quite my style but the Pale Ale was good. There was some jerk there who was drinking for 6 to 7 hours and left him with a quarter tip. The bartender was so disturbed by this that he actually chucked the quarter at the dude as he walked out the door. The bartender then proceeded to apologize to us for his reaction but we totally understood his frustrated response.
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It's a brewery. I have to keep reminding myself of that fact every time I walk pass it. I guess I expect to smell yeast, hops and barley, instead I smell nothing.
The Crowd: Mixed. A bunch of vising young ones (under 30) to the regular older ones (over 30).
The Service: What service? It's pretty slow especially when it's really crowded. There was a time when it took them 30 minutes take our order for a pitcher of beer and we waited and waited and waited and finally after another 30 minutes, we left.
The Beers: Nothing special -- I just wasn't into it. It didn't help that the beers weren't iced-cold... room temp is not how I want to enjoy my pint of beer.
Something Good: The Happy Hour Specials are awesome... I think this is what draws the crowd in. That was the reason why my roommate and I went to SF Brewing Company last Friday night.
EVERYDAY 4-6pm and Midnight-1am
10 oz = $1
1 pint = $2.50 (according to the website it's $1.75)
If I am forced to go to the SF Brewing Company, off course I'll go. I love beers...any kinds of beers.
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I like the midnight happy hour. That's a great idea for those of us who enjoy barhopping til the late hours and can't really afford much after the 3rd bar.
Minus stars for the Wheat beer. Very, very skunky. Other beers are alright. Nothing to write home about unfortunately.
Atmosphere would be cool if there were more people there at night on a Friday, but it felt deserted and depressing around 12:30am. Glad I had a big group of friends to keep me company.
We went here relatively early on a Saturday night and it was deserted.
Strange.
The bathroom was a one-hole-er.
Lame.
They had some nice outside tables along Columbus - which was great for people watching.
Cool!
The beers were good and cheap!
YAY!
Some fat girl in WAY too tight WHITE pants was drunk as a skunk and yelling about god knows what. She then started making out - no let me rephrase - sucking face with her nasty boyfriend. All right next to us. Soon after, an older German man began hitting on the bday girls boyfriend - to which I whipped out my phone and started videoing his attempted ass grab.
Awesome - I'd go back.
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This is my favorite IPA, possibly ever. I've heard the dark brews aren't as amazing. They serve it at the perfect temperature to bring out the subtle flavors. Mmm. I haven't been here since my favorite bartender was fired, though. So I don't know how it's been for a few months. I have a bit of grudge for the man who gave me so many free drinks...but I would definitely recommend giving it a try.
They have a happy hour TWICE a day. One is four to six, but another one at midnight untill 1. 10oz. beer for 1 dollar, a pint for $1.75. You can't go wrong.
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Another one of the good spots in San Francisco to get fresh ale. In my opinion, the beer is not quite as good as some of the other local breweries, but its still pretty good. They have a bunch of tables outside on Columbus that make for pretty interesting people/traffic watching while you are enjoying your pint. Absolutely killer happy hour special, $1 beers from 4:00p-6:00p, and then again from 12:00a-1:00a.
By itself I would give the beer 4 stars, but the whole institute gets pulled down to 3 stars by other factors. The service is pretty slow and the food menu is limited. I highly recommend sitting outside, as the interior is somewhat dark and usually smells like day old frat party.
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The waitress got everything backwards, despite there only being two of us. The food was decent, but I chipped a tooth while eating their bacon cheeseburger. I don't blame the cheeseburger for that, but it definitely hurt my experience. There aren't a lot of things that suck more than chipping a tooth, I assure you.
SFBC is one of those places I'm probably not going back to.
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Wife was supposed to go grocery-shopping in Chinatown and for some plain motive; she landed at this famous North Beach Brewery. So she called home and told Matt, that she needed a ride home, and she'll be waiting for Matt at the corner on Pacific and Columbus. Matt felt something wasn't right.
Matt took the kids and arrived at the famous brewery. Oh My Gosh, Looking at this "Hot-Stuff", she was extremely inebriated, while waiting outside in the dirty outdoor dining area enjoying two pint-size beers.
Matt asked, "What did you drink?
She somehow retorted, "I had two pint of Alcatraz-Ale for $1.75 during Happy-Hours."
Matt shouted back sarcastically, "Wow that is a good deal. It is a good thing that you don't end up in Alcatraz."
After she finished her second and final drink, and not willing to walk properly, Matt had to assist her to the car, which is parked nearby. The three of us had to do the remaining grocery shopping in her relief.
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Okay, I have frequented this establishment many times over the years. Decent beer. TERRIBLE food. Crappy service. AND do they EVER clean this place? I am talking crusted beer and food debris stuck all over the place in every corner like a they do not own a mop. This place should not be allowed to serve food!!! Tab: $35.00 (+ $7.00 for unauthorized tip(???)) One beer, one nasty burger (see notes below) and one chicken sandwich with a chicken breast about the size of a post-it. NO JOKE, order it, I dare you!!!
I will go back because I know I will find a table available in this dive. The reason I am upset right now is that I took my wife out for dinner last night and the food literally left me sick. I am staying home today with cramps from the beef.
*******Also, what really pisses me off is that my online bank statement, they have charged me an additional $7.00 over what I charged. What the fuck? Now I am calling sfbrewing and getting no answer. This is really bullshit.*******
If the place was clean and the server had been friendly, I would probably give this place 2 stars because of the great location. But seriously this place failed every test on this recent visit and I am really disgusted. They obviously take their customers for granted. Do yourself a favor and go to O'Reilly's, Tosca, Andrew Jaeger's, Citizen Thai, Mona Lisa, Calzone's, Girodano Bros, or a dozen other places nearby that will leave this place in the dust.
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I only like this place when I can sit outside. They have several tables on the intersection of Pacific and Columbus, which makes for amazing people watching. Every time I'm relegated inside for a drink I feel a bit claustrophobic (think lots of dark wood paneling).
The service here is definitely hit or miss. The last time I came with a friend for happy hour the waitress ignored us for a good 20 minutes, even though she was helping everyone around us. Did we look cheap or something?
They have amazing happy hour specials, though!
Ended up in NB last night and was trying to remember where Tomasso's was since I had seen great reviews on Yelp. I took the lazy route and ended up at this pub last night. The beer was okay. Nothing great which is usually a relevant indicator on how the food will be. The food was average, lacked flavor and the pub itself lacked some character.
Alright, let's put the big negatives up front---the place does smell like a brewery. Accept that. Accept it, because the place is a brewery. Saunter into the back room and observe the boiler and the tanks and the bags and bags of grain. Made fresh, goes strait to the taps. After you're somehow able to overcome that the place is great.
The atmosphere is real oldschool pub-like: there's darkwood paneling, a line of Indian fans twirling above brought over in the 1860's, the back of the bar is a single piece of cherrywood that used to be a sea-captain's own. The bar itself is made from a ship, The Albatross. That's one of their beers actually. Jack Dempsey used to be the doorman. So the place has history, I'll tell you that. But the modern incarnation is pretty everlovin' good too. See my bartender Curtis. He's an awesome guy and keeps us stocked in whatever brews happen to be brewing, and plays early Dandy Warhols.
I used to hate bars. Grimy, expensive, loud places. This place is loud... alright, maybe a little grimy (I'd prefer "worn in"), and cheap. It's the first bar I've actually looked forward to going to. It's the first I could actually hang out in. It's the first bar where I've made friends. If that's not a good enough review, well... I don't recommend going anywhere.
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