March 18, 2008
The Watering Hole: Innocent Victim In Print Publising's Death March?
As local, national, and worldwide print publishing continues to take a brutal, Christ-like thrashing -- take, for example, the San Jose Mercury News' recent layoffs and a 30% drop in the San Francisco Chronicle's daily circulation -- the time-honored watering hole for "crusty but benign" journos, it seems, has also taken a beating.
The Market Watch report above tries to brings this point home, reminiscing with Michael McCourt from The Washbag, which closed this year. Apparently Herb Caen used to enjoy getting ripped there.
But, really, most of the bars frequented by some of your favorite Bay Area alcoholic journalists seem to be doing well. Let's see, the Chronicle has The Tempest. That seems to be pretty well-packed all the time. SFBG has Connecticut Yankee, and SF Weekly likes to stumble out of Hotel Utah. Wired used to call the Eagle Drift-In home, we think, but that lovely old dive is now dead. (It's Outer Sunset sister, though, is alive and kicking.) 7x7 fancies Otis, presumably.
Any others that we're missing? SF Mag? Mother Jones? B.A.R.? eWEEK? Chime in, local print pub editorial staffs, and tell us just where you and your colleagues like to go to kill the pain. You poor dears.
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Back when I worked at The Recorder (legal daily), we used to hit Edinburgh Castle before it became a hipster bar. And the bar at the corner of Turk and Polk, which has changed names so many times I can't remember what it was called or is called.
Oh God I hope that was a 'Network' reference, Brock. You may be my new favorite editor ever.
Home - you can't rip a hit in a bar! At least that's what we book folks do...
Hey, DC1974 -- when did you work there? I did a spell at the Recorder myself . . . albeit a very short one.
DC1974 -
The bar at Turk and Polk is now called "Temple Bar," and caters primarily to students at the California Culinary Academy, which is right across the street.
Valleywag meets up at Moose's pretty regulary each Friday. Free drinks for those with tech gossip!
thanks for catching the reference, orange drink. i love Network. it's insane.
Moose's is closing, so scratch that one of the list too.