Thirsty Bear Brewing Company

I remember stepping out of the side door at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and sighting an organic brewery. The food was good (mainly Spanish tapas) and the beers were very diverse in style.

Sadly upon trying to get in recently on a visit to the Museum, I found that the place was permanently closed.

Thirsty Bear was only a block away for the Moscone Convention Center; what a find! The beer offerings included 9 house beers and two cask conditioned ales. I ordered the lunch special (a delicious take on chicken salad) and a flight, which consisted of all 9 non-cask conditioned house beers. Note specializes largely in Spanish cuisine, tapas and such.

Pretty empty when I got there, they didn't seem to be drawing the lunch crowd from Moscone. A modern teak and polished steel kind of look. Bar stretches along much of the left hand wall with tons of seating along the right. Chatted with a couple of Canadians about international politics.

The service was attentive but was not terribly knowledgable about the beer (of course, often the bar staff are the only ones in the know). Great range: the offerings ranged from a spicy saison through to a barrel aged stout and from good to excellent. The brown ale I tried was cask conditioned and really interesting.

Would have eaten at Thirsty Bear more had I known it was so close.

Great feel and the choices between the beers and tapas make this work for whomever you bring with you. You all can find something to like at this place.

i really dug this place, and we sort of only came here on a whim. i had never heard of thirsty bear before, but as we made our way around some san francisco breweries, we kept seeing everyone had a collaboration with these guys, seriously, like three or four of our stops had done a beer with these guys, so we decided to check it out. warning, watch where you park, we were about a black and a half away, and my car window got smashed out and all my stuff stolen, granted this has nothing to do with thirsty bear, and its a common act in the city from what i now understand, but just a heads up. the place is rad inside, pretty big, oriented the long way with the bar all down the left side when you walk in, an elevated dining area in the back, and the tanks down underneath but rising up behind the bar so that the view is of the top part of the fermenters and stuff, all neat and clean and sort of artsy feeling, a neat layout making a pretty large space feel comfortable. we sat kind of out of the way and still had pretty good service. the beers were both ambitious and delicious, covering just about all the bases, we enjoyed all we drank in here, some of them were incredible. the food we got was also absolutely killer, and while it was just an appetizer, it was impressive enough that i will be back to eat a full meal when i am in town again. this felt very urban, very san fran, but also very cozy and cool, i loved it actually, and for a place i had never heard of, i left fully stoked on it. looking forward to another visit here, highly recommended!

 

 

 

 

I visited Thirsty Bear last night for some beers and dinner. Frankly, I was more impressed with the latter -- the food alone is reason to go there. They have 3 kinds of paella! 3!

The beer was mostly OK, with 9 taps and 2 additional rotating cask offerings. They are focused on organic beers, which isn't especially important to me but could be important to some. Service was OK while I was sitting at the bar. If I ever return, though, it will be for the food, and not the beer.

Live in the SF Bay Area and have wanted to visit for a couple of years. They have two of my favorite things: beer and Spanish food. On a rainy weekend, my wife and I went with another couple for a late afternoon of beer tasting and dinner. Unfortunately, we were disappointed...to the point that after appetizers, we went somewhere else for dinner.

It's a nice spacious place which was kind of slow at first, but picked up at the end of a SF game. We tried a flight of seven beers. While there were a couple of good beers (cask and nitro porter), most of the beers were average. Food was disappointing. Calamari breading didn't stay, empenadas got cold fast, and the potatoes weren't crispy.

Service was friendly, but nothing special. In looking a previous reviews, I think that one of them got it exactly right. This is an old micro brewery from the 90s which survives based upon location. Otherwise, there is really nothing to recommend to come back.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

paella is really good.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Great selection of beer including two firkins