BEST POP-UP RIVER OF LIQUOR
The Bon Vivants cocktail crew — Scott Baird, Josh Harris, Jason Henton — is a local treasure, throwing some of the coolest, most innovative parties around. They’ve also created winning cocktail menus, like the one at Berkeley’s new Comal, while working on their long-awaited Mission bar Trick Dog. But till then, tipsy transients can catch them at their more fleeting establishment, the Rio Grande Bar. What started as part of A Temporary Offering — the intriguing rotating pop-up project that inhabits the entire ground floor of the Renoir Hotel — may soon (we hope) become a permanent destination. Or it could morph into roving gypsy bar. Evoking a funky border-town roadhouse as Quentin Tarantino might interpret it, the bar is already a cute-kitschy go-to for cocktailians in the know. There, tequila, mezcal, whiskey, and beer (in cans) flow. No drink menu is needed: talented bar staff create bracing beverages based on your mood. Or simply opt for a Dos Equis while grooving to live bands on the mini stage, beneath shrines to 1970s adult film star Vanessa del Rio and the Virgin of Guadalupe.
1108 Market, SF. www.bonvivants-sf.com