traveldk.com

This popular, posy video bar fills up quickly after office hours and stays that way until the wee hours. Mostly good-looking 20- and 30-somethings, it’s more about being admired than making connections here, so it’s best to go with a friend or two, have a drink, and then move on to some livelier venue. The videos are a mix of cool music clips and camp TV sitcoms.

This old-time Castro hangout attracts a more mature crowd. It’s generally a bunch of regulars getting together for pinball or pool – or gazing at the aquarium over the bar. The windows are big, so you can keep track of what’s going down on the street. The music is largely 1980s retro that sets a fun-loving tone.

Mostly under-40s here, but nobody’s shy about striking up a cruisy conversation or cozy tryst at this long-standing and very popular gay men’s spot. The music is techno, and the go-go guys look goo-goo-eyed with the ennui of it all, but it has got the city’s longest Happy Hour (from 2pm to 8pm) and the drinks are cheap anyway.

Bikers and leather boys still rule at this venerable SoMa dive. Come to revel in the beer-busting, testosterone-filled atmosphere. The back patio gets going on Sunday afternoons and Thursdays feature free performances by local bands, usually grunge.

The city’s oldest gay bar is also its most upscale. It attracts the more yuppified denizens of the gay community who appreciate the stylish renovated Victorian in which it is housed. There’s interesting music, a great fireplace, free food at Happy Hour, and hobnobbing with a wealthier clientele.

Named in honor of the slain gay leader Harvey Milk, this is the ideal place to get to know the look and feel of the Castro. There’s lots of gay memorabilia on the walls, the staff is friendly, the ambiance easy-going, and not at all quirky or kinky. It’s the wholesome face of gay San Francisco.

With its decor of glass and chrome and the regulars’ penchant for singing old torch songs, this is a very retro piano bar for an older gay crowd. It’s a magnet for butch guys, drag queens, and straights, too – anyone who likes a good sing-along – or who likes to get up at the mike and embarrass himself.

Its old, dingy interior used to live up to its menacing name, but no more since it has gone all slick and shiny. Still, it’s a big draw for the under-40 set. The Sunday afternoon beer bust (4–9pm) is, for many, the most happening event of the week.

Not just a daytime cruising and coffee venue, but also by night a hopping spot. Lots of gay party people meet here first before heading out for the really late-night dancing, dark-room clubbing, and what-not that goes on all around the area.

The only full-time “girl” bar in the city, amazingly, set in a subset Mission District neighborhood that has been on the rise recently as a lesbian enclave. Young pierced sylphs, 40-something professionals, and even straight women frequent this fun “down-home, divey den for dykes,” as one devotee dubbed it.