When i first walked in, i was surprised to see the bike racks, double decker...filled with every kind of bike imaginable... the bar had a good vibe going on, great tunes playing, people playing pool, eating, drinking these massive liters of beer... it made me laugh. I'm more of a vodka drinker and the thought of a liter of beer was hard to swallow...well, until i had one... one was all i needed. It was a deal, $8 for the beer and somewhere around $4 for my bratwurst, $2 for this yummy warm potato salad. I will be going back for sure! read more

came by to join in the festivities of seeing off norebang/durian loving cutie Steph P on her quest to enlightenment in the midwest... little did i know i would be partaking in a new trend that is all the rage in europe- "the sauna bar." PROS- * see girls all hot, sweaty, yeah you get it.. http://www.flickr.com/photos/93334351@N00/1232841504/in/set-72157601651142296/ * detoxification * nice to have warmth in SF during the summer * no guilt drinking if you don't exercise CONS- * see guys all hot, sweaty, yeah you get it.. http://www.flickr.com/photos/93334351@N00/1231970045/in/set-72157601651142296/ * detoxification * enhanced body aroma * WARM BEER fantastic variety of beer flavors and sizes available and was great to see all the wonderful yelpers come out and party with Steph going bye-bye AND to my surprise seeing Kate K on her return from Ohio. http://www.flickr.com/photos/93334351@N00/1231977097/in/set-72157601651142296/ a bitter-sweet experience. if they fix the AC here i will happily return and order a liter rather than a pint =) all pics taken by the sexy Eric W (okay you happy now??!!!) read more

beer, brats 'n' bikes....catering to city cyclers...indoor bike rack...brat to eat...beer to drink.....$nine liters...a decent pricing.....stout beer selection plentiful....sticking to fat tire brew....countertop electric grill...sizzling of polish sausage....$five meal...toasted bun 'n' sauerkraut...mustard 'n' ketchup....fine brat dining..... read more

i really like this place. the vibe there is so great, so friendly. and one of my favorite combos is a nice brew w/ their vegan sausage w/ saurkraut (don't worry meat eaters - they have other great meaty options!)...mmmm yum. even tho i don't bike (me and the chihuahua like to have our feet on the ground), i like that they have bike parking INSIDE - good move to move it to the back and expand the seating area in the front where you can people watch inside and out. and good move to add more tables along the wall. and the people who work there are really nice, always feel welcome and confortable there. and BONUS, my pooch is welcome! yes. y'all - dog-friendly! any place who welcomes my pooch with open arms is more than ok in my book! and it's soooo close to my house, has a pool table, and warm red walls - the kind of red i'd paint my walls if i wasn't such a committment-phobe! read more

I went here for the first time last night and had such a great experience. The crowd was mellow, the music varried, they have beer in ungodly huge steins and even have proper German music to accompany the drink. Add bike racks, a pool table, sausages and sandwiches and you have a great place to go on a Thursday night. Note that they do not serve hard alcohol, but that is probably part of what keeps this place fairly mellow despite the locale. I am taking a minute to dedicate a paragraph of my review to the bartender here. He told me his name, so I could properly yelp him, but I warned him I was drinking and would likely forget...which I have. I did say I would just describe him as the cute guy with the dark hair, so if you see him you'll know who I am talking about. When I first ordered our beer the keg blew halfway through the first pint. He gave us that half a beer to tide us over and said come back in 3 minutes. I did, and by the time I came back there were two beautiful, frosty beers waiting for me....that is service!! He also gave us money for the jukebox to pick songs to have singalongs to (after we were belting out Guns and Roses rather loudly and obnoxiously). Clearly he doesnt mind people having a good time at this bar. He let us taste some beers and engaged us in conversation and was integral in making our experience as awesome as it was. read more

Dive-y feeling bar with lots of pinball machines. They've made some nice renovations lately with taking out the pool table and making more room overall. The beer selection is fabulous. We cannot resist going here whenever we are around the area because for the past 6 or 7 months they have had Sculpin IPA on tap consistently. read more

omg! I think i'm in love....but it's all bittersweet! How I miss cafe la onda but it's replacement is something I can definitely live with! Can I tell you...how I love beer and sausages! The german in me is ready to polka up a storm. This place has bike parking within it's establishment, a pool table, beer, and sausages! Guter laden hier! read more

when cafe la onda closed two months back, i spiralled into a major depression. not only did i have a lot of life all happening at once, but my evening safe haven for writing and ruminating was snatched untimely from me. for weeks, whenever i walked this stretch of valencia, i bit my lip, scrunched my eyes shut, and sped past, not daring to look what loathsome trespasser had uprooted my dear la onda. only recently did i notice that in its place had opened a mission interpretation of a german bierhalle. now, those who know me know that i looooooove me some sausage (especially sausage with sauerkraut). it's troubled me for some months that i live so faraway from dittmer's (not that i would ever consider living in mountain view, but my distance from sausage heaven is cause for concern). even rosamunde's a tad to close for regular comfort. however, now at my doorstep, is this gem of a little bar--i can get all the sausage and sauerkraut i need, edelweiss on tap, and my fill of the kickassrockinsuperfuckinrad music that once made cafe la onda so near and dear to my heart. moreover, if i had a bicycle, i could keep it on the indoor bike rack (a quirky but pretty random concept). read more

Gestalt is a great, new bar and I am biased because they have an indoor bike rack for around 20 something bikes, and they have great beers on tap. Seasonal brews of Sierra Nevada, PBR to bottles of Guiness Nitro! You can ride your bike to the bar and not sweat it disappearing outside. Jukebox plays great tunes and there is a pool table. A great kick it and drink bar in a good neighborhood. read more

Wow. Wow. I would have given this place 4 stars until the giant ass (I don't use that word lightly) of a bartender literally threw away our food in front of us because he didn't like our attitude. Disclaimer: we weren't drunk, weren't obnoxious, just literally confused about the side it came with. He wouldn't talk to us and wouldn't explain. Great business sense. Hope he makes the owners proud. read more

I'm a weirdo who likes to write/work during the day in dive bars. This place is blissfully perfect. It actually almost feels like a coffee shop and a bar had a child. The staff are nice, the bathroom is clean, and the people who pop in and out all seem to know each other. Super chill throwback to when you didn't have to be a pretentious fuck to enjoy yourself at a neighborhood bar. All the yes. read more

One bathroom. Both guys and girls wait in line for a change. Guy in front of me tells me what a Southern gentleman he is for the ten minutes we stand in line together. I enter the bathroom to find the seat up and his piss in the bowl. mmm Southern gentleman piss. Luckily the beer and sausage make up for it. Mostly. Except that the beer increases the frequency with which I have to stand in line with Southern gentlemen. read more

I love this bar! We hosted my partner's birthday party here last week and they were so accommodating. We were able to reserve a few tables and put the cake in their freezer til we used it. There's always a great selection of beer there, the staff is super helpful, and ya gotta love the pinball machines! We will definitely continue to come back here. read more

There is something awesome about the simplicity of this bar. They are only wine and beer but the selection is fantastic. They are the only bar I've found that has the Speakeasy Double Daddy on tap as well as many other great beers. They also serve a variety of sausages. These are very tasty and go quite well with beer. It can be kind of hard to get a seat but it is well worth it even if you have to wait a little while. read more

Vegan sausages!! And great beer!!! And ladies night!!! I'm sold. "Zeitgeist lite" my ass.

beer, brats and bikes! i thought brats was a new term for hipsters, until i went inside and saw all that sweaty sausage (yeah, there were a lot of dudes who had just peddaled in). as a vegetarian the combination of dead animals on the walls and the grill was a bit much, but the fact that they have the best bike-storage of any bar in the city and my ALL TIME favorite beer (or perhaps I was really thirsty?)-- I have to go back to remember it. Just try the red label that's on tap. but yeah, there were a lot of weenies here: -1 star but i imagine it's a good place to go when you need the hair of the dog. very dark. read more

Whoever decided to sell beer in 64 ounce glasses at this place is a fucking genius. Why go back and forth to the bar when you can set yourself up what amounts to a bucket of beer and go to town? Somehow, the presence of bike racks in this place seemed a bit disturbing to me. I know the Mission, and SF in general- are full of bicycle riders. But that being said- if you're going to be drinking - you should probably be WALKING - or stumbling as the case may be. It's kinda like a drive through liquor store- great concept but less than admirable execution... Extra points for the fact that the only source of lighting is white xmas tree lights on the ceiling. I'll be back! read more

Came here for a friend's bday last weekend, and they earn some points right off the bat for letting us bring our baby in here (you know, 'cause we're good parents). Excellent beer menu, and the music volume was just right (loud enough to appreciate the selection, not so loud that you couldn't hear anyone at your table). Also had just the right level of scuzziness to make me feel at home. read more

I pass by Gestalt a lot and finally in the past month have now been here a few times. I like their beer selection, but I was really surprised to find out they charge 6 dollars for Radeberger, especially when it is 4.50 across the street at Kilowatt. They have a decent pool table. The sausages, are pretty tasty too. Unfortunately, I did see a bug here when playing pool. Fucker was heading right towards my beer so I had to crush it with one of those plastic things on the table. I know they are everywhere but seeing them is the clincher, and other than the pool table, I am not very into this place. Oh yeah and the bathrooms have this crazy lacquer on the floors where it always looks wet. Is it wet? I'm not sure. *rubs foot on possibly wet floor* Hmm, guess not. EL BABYGIRL does not like falling. read more

so i think the equation goes something like this: toronado + rosamunde + zeitgeist = gestalt haus. only with daaamn good german potato salad, served HOT and with bacon, brats (meaty and vegan) piled high with sauerkraut ... fine selection o' beers on tap if you want it, but ginger or root beer if you don't. our bartender was almost unusually friendly and chipper for being a bartender, but then there was this one dude that lost his shit when no one came to claim the order: (smashes glasses on the floor) (turns off the music) "i said, SAUSAGE UP!" i love me a goood bad attitude. heh heh, and a good sausage too. ride your bike there, bitches. they've got racks for it, like the kind in the bicycle store. read more

This was the first bar in The Mission that we found with-gasp- open seating after searching on our first Friday night in town. It is a bike kid's dream bar- good quality beer on tap, open room with tables, pool, and an immense indoor bike rack. Everyone seemed friendly, and the bartender recommended a few good beers that I have never heard of before (but then again, my extent of beer knowledge pretty much begins and ends at the bottom of a PBR). Not sure if there was a jukebox or not, but good music played for the duration. I wish we had checked out the veg sausage, but we were burritoed out by the time we found this joint. read more

The minute that I walked into Gestalt Haus I thought that I had stepped into a real German bar....from the 1940's. I was greeted by a militant bouncer forcing my 3 friends and I to show zee paperz. Apparently our documentation wasn't sufficient so we were then forced to show a second form of ID; so everyone furnished credit cards with names that matched the driver's licenses, which the bouncer said still had "warm lamination." So my brother & roommate who are both over 21 and my friend who is 30 and I all were rejected from the bar. So this is a good place to go if you're into LARP and you're looking to reenact the Nazi era, but not a good place to go if you're of legal drinking age and you want a beer. read more

gestalt is an easy go: veggie love. vegan sausage outsells meat sausage four to one. they are good to their vegan customers with two yummy options. rock. speaking of rock: the juke box rules. nostalgia and rowdiness with the necessary guilty-crowd pleasers. indoor bike parking. murphy says to lock my bike, "it is still the mission." but i pity the fool who tries to lift anything from the racks of this bicycloholic bar. um, shouldn't it have been first thing i mentioned? the beer. i am now weary of those $8 litres, bigger than my head, that have forced me to walk home my aforementioned bike home more than once. yet, how can i resist the taps of ALL of my favorite beers lined along the bar like bowling pins waiting for me to knock them down? i can't even pick which one i want first when i get there. i guess i could buy pints... the ambiance. all the walls are painted black, and the ceiling is covered by rows of tiny white xmas lights about 6 inches to two feet apart; that is the only lighting. decoration is spare, save for deer heads. there is a pool table, but no chalk board, so better put your quarters on the table. pee show. the bathroom has only one toilet and is unisex, which would suck, if it weren't a private viewing of a fairly decent gallery of the usual sf suspects in the graf game. read more

I always seem to end up here. Honestly, on a weeknight, it's not that bad of place to hang out in. Decent beer on tap and some excellent sausages. And the mish mash crappy wooden tables to slam your big, heavy, glass mug onto appeals to me on a very basic level. The jukebox seems to always be playing Van Halen, which is a bonus and it never takes that long to get a drink. Honestly, though. I never seem to get the crowd in here. Sometimes it's cool and chill, other times it's downright annoying. And in a city where real estate rules, do we need a giant bicycle rack in one corner of the bar? I guess there are worse bars out there... read more

Wonderful to have dedicated off-street bicycle parking, even when I don't ride my bicycle here. Vegan sausage and beer, mmmm. I didn't notice the decor at all, because really I was there to have some vegan sausage and beer and just relax...and that's exactly what I did. Unpretentious bartenders. Pleasingly chill. read more

Okay, so I have to admit, I drink here every day now. It started casually, new bar, good beer, cool staff. Now it is like my extended living room. I stop in on my way home in the evening, and on my way out on the weekend. The beers are amazing, and you can get a pint, 1/2 liter or a full liter - yup, entire liter just for you. I've actually seen a few people require two hands just to get the first sip up. And, to top it off everyone who works there is super cool. Bring your bike and you can put it on the rack inside. And as if you needed more, they have amazing German Bratwurst. You won't leave hungry, thirsty or lonely! read more

liter glasses of beer are a definite plus, even though they don't have the right beer for my snobby brew drinkin ass yet. bike racks are pretty cool, but I'm still in the habit of leaving my old beater out in the cold since no one would want it anyway. always love seeing a lot of the same people that tend to frequent here almost on a nightly basis. the owner is damn cool too, and obviously a bike nerd / activist. read more

Gestalt - Pubs Near Me - San Francisco, California

Who doesn't love beer and weiners?!?! Those are my two favorite things in this world. Gestalt has one of the best beer selections in the MIssion. The menu even has its own chalkboard wall in front of the bar with ABV's included, so you can grab something hoppy in the double digits. There's an indoor bike rack at the back of the bar, so you biking folk don't have to worry about your bikes being messed with on the sidewalk. I overindulged in IPAs, as per usual, and the bartender told me I needed a 'deep dick.' Well, duh. Always. However, this deep dick is a wrapped sausage with condiments inside. It came with a side of orange crack sauce (probably thousand island dressing with seasonings). It was perfect. Like, if that deep dick was Kiera Knightly, I'd hold a sign out in front of its place that said "To me, you are perfect." Weeknights and Sundays are the best nights. I've watched an entire episode of Bob's Burgers at the bar. *Don't forget the cardinal rule of the Mission: BRING CASH read more

Good beer selection, but its way too bright in here for a bar. Seriously, if I wanted to see what people really looked like, I wouldn't be drinking read more

$3 for a pint of German pilsner beer on tap from Radelberger on Fridays. 'nuff said.

cool selection of beers....now 20 taps!!! update: have yet to try the sausages, but I've heard great things. the bartenders are super friends and i love the owners. :-) too bad about the Edelweiss beer...that too was one of my faves. update 2: the veggie sausages are ok. I'll eat 'em if i'm hungry. the beer selection is just too good though. you can get a 1/2 liter for 5-6 bucks! read more

So i walked in here one night with two of my roommates, went to the bathroom and walked back out again. I don't like people in spandex while I'm drinking, I have a hard enough time keeping my drinks down as it is. read more

I don't want to admit even knowing this place exists, it killed the last independent cafe that I remember from high-school: when the Red man still roamed the night and the Elbo Room played something other than hippie beat. Still, I have actually patronized this place and actually enjoyed myself. Yes, it feels like a transparent marketing ploy aimed cynically at the "Fixxee kid" subculture. Roll up your jeans, be snobby about your artfully distressed vintage track bike (or $4,000 brand new track bike that you can't repair yourself), grow an ugly but very ironic mustache -- and you to can spring full blown into "hipness", just like Gestalt. Yet despite skewering San Francisco's pretensions of subcultural authenticity (by revealing these pretensions ultimate hollowness) they have good beer, the staff is nice, there are comfy lounge chairs, and most importantly sausages. If I can get over my consumer anxiety I will be back, because sausages and beer fill a niche that needs filling along 16th. I went early when this den was almost empty, and I'm sure it gets unbearable as the evening grinds on. [Actually as of the end of August 2007, this is the only bar with a local, friendly and non-leghumping crowd on weekend nights along 16th -- well there's also the uptown, but I'm not ready to share that] Also, as to the existence of Zeitgeist. Yes they have a better BBQ [ with a grill etc.] and outdoor seating - they also have more posturing attitude and seem to require (at least from me) a several hour time commitment, Gestalt thus is likely better for the sausage on the go. read more

So I finally braved the vegan brats here. I was worried they would cause some serious gastric upset as so many veggie alternatives can. but lo and behold, IT WAS DELICIOUS! They have a great beer selection too ( I love the big daddy, go figure), good juke, and a super sweet bartender. We went to check out the new "ladies night" on wednesdays (not many ladies, but it was opening night for that), hopefully if will take off! read more

Good bar for a Saturday night. It wasn't crowded at all but there were still a few people roaming around...maybe it was just a relatively slow night because it was Valentine's Day? Music was good albeit a little loud, and I was surprised that they only serve beer and wine ONLY. The bathroom though, I had issues with: no mirror! Obviously only a girl would care about this but still, I want to make sure I don't look sloshed when I'm leaving the WC. read more

Sausages and beer? Yes please. Came here after Dalva and was very excited to put something in my tummy after a night full of drinking. We ordered sausages and some hoegarden beer. Sausages took a bit long but they are hot and juicy!! Atmosphere was great but I do have to mention there was a guy there reading a book at the bar. Nothing wrong with reading but not in a dark bar. Did I also mention when I kept sneezing he kept turning around shaking his head and giving me dirty looks?! Ah what a night. :) read more

Great place, good snausages, love the liter's of beer, bikes racks inside!!! friendly bartenders....they are onto something here...but they really really need to get better music on the ol' jukebox... read more

Beer, sausage and a pool table. What's not to like? Only one bathroom I suppose. If you're not a big fans of hipsters and the fixed gear crowd then you may not like it either. read more

Great brats beer and free love for my vegan friends.

Best bar in the city. The pool table is located perfectly (don't have to ask people to move every turn). Awesome change of pace in the beer selection. read more