Madrone Art Bar — Restaurant in San Francisco

I live in the neighborhood and have been coming to Madrone for years. The last time I went, probably 3 months ago now (which is how long it’s taken me to gather the courage to write this) it was a busy Saturday night & immediately after paying the cover & entering, a man in a beige suit sexually assaulted me. I was in shock, but my friend who was with me took me up to the bouncer to tell him what happened & get the patron who had assaulted me removed. The man was wearing a suit and sunglasses, so he was incredibly easy to point out on the security cameras, which I did. The bouncer said they’d handle it. I thought at the very least they’d refund my cover, which they didn’t. I waited in their outdoor area watching for the man to get kicked out for 30 minutes before I decided to leave. Nothing was done by the bouncer in that time. Some friends of mine stayed behind and said the man who assaulted me wasn’t removed until over an hour later, after he inappropriately touched several other women in the bar & a man finally yelled at the the bouncer to do something. I’m sure I wasn’t the only woman there who was assaulted & tried to get the bouncer to eject the creep. They didn’t take any action until a man asked them to. I haven’t been back since & won’t ever go back again. It’s a bummer because I had a lot of fun times at Madrone prior to this. Really disappointing handling of...

(Bars often have very different vibes depending on the day of the week - so this is for a busy Saturday night.)

The best part of Madrone was the bouncer!

I bet that's something you've never heard about a bar -- but I'm serious. We waited in line for about 30 minutes to get in, and the bouncer at the door was quite friendly and made sure our group all got in together. He let one of our friends join us in line and that friend offed him cash (bribe?) and the bouncer respectfully declined. Very classy!

Cover was $10. They take Venmo, which was nice.

But that's about $1 for each minute we stayed. It was so crowded inside, we could barely make our way to the one bar. We left after 10 minutes.

VIBE: Divey bar that wants to be a nightclub. Way too crowded on a Saturday night with limited ventilation. Not really much art to speak of, despite the name. A few people were trying to dance, but too crowded.

MUSIC: Varies by DJ, but usually something fairly basic / throwback.

AUDIO/ACOUSTICS: College frat house level audio quality.

DRINKS: Beer, wine, generic mixed drinks. Cocktail menu did not impress. About $12 each for mixed drinks.

FOOD: None.

COVER: $10...

The bartender on Jan-4 was rude, not too smart.

I had a group of 3. About 2 minutes later, one individual dude cuts in front of me at the bar. I cut back in. We wait another 5 minutes, the bartender starts to serve the guy who cut. I politely interject, “we were here first, can we order?”

Bartender says, “Well, he’s one, you’re three, so I’m going to serve him first.” And gave me a scowl, as if I’d done something wrong.

Personally, I don’t see why it’s better to make 3 people wait 1 minute than to make 1 person wait 3 minutes. That ain’t a tiebreaker. First come first serve is the tiebreaker. Also, as a bartender, you’d thinking serving drinks and processing the bill for a batch of people is more efficient, with more tip potential. But we’ll remember to break up into groups of 1 to get noticed next time for our watered down Jack & Cokes.

I get that customer service is non-existent in San Francisco. The bar’s aesthetic is cool, but all I’ll remember is the rude, unintelligent bartender who serves watered...