SF: Happy Hour at NOPA

Let’s recap my day #1 in SF so far, following the plane ride, Carina and I immediately went to La Taqueria for tacos then had a cookie (each) at Anthony’s Cookies. Naturally this led to thirst and happy hour seemed like a good plan.

NOPA has been on my radar for some time. We were lured in by the craft cocktails and the inexpensive small bites. Carina started with the Choke Hold (Arette blanco tequila, Cynar, Maraschino, lime).

I had the Cocchi Cup (Cocchi Americano, rye, lemon, ginger beer). Then we started navigating through the menu. I knew I wanted the green bean salad and Carina wanted the cucumber salad. And I’m obsessed with tomatoes so I wanted the fried green tomatoes. Eventually we realized all the shared plates were $4 (except the chickpeas were $3) so we stopped negotiating and just ordered the three dishes.

I was very happy with our veggies after the meat-intensive lunch I had. We had a couple more cocktails. I had the Dutchie (Bols Genever, Gran Classico, lemon, Combier) and I didn’t catch what Carina had but knowing her I would guess it’s either Sunshine Fix (Broker’s gin, Aperol, lemon, Angostura bitters), The Aristocrat (Broker’s gin, Campari, Guiterrez Colosia Oloroso sherry) or Aston Martin (Plymouth gin, Benedictine, Guiterrez Colosia Oloroso sherry).

I could see why this place is so popular. There was a lady sitting next to me and several of the  bartenders knew she would have at least two Manhattans that evening. I like open kitchens. We watched the rotisserie chicken gently rotate, I saw a cook use a huge knife to neatly slice avocado into cubes and the restaurant got packed after a while.

Oh, and yes, the bartenders are hot. Welcome to San Francisco.

NOPA

560 Divisadero St., San Francisco, CA 94117 – (415) 864-8643