Description
Located down the block from Frank Norris Street, this Polk Gulch saloon is named for the protagonist of Norris' novel McTeague, a Victorian-era tale about a doomed San Francisco dentist - hence the decorative gold tooth hanging outside the door. That literary reference, however, is probably lost on the jocks who crowd into McTeague's on weekends to watch sports on the many flat-screen TVs. The bar interior is an admittedly confusing blend of Old West taproom (horse murals, wagon wheels) and Irish pub (dark wood timbers, fake stone walls, "football" team colors), but you can always slip into one of the high-backed booths, quaff some of the European ales and American microbrews on tap, and admire the paintings of the bar's patron saints: Charles Bukowski, Kurt Cobain, Richard Pryor, Joe Strummer, et al.
