The Crow Bar, at 401 Broadway in SF, is just about perfect as a hanging-out bar with a big group of people. There was plenty of room - chairs - we hung out playing air hockey, a six-in-one classic arcade game with Galaga and Ms. Pac-Man, and a good pinball machine - and the music was comforting punk rock early 80s classics. Me and Shauna sang to “Institutionalized” in an overly melodramatic way while playing the Aladdin pinball thingie. It was like all the good parts one remembers from childhood about being at Chuck E. Cheese, but for Gen X “grownups”. In fact I felt weirdly at home, which I almost never do at bars. It was homey and seedy, like being in my Great-Uncle Warren’s basement rec room, I swear to god.

A guy at the bar had an enormous blue and yellow macaw with him. It was wearing a little sweatshirt and seemed relaxed, so it must have been a regular. I gave it a coaster to mangle and made my hand head-bob like a parrot. It said hello. My parrot-fu is strong.

I can’t speak for the alcohol part since I had a Shirley Temple with lime juice and extra limes, nice and sour, without any sneering from the nice bartender for it not being something more expensive. Definitely, for atmosphere and fun… A+ for the Crow Bar.