Dive Bar

Mon-Sun:2:00 PM-2:00 AM

The 22 Filmore bus slides right past the front door. The 16th Street BART Station sits less than 2 blocks away, along with stops for the 14, 33, and 49 buses.

If you come here on a weekend night, you'll see a lot of folks drinking beer, slamming shots, and stumbling haphazardly through the shadowy interior, sloshing the contents of cocktail glasses across the glazed floor. People come here to reach an unsubtle state of intoxication (hence the bar's name); they are rarely particular about the vehicle taking them there.

Though rumors of occasional free sidewalk barbecues persist, this bar sells no food and, if it did, you wouldn't want to eat it. In the event of hunger pangs, toss a coaster atop your smudged pint glass, walk across the street, and gobble inexpensive Indian curry at Pakwan. Also, Pancho Villa, one of the neighborhood's most reliably satisfying burrito joints, is a block and a half down 16th, towards Mission, just past Valencia. The stewed chicken in chile verde sauce will torment your liquor-addled stomach -- in a good way.

There's a long bright bar and some adjoining tables in the front room, and beyond the pool table in the center, towards the back, a separate, considerably dimmer room for dancing. A DJ perch overlooks a perpetually tawdry scene. Brief candles burn in the requisite red holders. Pleather benches line the walls, where single dudes huddle in bunches to scope once the dance floor thickens with whirling bodies.

The bathroom stalls have no doors, purportedly on account of the powdered drugs early regulars once enjoyed sniffing off the toilet seats. The ratio of single male patrons to young, attractive female ones is constantly expanding. College kids still stop in for a few spins on 80s night but the scene's ill-suited for making new friends or even having conversations with existing ones. Nonetheless, sex is in the air at Delirium, though it's generally of the sad and icky variety. From last call until closing time, gents practically form a gauntlet along the path to the door, extending offers of drinks and, in so many words, companionship to ladies bolting the premises. That being said, it's an appropriately bizarre and gritty place to wind up after a night of enthusiastic guzzling -- well worth a visit.