San Francisco has been quietly losing pool tables for awhile. Family Billiards, the oldest continuously running pool room in the city, is being pushed out. Whiskey Thieves is gone. The Wooden Nickel drowned in a 2023 atmospheric river and never came back. Lucky 13 got bulldozed for condos. (Although now, in a twist, it's becoming a bar again.)
And yet you can still find a table on a Tuesday night. You just have to look sideways into the back rooms of dives, behind the jukebox, past the dartboard, occasionally under a chandelier. Here are 32 bars in San Francisco where you can still rack 'em up.
Mission / Bernal / Outer Mission
- Bender's Bar & Grill, 806 S. Van Ness Ave (Website · Instagram)
- Zeitgeist, 199 Valencia St (Website · Instagram)
- Kilowatt, 3160 16th St (Website · Instagram)
- Gestalt, 3159 16th St (Instagram)
- Shotwell's, 3349 20th St (Website · Instagram)
- The Hall, 2565 Mission St (Website · Instagram)
- El Rio, 3158 Mission St (Website · Instagram)
- Billiard Palacade, 5179 Mission St (Instagram)
- The Lucky Horseshoe, 453 Cortland Ave (Website · Instagram)
Castro / Duboce Triangle
Haight / NOPA / Cole Valley
- Finnegan's Wake, 937 Cole St (Website · Instagram)
- Emporium, 616 Divisadero St (Website · Instagram)
- The Page, 298 Divisadero St (Website · Instagram)
- Mad Dog in the Fog, 1568 Haight St (Instagram)
Richmond / Sunset
- Plough & The Stars, 116 Clement St (Website · Instagram)
- Hockey Haven, 3625 Balboa St (Instagram)
- The Temple Bar, 834 Irving St (Website · Instagram)
Marina / Cow Hollow
- Final Final, 2990 Baker St (Website · Instagram)
- Mauna Loa Club, 3009 Fillmore St (Instagram)
- Horseshoe Tavern, 2024 Chestnut St (Instagram)
North Beach / Russian Hill
- Gino & Carlo, 548 Green St (Website · Instagram)
- The Boardroom, 1600 Powell St (Website · Instagram)
- Northstar Cafe, 1560 Powell St (Website · Instagram)
Nob Hill / Tenderloin / Civic Center
- Wreck Room, 1390 California St (Website · Instagram)
- Emperor Norton's Boozeland, 510 Larkin St (Instagram)
- Ha-Ra Club, 875 Geary St (Website · Instagram)
SoMa / Union Square
- Tempest, 431 Natoma St (Website · Facebook)
- BuzzWorks, 365 11th St (Website · Instagram)
- Hotel Zeppelin, 545 Post St (Website · Instagram)
Potrero / Dogpatch
Saul Sugarman is editor-in-chief and owner of The Bold Italic.
The Bold Italic is a not-for-profit media organization, and we publish first-person perspectives about San Francisco and the Bay Area. We operate under a fiscal sponsorship of a 501(c)(3).
You can become a paid subscriber. Or donate. Or learn more about us.
Cover photo of Lucky Horseshoe by throgers.
If I missed your bar
I wasn't paid to make this list. Email me at info@thebolditalic.com if you like, but consider offering a little cheddar for backlink placement.
A word from our sponsors
This month we are sponsoring LGBT Center Soirée 2026. This isn't a paid gig; but they promised to sing The Bold Italic's praises on their party brochures and messaging, so long as we did the same. I have gone to this party twice before. It's not as fancy as, say, Art Bash or SF Ballet's opening gala, but—much like Hunky Jesus earlier this month—it is a great time to see many notable faces in the LGBTQ+ community. And a good time to reuse yester-year's Pride dress. Sister Roma and Honey Mahogany aggressively went for those fundraising dollars at the 2024 dinner. And I loved the drag performances that year.
LGBT Center Soiree party details:
📅 Saturday, April 18, 2026
🕑 5:30 PM
📍City View at Metreon
🏠 135 4th St, San Francisco, CA 94103
Sister Roma
Saul Sugarman
