To the right, my friend Bethany is leaning out of one of the three windows of 15 Romolo. The street far left is Broadway. I took this to show how it’s up an alley, one of the most endearing aspects of this bar. The Basque Hotel has a rich history in SF.

Besides that, though, this is a beautiful little nook of a bar. It can be sporadically crazily packed, and I can’t recommend a safe time, since I’m not sure the method to the madness. The bartender/manager says they are lately going through a quiet happy hour period, so I would advice going after work if you want to hear your friend talk. More tidbits and photos after ze jump.

There are these nice big plush couches, small, intimate tables with candles, and then, the feature we truly love: booths! The bartenders have a selection of fine German beer, wines, and cocktails. The main reason I pick this as my Best Bar for SF Metblogs is that it’s hidden in a very touristy bridge and tunnel neighborhood, it’s ambiance is bar none fantastic, and the location is close enough to be central, but hidden enough to be a secret. Friends vouch for their martinis.

Info/Getting There
On yelp, citysearch. Directions (as maps don’t get this fine enough in grain), at the intersection of Columbus and Broadway. walk downhill on Broadway about 100 meters, facing the Bay, on the left hand side of Broadway. Romolo alley goes to the left, and if you tick off the businesses you pass: the Condor, then the sex shop, the Hungry I (great company, huh?) then alley. If you see Black Oak Books, you are too far. Though, in its own right it’s a good place for a drunken read.

Basque Eateries
Speaking of Basque-ness, Bocadillos : down Montgomery St. or down Columbus, right next to champagne bar Bubble Lounge, serves nice little tapas and drinks. New Basque restaurant Iluna Basque, and it’s cafe next door, also serves small plates and wine. It’s up a few blocks and over at Union and Powell. Can’t not mention Piperade, though I have not been there, Basque fan that I am. Down on the peninsula, check out: Basque Community Center in South San Francisco is a unique place in the South City where you can experience a lunchtime sit down, white tablecloth, prix fixe meal that probably hasn’t changed in 70 years.

Basque History in CA
From the article about the Basque community center,

What we think of as Basque restaurants, with their heaping platters of meat and family-style seating, originated not in the old country but in the boardinghouses frequented by Basque shepherds in the American West. It spread to the Basque-owned hotels and boardinghouses on San Francisco’s Broadway in the 1950s and ’60s: Obrero Hotel, Hotel Pyrenees, the Basque Hotel and many others.

The rich history of Early Basques in California, and a list of publications regarding Basque history in the new world. I can’t find the article about Basque hotels, dagnabbit.
I discovered while googling this list, that San Juan Bautista de Anza, explorer in the 1770s of most of the SF area, was born in Sonora, but comes from Basque lineage before that. Yes, I’m a history geek.

From the article on Early Basques:

The first recorded Basque hotel in the United States was constructed after the 1849 California Gold Rush, in San Francisco, on Powell Street, in 1866 by Juan Miguel Aguirre. Aguirre also established the first fronton, or handball court, in California. The Yparraguirre family then built the Basque Hotel and fronton in the 1880s, and soon after other Basque hotels appeared such as the Hotel France, Hotel des Alpes, and the Hotel de Basses Pyrenees. In the San Francisco earthquake and fire of 1906 these businesses were destroyed, but others soon followed. The Hotel de España was constructed in 1907 by the Lugea brothers, the Hotel de Pyrenees, Hotel Iriarte, the Obrero, the Hotel Español, Hotel du Midi, and Hotel Cosmopolitan were all prosperous in the new century.