Best Beer Bottle Selection in San Francisco / Bay Area: City Beer Store

City Beer Store

1168 Folsom, San Francisco, CA 94103

(415) 503-1033

Craig and Beth Wathen, the couple that runs this SOMA hole-in-the-wall bottle shop, take painstaking care to stock the widest selection of hard-to-find beers from the most interesting breweries. And if the beer isn't distributed in San Francisco, they aren't above driving hundreds of miles to fetch a case themselves. While this is technically a bottle shop, guests are invited to drink their newfound bounty three steps below street level by paying a more-than-reasonable "corkage" fee of $1. But the fun doesn't end with the bottled rarities. City Beer offers tasting flights — a complete sampler — each week of whatever's new on its five taps, sometimes accompanied by elbow-rubbing opportunities with the brewmasters themselves. Yes, beer is magical, so be the first on your block to try new exotic potions with the wizards (or brewsters) who alchemize them.

Source: SF Weekly