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Hemlock Tavern

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  • Kristan5
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1131 Polk San Francisco, CA 94109

415-923-0923 

http://www.hemlocktavern.com  

3 User reviews Write A Review
1131 Polk San Francisco CA 94109

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  • Daily 4pm-2am
  • ATM, Patio/Sidewalk Dining
  • Live Entertainment, DJs
Description

By showcasing some of the world's best underground indie-rock bands, this microvenue has quickly become one of the city's best. A crowded, clamorous bar up front - decorated with kitschy thrift-shop art, vintage beer paraphernalia, and some choice retro lamps - hides an intimate music room in back. There's also a terrarium-like smoking section off to one side, so you can get your nic fix without having to abandon your cocktail. The great (and free) jukebox selections, plus weekly punk DJs, fill out the hours when bands aren't playing.








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Back to TopSF Weekly Critic News & Reviews | Write a Review
  • Oakland\'s Date Palms Meld Universes at Hemlock Tavern, 3/31/13

    Oakland's Date Palms Meld Universes at Hemlock Tavern, 3/31/13

    By Alee Karim | Mon, April 01, 2013

    Date Palms Danny Paul Grody? Chuck Johnson? Sunday, March 31, 2013Hemlock Tavern?? Better than: Any number of resurrections??. This Easter Sunday, the real blessing comes in the form of an earlyshow... More »

  • Brilliant Colors: Show Preview

    Brilliant Colors: Show Preview

    By Sam Lefebvre | Wed, March 13, 2013

    San Francisco trio Brilliant Colors cast their shimmering hooks in bedroom melancholy. But their taste in punk is impeccable — and selecting scrappy upstart S.F punk trio Scrapers as openers reflects this. Currently, Scrapers have released only a... More »

  • Murder City Devils\' Spencer Moody: Five Reasons He Fucking Rules

    Murder City Devils' Spencer Moody: Five Reasons He Fucking Rules

    By Rae Alexandra | Fri, February 22, 2013

    Spencer Moody, who played with the Murder City Devils, is playing the Hemlock Tavern this Sunday. And if you care about rock 'n' roll and punk and experimentation and all that is right with music, you... More »

  • The Mallard Prepares for Takeoff

    The Mallard Prepares for Takeoff

    By Sam Lefebvre | Wed, January 30, 2013

    Inside the anonymous, gray exterior of an Oakland recording studio, frontwoman Greer McGettrick is fastidiously mixing the sophomore album by The Mallard, the band she started in 2011. Hunched over the massive mixing console, she listens... More »

  • Local Song of the Day: Cocktails\' Scrappy, Snotty \

    Local Song of the Day: Cocktails' Scrappy, Snotty "No Blondes (in California)"

    By Ian S. Port | Tue, January 29, 2013

    Power-pop springs eternal. It doesn't matter how many bands have made it, how many are making it now, or even how many such acts populate the Bay Area ('cause there are a lot). You put hooky melodies ... More »

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  • derspazm
           (0)    (0) Flag

    | Sacramento, CA | 1 Reviews

    Event Review: Tied to the Branches, The Yes Go's, Der Spazm

    5
    | Sat, March 3, 2012

    www.derspazm.bandcamp.com www.derspazm.com www.facebook.com/derspazm

  • bonustrackb
           (0)    (0) Flag

    | San Francisco, CA | 24 Reviews

    4
    | Fri, April 30, 2010

    My favorite bar in SF. It's pretty large and there's a separate smoking room and area to see bands. Excellent happy hour: $3 PBR tall cans! The bartenders here are super cool and the crowd is pretty mixed so you never feel out of place.

  • Kristan5
           (0)    (0) Flag

    | San Francisco, CA | 86 Reviews

    4
    | Mon, November 24, 2008

    I like the name of this bar much more than the actual bar itself, there's nothing special about it... But if your bar hoping on Polk street it is worth checking out!

Back to Top SF Weekly Awards | Visit the Best Of Website

  • 2010 | Q&A: Anthony Bedard, Hemlock Tavern Live Music Booker

    By Jennifer MaerzPhotograph by Julie MichelleWhat are all the bands you've been in over the years?Going back to 1989, my first band in San Francisco was Icky Boyfriends. Then I went on to play in Leather Uppers, Resineators, the Roofies, Mr. & Mrs. & Mr. Evil, Mr. & Mr. & Mr. & Mr. & Mr. Evil, Fisherman's Famous San Francisco Burlesque, Bride of Ozzy, and the mercifully short-lived Pro Gear/Pro Attitude (with Utrillo Kushner). Currently playing in Hank IV.What... More »

  • 2007 | Best Jukebox

    Yeah, yeah, a great jukebox is eclectic, something for everyone, blah blah blah. But trying to choose the "best" jukebox in a city as full of great bars and amateur music critics like San Francisco is just inviting some hard-drinking know-it-all to say you're full of it. Fortunately, something happened this year that rendered the selection a no-brainer: The owners of the Hemlock Tavern made their charmingly eclectic jukebox entirely free. The music machine at Hemlock's sister bar, Casanova,... More »

  • 2004 | Best Bar You Can Smoke In (Legally)

    See if you can follow the immaculate logic behind the smoking area at the Hemlock Tavern: It's a hipster bar; hipsters like to check each other out and smoke cigarettes; let's build a place where hipsters can buy drinks, smoke cigarettes, and check each other out! In addition to being the perfect vantage spot for people-watching, the enclosed smoking patio at the Hemlock is well ventilated and comfy, with places to sit and plenty of c(h)atty clientele. Best of all, since it's still in the... More »

  • 2004 | Best Intimate Venue

    If you get off on fringe music and a little frottage (as in the act of rubbing against someone in a crowd to attain sexual satisfaction), there is no better venue than the Hemlock Tavern. It's not the spacious bar area that'll excite your inner desire for some friction, it's the teeny, tiny, constantly crowded back room. That's where the club's stage hosts a parade of locals and nonlocals showcasing atypical sounds, from avant-folk to avant-noise to avant-avant. The drinks are inexpensive,... More »

  • 2002 | Best Place to Take a Chance on a Band You've Never Heard Of

    What seemed at first to be a dicey proposition -- put a hipster bar in a neighborhood where few hipsters live -- has now proven to be gold. Since opening last October, the spacious Hemlock Tavern has become a beacon for jean-jacketed, bedheaded coolios who like to toss back a few drinks, eyeball each other's duds, and check out some great music by bands they've never heard of. Thanks to a very open-minded booking policy, the Hemlock's 55-person-capacity performance space has offered... More »

  • 2002 | Best Smoking Patio

    Technically, smoking is illegal in San Francisco bars, so if we did know of a place -- or even 50 of them -- that allowed customers to indulge their filthy habit, we sure as hell wouldn't mention it in print. But what we can say is that Hemlock Tavern offers a perfectly legal, just-short-of-indoor alcove. Latticework screens you from the street, heat lamps keep you warm, and, surgeon general's warning be damned, you can suck down butts until you develop a tumor the size of Willie Brown.... More »

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