by Patrick Heig - 324 Reviews - 95 List
For some, there's no real reason to wait until happy hour to line them up on the bar. Whatever your motivation, if you practice the art of day-drinking, you'll want to pick the right bar--good happy hours, outdoor seating and like-minded company are key factors; these spots all have at least one of these amenities, and some have all three. (Photo: The midday scene at McTeague's)
Updated: October 20, 2009
Not only does this Western saloon's seven-hour-long happy hour start at noon ($3 drafts and wells) but when you do finally stagger out into the sunlight, you won't horrify passersby--even 10 drinks deep at 2pm, you'll still be one of the more sober people on Polk Street. Opens at noon daily.
The itinerant writers and artists, neighborhood characters, and "glaucoma patients" freely enjoying their medication you'll find at this sunny Mission cafe might not be having morning beer, but leading such unorthodox lives makes them extremely non-judgmental of those who are. Open at 9am daily.
With an all-day, everyday happy hour (almost all beers $2.50) on hundreds of connoisseur-grade microbrews and imported ales, bocks, stouts and other esoteric beers, this Lower Haight pub caters to the discerning alcoholic. Opens at 11:30am daily.
Dirt-cheap drinks at all times, a pool table, outside garden and a general anything-goes policy make this Haight Street dive an afternoon boozers' paradise, and the bartenders won't raise an eyebrow at you for drinking during the day--they're not hypocrites. Opens at noon daily.
The birthplace of the Irish Coffee is also the best place to disguise your daytime drinking habits. They serve an average of 2,000 of those suckers a day, mostly to tourists, so no one's going to notice if you throw a few back before noon (there's a full bar). Opens at 9am daily.
It's probably too sunny and grassy to technically qualify as a bar, but don't tell that to the hundreds of hipsters who brown-bag it here everyday. And with a corner store a block away, it's always happy hour at DP. Opens whenever you wake up.
There's always someone off their head midday at this classic American joint in the Marina. There's no happy hour, but the people who come here don't need one--it must be fun getting loaded when you already are. Opens at 11:30am daily.
This dilapidated shack on the Embarcadero near the ballpark is built, however shoddily, for day-drinking, with an all-day happy hour on the weekends, a back deck with bay views, tons of free parking and killer sourdough bread burgers cheap enough to buy with what's left of your beer money. Opens at 9am weekends.
