GUEST BLOG / Holden DeMayo, PillartoPost.org Food & Booze Editor--California has always been a playground for the noir imagination. From San Francisco’s fog-choked alleys to Hollywood’s gilded shadows, there’s no better setting for danger and double-crosses.
The right bar can feel like a Raymond Chandler paragraph—dark, bitter, with a twist. Here are nine joints where dames drink dry martinis, cops nurse regrets, and every barkeep looks like they’ve heard too much.
These bars aren’t theme parks—they’re time machines. Pull up a stool, order something bitter, and watch the shadows crawl. Just remember: in these joints, everybody’s got a past.
1. John’s Grill — San Francisco Best Drink: Manhattan, stiff and sincere Why It’s Noir: The Maltese Falcon’s Sam Spade ate chops here. Still does if you squint. Dark wood, history, and a menu right out of 1930. Dashiell Hammett made this his watering hole.
2. Musso & Frank Grill — Hollywood Best Drink: Classic dry martini, stirred with respect Why It’s Noir: It is noir. Bogart, Chandler, Faulkner, Fitzgerald. Red booths, waiters in tuxedos, a bar that hasn’t blinked since 1919. You can practically hear the Remingtons clacking in the back.
3. The Tower Bar — Sunset Strip, L.A. Best Drink: Negroni, bitter as a good backstory Why It’s Noir: Sunset Tower Hotel housed mobsters and movie stars alike. Now it’s hush-hush meetings in velvet booths overlooking the Strip. Trouble comes dressed in satin.
4. Vesuvio Café — San Francisco Best Drink: Bohemian Coffee (brandy-laced rebellion) Why It’s Noir: Across from City Lights Books, Kerouac drank here. Neon glows, sawdust floors, and Beat ghosts still mumble poetry in the corners.
6. Dobson’s — San Diego Best Drink: Mussel Bisque Martini (yes, really) Why It’s Noir: Built into the historic Spreckels Building with a secret passage to the theater. It’s where city hall types, journalists, and faded cops tell stories they can’t print. Dim booths, tall ceilings, and old ghosts.
7. House of Shields — San Francisco Why It’s Noir: Since 1908, it’s stood without a clock, because time forgets itself here. Dark mahogany, marble, and myth. Cops drank downstairs, politicians upstairs, and nobody asked questions. The chandeliers still flicker like secrets. Best Drink: Rye Old-Fashioned, neat with a glare
8. Tosca Café — North Beach, SF Best Drink: House cappuccino with a surprise (hint: brandy) Why It’s Noir: Red booths, jukebox arias, and a back room once used by opera-loving wiseguys. In the '50s, this was the unofficial HQ for cops, poets, and cons. Tosca keeps its secrets well.
9. Tom Bergin’s — Los Angeles Best Drink: Irish Coffee (served since the 1930s) Why It’s Noir: This old Irish pub predates noir itself. Horseshoe bar, shadowy regulars, and enough shamrocks with faded names to raise the dead. You come here to remember—or forget.
10. Lobby Bar, Westgate Hotel — Above; San Diego Best Drink: French 75 in crystal stemware Why It’s Noir: The closest thing this side of the Atlantic to Harry’s Bar at the Ritz. Mirrors, chandeliers, and an atmosphere so lush even your alibi would crack. Best place in town to dress up and vanish.
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