San Francisco’s Mission District: home to Pi Bar, Shotwell’s and more tasty beer destinations

With the opening of Pi Bar on Valencia, just added to the Beer By BART transit listings, and the recently added Shotwell’s (on Shotwell of course),  it’s becoming obvious that craft beer enjoyment is now one of the many reasons to visit the Mission District. The Mission, like many other neighborhoods, is ever changing. You can still find corner stores with multiple Central American lagers. There are still great taquerias and little local restaurants of all descriptions with wonderful food, although you won’t usually find a good craft beer to enjoy with your meals in them. One reason to visit the Mission is to experience this multicultural variety. The Mission has had its time as an Italian neighborhood, an Irish area, a largely Mexican and then a mixed Latin American district. The “knowledge worker” influx over the last two decades has laid the groundwork for a growing number of places near the 16th and 24th Street BART Stations where you can get good beer. After all, who ever met a geeky young engineer or interface designer who didn’t appreciate the best the beer world has to offer?

A few months ago we added Shotwell’s to our list of BARTable destinations, and we’ve enjoyed returning there. Amidst their impressive tap and bottle lists, we’ve regularly found Anchor Porter on tap. This clean robust porter is a classic San Francisco beer we both love on draft and don’t see too often outside the bottle, except on the Anchor Brewery tour.

Recently, Pi Bar opened on Valencia Street near 25th, bringing great beer to the Cesar Chavez Street corridor. (It’s an easy walk from the 24th Street BART Station). We just got around to adding the listing, but we have already put some photos up at the open Flickr group for the Northern California beer community, including these on this page, and we have already been back there several times. This sample list on their Draught Board shows why:

• Pi opens with an elegant list on draft

Beers will rotate, but no doubt you’ll find something delicious to drink here.

Welcome, Pi bar… and Shotwell’s.