Store and pour
At bars with rentable storage space, the lockers are for booze and cigars—not socks and sneakers.Somewhere between the flashiness of bottle service and the exclusivity of private club membership lies a canny combination of the two: the luxury of renting shelf space for your liquor in public bars. Aside from the obvious proprietary glee, there are other perks. You don’t need to finish all 750 milliliters in one sitting, as you would at a bottle-service club; and unlike at members-only venues, you can bring your friends and coworkers to share your bounty.
Taverna Aventine, the first joint venture from the Vintage 415 team (creators of Mamacita, the Ambassador, Double Dutch, and so on) and Gian-Paolo Veronese (son of Angela Alioto, whose law office is down the street), is located a beat away from the former sites of two of San Francisco’s most famous Barbary Coast drinking venues: A.P. Hotaling Company’s whiskey warehouse and the Bank Exchange. While vintage cocktails from that era are on offer upstairs in the nautically themed bar, the real action is in the cement-walled basement (named the Parlor), with its 54 custom-built wine and spirit lockers. Only locker holders have access to this level during happy hour, as well as to room-rental discounts, private events, and other membership bonuses. Aventine is hoping this will convince people to stay in a neighborhood that typically turns into a ghost town come 5 p.m. We bet they will: It’s a lot harder to head home when there’s a bottle waiting around the corner with your name on it.
Taverna Aventine, 5:35 p.m.
THE DAMAGE
The starting fee is $582 (which includes two bottles and one month’s rent); lockers are $100 per month thereafter.
FINE PRINT
The bar controls the keys to your private stash, and there is a fee of $20 per hour to cover service and glassware.
THE CLUB
The Vintage 415 crew have a strong track record with the party crowd, so the tables fold up against the walls—just in case.
PEEPING
Brass nameplates and mesh on the lockers allow gawkers to see who’s who—and what they’re drinking.
582 Washington St., S.F., 415-981-1500, aventinesf.com
Elsewhere
Whiskeycentric izakaya restaurant Nihon offers free storage for bottles bought at the bar, as well as a private room in which to drink them. 1779 Folsom St., S.F., 415-552-4400, dajanigroup.net/nihon.swf
Members who store bottles at the San Francisco Wine Center can crack one open and share their sauce in either of two event rooms onsite. 757 Bryant St., S.F., 415- 655-7300, sanfranciscowinecenter.com
Smokers can not only store stogies in one of the lockers at the Occidental Cigar Club; the venue’s owner-operated status means they can also puff on the premises. 471 Pine St., S.F., 415-834-0485, occidentalcigarclub.com
Taverna Aventine, the first joint venture from the Vintage 415 team (creators of Mamacita, the Ambassador, Double Dutch, and so on) and Gian-Paolo Veronese (son of Angela Alioto, whose law office is down the street), is located a beat away from the former sites of two of San Francisco’s most famous Barbary Coast drinking venues: A.P. Hotaling Company’s whiskey warehouse and the Bank Exchange. While vintage cocktails from that era are on offer upstairs in the nautically themed bar, the real action is in the cement-walled basement (named the Parlor), with its 54 custom-built wine and spirit lockers. Only locker holders have access to this level during happy hour, as well as to room-rental discounts, private events, and other membership bonuses. Aventine is hoping this will convince people to stay in a neighborhood that typically turns into a ghost town come 5 p.m. We bet they will: It’s a lot harder to head home when there’s a bottle waiting around the corner with your name on it.
Taverna Aventine, 5:35 p.m.
THE DAMAGE
The starting fee is $582 (which includes two bottles and one month’s rent); lockers are $100 per month thereafter.
FINE PRINT
The bar controls the keys to your private stash, and there is a fee of $20 per hour to cover service and glassware.
THE CLUB
The Vintage 415 crew have a strong track record with the party crowd, so the tables fold up against the walls—just in case.
PEEPING
Brass nameplates and mesh on the lockers allow gawkers to see who’s who—and what they’re drinking.
582 Washington St., S.F., 415-981-1500, aventinesf.com
Elsewhere
Whiskeycentric izakaya restaurant Nihon offers free storage for bottles bought at the bar, as well as a private room in which to drink them. 1779 Folsom St., S.F., 415-552-4400, dajanigroup.net/nihon.swf
Members who store bottles at the San Francisco Wine Center can crack one open and share their sauce in either of two event rooms onsite. 757 Bryant St., S.F., 415- 655-7300, sanfranciscowinecenter.com
Smokers can not only store stogies in one of the lockers at the Occidental Cigar Club; the venue’s owner-operated status means they can also puff on the premises. 471 Pine St., S.F., 415-834-0485, occidentalcigarclub.com
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