A Question to people of and around San Francisco

If you only want a few bottles to take home with you, you can find RR in the city and needn't bother driving all the way to Santa Rosa. That said, the brewpub is a cool place with several beers that are usually only available on tap there, and if you're going to spend a day in the Napa Valley anyway, it's not all that far out of the way. As far as wineries go I also highly suggest visiting Heitz, Frank Family, August Briggs, and Cakebread.

 

Driving from SF to V. Sattui in St. Helena to Russian River in Santa Rosa and then back to SF is a whole lot of driving in one day. If you are only looking for bottles, you should be able to get all of Russian River's bottled offerings in SF. Russian River is great if you want to go and sample all of their beers from the source, but this can become a problem if you don't have a designated driver.

 

k&L Wine is definitely worth visiting, particularly because their beer selection is good, too...

 

K+L Wines and The Wine Club are both in the SoMA district, not too far from City Beer, and both have pretty good Cali wine selections. Napa Valley Winery Exchange on Taylor Street is closer to where you're staying - it's been awhile since I set foot in the place, but it's a tiny shop with a quite good array of local wines for sale. Then there's D+M on Fillmore, Wine Merchant in the Ferry Building, Jug Shop on Pacific...really, finding good local bottles of wine is a hell of a lot easier to do in SF than beer.

 

My guess is that your hostel is in lower nob hill between Bush and Geary since there's a lot of hostels around there and none on the top of nob hill. You'll be right in the middle of the city and close to bart and a lot of muni lines. Just avoid the Tenderloin late at night. Amsterdam Cafe on Geary is the nearest good beer bar. Like bugdoc mentioned, there's a small wine shop very close by.

 

The Tenderloin is where the chronically homeless from all over the world come to congregate. Not as bad during the day because they are sleeping their most recent bender off.

 

Honestly, you're unlikely to get shot or stabbed in the TL. You are likely to get spit upon, offered crack, or propositioned by prostitutes.

 

I've walked through it at night many times and have never had any issues but it's not exactly something I'd recommend. Especially for out of towners that might not know where they're going.

 

I'd also stop by Christopher Creek while you're in Napa, they have a fantastic Sirah & Port.

 

Satui is lovely. My dad did all the iron work there.

I'd recommend going to RR just to go. It's a great place. Check out Flavor Bistro as well. They have Moonlight beers on tap. Just a short drive north of SR is Bear Republic. That's also worth a visit.

 

Was in San Francisco and Santa Rosa last weekend. Picked up some Pliny @ Russian River on Saturday dated 2/6... Was at Healthy Spirits in the city on Monday and saw bottles dated 2/9.

 

prior to your trip to City Beer, i suggest going to Whole Foods (4th & Harrison) and/or (17th & Rhode Island) in the City. a casual observation is most out-of-towners leave City Beer with nothing more than lint in their pockets. ijs

if you hit the W.F. 4th St. location - maybe bend the corner onto Harrison & check this wine merchant out - they're kind of low key + stashed amongst a bunch of law enforcement lots being that the jail is a block over :

http://www.thewineclub.com/

 

fwiw, aside from the sort of hidden spot i mentioned around the corner from it, the WF on 4th is also only about 3 blocks from K&L (also on 4th).

 

The beerfly page for SF has some good spots for food and beer like Monk's Kettle, La Trappe, and Suppenkuche. I'd also recommend Boxing Room, Leopold's, and Bar Crudo.

My favorite restaurant in SF is Nopa. They don't have a big beer selection but there's always 2 Moonlight beers on tap and the burger is amazing.

 

Check prices at Anchor & Hope. Beer list is solid, food is really good.

http://anchorandhopesf.com/flash/