Rye Cocktail Bar — Restaurant in San Francisco

Came a few Mondays ago on a second date, and while the date ended poorly (my fault, of course), I finally got to try Rye, and it was fantastic!

I forget what exactly my date ordered, but both that and my Bank Heist Swizzle were tasty drinks, albeit a bit on the sweeter and lighter side - or so I thought, because I did start feeling just a little something towards the end of my cocktail: in other words, the bartenders here do a pretty good job of masking the alcohol in the drinks, which is great for those who don't actually like alcohol that tastes like, well, alcohol.

The space itself has kind of a chic, modern, industrial look to it. Pretty nice, especially on a Monday, when the place isn't crowded.

Accessibility Info

Venue - A pretty large space with an open floor plan, albeit on two separate levels, so only one of them (the main level, from the entrance) is actually accessible.

Bathroom - Fortunately, they have two sets of bathrooms, one per level. I didn't actually check them out, but I suspect they were...

Tasty and creative, but they over dilute & under pour.

Rye looks a lot like a quality cocktail bar, and the bartenders can talk the talk, but if you pay attention, you'll notice that they shake your drinks a bit longer than usual and they underpour the liquor. The result is still a tasty drink of the correct volume, just a little watered down and lacking body. You may also find that whereas three drinks is quite enough some places, here you can have 4 or 5 and only be approaching a buzz. No doubt this is appreciated by the management, but probably less so by patrons expecting a drink they've had elsewhere to be as good. I'd expect their liquor distributors are less than...

OUT-STANDING! If you’re crazy about bourbon, you can skip the rest of the bars in SF. The prices are very reasonable on the best bottles of whiskey you’ve probably not tried yet. The staff behind the bar are knowledgeable and raise the bar on service. The food comes from a neighboring restaurant, but the burgers were shockingly good! This seems to be the place to find the “who’s who” of spirits in SF. As much as I hate to spoil it, like a honey hole of allocates bourbon, this bar is worth shouting from the pages of Google. My only gripe is that they don’t have a location in KC, c’mon! Thank you Phil and team for the hospitality and...