Photos: David · CC BY 2.0 · BriefEdits · CC BY-SA 4.0 (2, 3)
A long, loud bar at the end of the Hyde Street cable car line, where the routine at the counter is the show.
Why it's unique
The bar that made Irish coffee famous in America, still pouring it in rows of identical glasses, about 2,000 on a typical day.
It was not invented here. The accepted story places the invention in Ireland in the 1940s, and a historian quoted by KQED found a New York recipe printed in 1948, four years before the Buena Vista's 1952 date. The claim is the narrow one, that this is where the drink's American life began.
Before you go
A dozen goblets are warmed, get two sugar cubes each, then coffee, a long pour of whiskey and a spoon of cream. You can ask for extra cream, an extra shot of Tullamore Dew, or decaf at night, and there is a to-go version with the whiskey on the side.
Avoid the Fourth of July, when it pours more than 4,000 for the fireworks, and St Patrick's Day, its second busiest.
