What might have been the final battle over Another Planet Entertainment’s makeover of the Castro Theatre ended with a whimper, as the SF Board of Supervisors quickly approved their plan to serve liquor on the second floor of the storied theater.

It’s been a year and nine months since Berkeley-based concert promoter Another Planet Entertainment (APE) took over management of the Castro Theatre. And boy, have they received blowback from the Castro community since, as their plan is to make the theater more of a concert venue with far less frequent film screenings. APE’s proposal to remove the orchestra-level seats of the theater, and replace them with temporary seating that could be shoehorned in for film events, was perhaps the most contentious component of the remodel, and some City Hall commissions opposed those plans.

But APE enjoyed a huge shift of momentum in their favor in June, when the SF Board of Supervisors voted against landmarking the seats as part of the interior of the theater. That gave the green light for many of APE’s interior remodel plans. Just over a week later, the SF Planning Commission approved APE’s $15 million theater remodel plan, albeit with a laundry list of conditions dictating a minimum number of movie screenings, a minimum percentage of LGBTQ-themed programming, and  deadline dates for when APE will complete these renovations.

That seemingly left APE’s final fight as their plan to add liquor service on the upstairs level of the theater, a change that is not allowed under the theater’s current landmark status. But a legislative fix allowing that change was before the Board of Supervisors Tuesday.

And the supervisors approved that change to allow liquor service on the second floor, in a quick 10-1 vote with no discussion — Supervisor Aaron Peskin was the only one who voted against. (Peskin was also the only No vote in June.)

This was not a straight-up vote on whether the Castro Theatre could have an upstairs bar, and the legislation the Board passed Tuesday does not even mention the Castro Theatre. Instead, the legislative text is a measure“to exclude Article 10 Landmark buildings” (which the Castro Theatre is) to “allow Nighttime Entertainment with a Conditional Use authorization on the second floor.” As the Bay Area Reporter explained before the vote, that’s basically a zoning change that would allow for a bar serving liquor to operate on the second floor of a landmarked building in the neighborhood.

And according to APE’s plans they brought before the Planning  Commission in June, it seems they will not be putting a bar in the second-floor lobby. It sounds more like they’ll have mobile carts with alcoholic drinks and food, which can be wheeled into the theater for live concerts.

“The front counter of those concession stands are on wheels, and they’re in the lobby,” APE’s lead architect on the project Christopher Wasney told the Planning Commission in June. “Those front counters or front bars could wheel into the house for, say, a loud concert.”

This may have been the final fight for APE’s plans to remake the Castro Theatre, and APE has effectively gotten everything they want. Yes, they agreed to a plan to show more film programming than perhaps they would have liked, and they were forced to agree to more LGBTQ programming. And they still have a second vote on the same item before the board next week, and may face another Planning Commission vote on the technicals of the liquor service. But both of those votes seem like they’ll be formalities.

So no matter how you feel about this massive overhaul of the 101-year-old Castro Theatre, at this point, hopefully we can all just look forward to APE’s renovations to the aging theater’s ceiling work, sgraffito murals, and proscenium walls. APE says those renovations should be completed within five years.

Related: SF Supervisors Vote Against Landmarking Castro Theatre Seats, In Major Win For Another Planet Entertainment [SFist]

Image: Lynn F. via Yelp

Don’t be a turkey and run out of alcohol on Thanksgiving Day! Even if you drink through your supply on Thursday, there are many 11th hour beverage and grocery establishments that will gladly ring you up to refill your stock on Thanksgiving Day in SF.  

With Thanksgiving just about upon us, the Chronicle ran a nice list this week of  wine shops that are open on Thanksgiving Day. It’s a handy list! But it is geared toward, shall we say, a certain demographic (I’m not paying Plumpjack prices, I’ll tell you what), and it focuses more on wine than beer and hard liquor. We’ll include the Chron’s findings at the bottom of this list, but we’ve broadened it to beer and liquor sales, and your budget-friendlier grocery chains that are also open Thanksgiving Day.

We can’t possibly include every corner store in San Francisco, so you can keep an eye out for those hours in your neighborhood. But we confirmed that all of these Bi-Rites, BevMos, Whole Foods and various other grocers with the full beer, wine, and liquor aisles are open on Thanksgiving Day, and we’ve listed their hours along with them. (Note: The hours listed are only for November 24, 2022.)

BI-RITE MARKET

Alamo Square: 550 Divisadero Street, 8 a.m.-1 p.m.

Mission/Castro: 3639 18th Street; 8 a.m.-1 p.m.

BEVMO!

Bayview: 201 Bayshore Boulevard, 9 a.m.- 5 p.m.

Nob Hill: 1301 Van Ness Avenue, 8 a.m. - 5 p.m.

Laurel Heights: 3455 Geary Boulevard, 9 a.m. - 9 p.m.

WHOLE FOODS

Castro/Duboce Triangle: 2001 Market Street, 7 a.m.- 3 p.m.

Mid-Market: 1185 Market Street , 7 a.m.- 3 p.m.

Nob Hill: 1765 California Street , 7 a.m.- 3 p.m.

Noe Valley: 3950 24th Street, 7 a.m.- 3 p.m.

Oceanview: 1150 Ocean Avenue 7 a.m.- 3 p.m.

Potrero Hill: 450 Rhode Island Street, 7 a.m.- 3 p.m.

South of Market: 399 4th Street, 7 a.m.- 3 p.m.

Stonestown Galleria: 3251 20th Avenue, 7 a.m.- 3 p.m.  

Upper Haight: 690 Stanyan Street, 7 a.m.- 3 p.m.

SAFEWAY

Castro/Duboce Triangle: 2020 Market Street, 6 a.m. - 6 p.m.

Potrero Hill: 2300 16th Street, 5 a.m. - 6 p.m.

Mission/Bernal: 3350 Mission Street, 6 a.m. - 6 p.m.

Excelsior: 4950 Mission Street, 5 a.m. - 6 p.m.

Glen Park/Sunnyside: 625 Monterey Boulevard, 6 a.m. - 6 p.m.

Inner Parkside: 730 Taraval Street, 5 a.m. - 6 p.m.

Diamond Heights: 5290 Diamond Heights Boulevard, 5 a.m. - 6 p.m.

Outer Sunset: 2350 Noriega Street, 5 a.m. - 6 p.m.

South of Market: 298 King Street, 5 a.m. - 6 p.m.

Inner Richmond: 735 Seventh Avenue, 6 a.m. - 6 p.m.

Outer Richmond: 850 La Playa Street, 5 a.m. - 6 p.m.

Fillmore/Japantown: 1335 Webster, 6 a.m. - 6 p.m.

Embarcadero: 145 Jackson Street, 6 a.m. - 6 p.m.

Fisherman’s Wharf: 350 Bay Street, 6 a.m. - 6 p.m.

Marina: 15 Marina Boulevard, 5 a.m. - 6 p.m.

SAN FRANCISCO WINE STORES

Biondivino, 1415 Green Street, 10 a.m. - 2 p.m.

Bottle Bacchanal, 4126 18th Street, 10 a.m. - 2 p.m.

Dolores Deluxe, 3500 22nd Street, 9 a.m. - 5 p.m.

Dolores Outpost, 698 Guerrero Street, 8 a.m. - 5 p.m.

Gemini Bottle Co., 2801 22nd Street, 10 a.m. - 4 p.m.

The Jug Shop, 1648 Pacific Avenue, 9 a.m. - 5 p.m.

Millay, 691 14th Street, 10 a.m. - 2 p.m.

Noe Valley Wine & Spirits, 3821 24th Street, 10 a.m. - 3 p.m.

PlumpJack Wine & Spirits, 3201 Fillmore Street, 11 a.m.-3 p.m.

PlumpJack Wine & Spirits, 4011 24th Street, 11 a.m. - 3 p.m.

Swirl on Castro, 572 Castro Street, 10 a.m. - 2 p.m.

Tofino Wines, 2696 Geary Boulevard. 10 a.m. - 3 p.m.

William Cross Wine Merchant, 2253 Polk Street , 11am - 3pm

Wine Impression, 3461 California Street, 10 a.m. - 3 p.m.

Related: 12 Best Alcohol Delivery Services In SF [SFist]

Image: Lesia via Unsplash

Bruce Joseph had a secret. He and a couple of pals working at Anchor Brewing during the early '90s were distilling spirits.

Of course, this was all under the direction of Fritz Maytag, the company's then-owner and heir to the Maytag fortune, who saved the brewery from closure in 1965 when he bought a controlling share of the company shortly after his Stanford graduation.

Fritz was himself known to tinker with a distilling pot, and every so often, he, Joseph, and others would call for a meeting of the "Water Committee" to taste what they'd made — a code-name they said was just the title for a group testing the acidity and quality of the water used in their beer.

By 1994, however, the jig was up, and Anchor was marketing its spirits: first, Old Potrero Whiskey, an amber spirit that's spicy and just slightly smoky. Then came others like Junípero Gin, a clean, citrus-forward take on a London dry gin. Of course, Anchor being a brewery, the team eventually got to playing with hop-infused spirits, like Anchor's Hophead Vodka, even distilling down a version of their famous Christmas Ale, aptly called Christmas spirit. These days, Joseph is Head Distiller of Anchor's own distilling arm, Anchor Distilling.

While many are familiar with Anchor as a craft brewery and have taken its rite-of-passage brewery tour at the company's recognizable Potrero Hill facility, fewer are familiar with these craft spirits. So — you see where this is going — aiming to change that is a new tasting tour from Anchor Distilling that launches on the 21st.

The Distillery tasting room now sits above the brewery/distillery in a space that Maytag once used as his own apartment for late nights on the job. The view can't be beat — you can see down to the ballpark — and herbs and citrus for cocktails grow in the sun on the rooftop garden.

Tasting room tours, which are $35, last an hour, taking drinkers through the backbone of the distilling process and the highlights of Anchor Distilling's line. And between generous pours and the view, you'll leave a little bit woozier, and hopefully a bit wiser, than you came in.

Anchor Distilling Company - 1705 Mariposa Street, tours $35, one hour, Thursday and Friday at 2:30 p.m. and 4:30 p.m.

For budgetary reasons, SFist editors and contributors occasionally accept
complimentary meals from restaurants and their publicists. More often, we pay out of pocket for our meals. While we refrain from writing formal reviews, we make every effort when giving opinions about restaurants to be objective, and to focus more on food and ambiance than service in order to make up for any possible bias.

That's the question posed by 7x7's Sara Deseran, and thank God she did. Swimming in a sea of artisan hooch concoctions, Deseran points our attention to the old-fashion bartenders -- specifically, bartender Scott Wolf, her Sam Malone in a sea of infusions and muddling.

I'm taking a leap here to say that Scott probably doesn't consider himself a mixologist. For one, the restaurants he's worked at to my knowledge (Chaya, Perbacco, Betelnut) don't have those kind of bars, dominated by bartenders in the telltale vest/cap/mustache/tattoo getup. For another, he's always watching to make sure everyone's happy, rather than losing himself, head down, as he crafts an "artisinal" cocktail. I watched him that night and he was constantly on the move.

The cocktail movement has definitely raised the bar in this town (overused pun intended)—and for this I'm grateful—but it's also created a backlog of frustrated bar goers like myself, who often find themselves waiting in line to put in their order, and once they do, having to stand aside to wait some more as the bartender painstakingly takes his or her time making a heady cocktail into a 15 minute art project: peeling the perfect twist, rubbing the essential oils onto the rim, snipping fresh Thai basil from an herb garden, cracking pepper in a mortar and pestle, picking ice from a glacier-sized chunk flown in from Alaska, lighting it all on fire, or whatever is required to prove their muster. So often it's a drink that's about the bartender's ego before the customer's satisfaction.

To be fair, self-described mixologists aren't everywhere. And, yes, most of you presumably hit watering holes each night featuring some of the best pourers in town. (From our extensive, liver-blackening research, we can safely declare Bill Landers at Orson the best bartender in town.) While we cock our eyebrows semi-excitedly whenever we see egg whites adorn a martini glass, there's something to be said for a simple beer, vodka rocks, or (dare we say) cosmopolitans that some mixologists refuse to make on aesthetic grounds. Remember, folks, in the end it's all about the buzz; let us never forget that.

This begs the question, will Chris Daly hire bartenders or mixologists at his new bar? Inquiring/tipsy minds want to know, Supervisor!

Made from a secret recipe of over 40 herbs and spices, San Francisco has a special place in its heart for Fernet-Branca. (Fun fact: 35 percent of Fernet-Branca in the US is consumed right here in SF. Read Nate Cavalieri's excellent "The Myth of Fernet" to know more about why we love it ever so.) But for you die-hard fans. we have some breaking news: "For the first time in this country, the beloved digestif is now available on tap," reports Scott Hocker of Tasting Table. You can check it out on tap at Bullitt (2209 Polk) or at Tonic (2360 Polk). Read more at Tasting Table.

This cannot be good. Aiding in the closure of one of the few business that make money in SF? Ugh. According to Anna Conda, former Miss Trannyshack and club promoter of Herr-A-Chick, the DNA Lounge finally "lost its liquor license," so she's moving her club night. If you recall, DNA Lounge came under fire from the California Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control, after the covert agents witnesses the exposing of bare buttocks at one of the club's queer nights. (Anna Conda has since moved the 4/15 version of Herr-A-Chick to the Eagle Tavern.) But don't fret, DNA fans. They are still in the appeals process. Stay tuned for updates, or go here for more about DNA's ongoing battle with ABC.

Update: Drama! OK, we futzed the first part of this. Here's what DNA (angrily) has to say about the above information.

1) We have not "lost our liquor license". All that happened is we got another piece of paper along the way with ABC's decision on it, as opposed to mere threats. The appeal process continues. It could take years, and we will certainly be open in the meantime.

2) The reason Herr-a-Chick is moving to the Eagle is because they were never able to get more than 50 people to show up to one of their events. DNA Lounge is just way too big for them.

Also, "the judge recommended revocation, and they are facing a long appeals process, but they still have it and it's business as usual." That is to say, the place is open for business as usual.

Here's a link to the legal defense fund to help DNA Lounge.

There's a Save DNA Facebook page too.