San Francisco, CA
One of San Francisco’s greatest dive bars doesn’t even have a sign
In February 2020, June Russell was handing over the keys to her beloved Geary Club as she entered retirement.
“Feel free to take down that ugly cocktail sign,” she told Justin Trujillo and Michael Levin, longtime San Francisco service industry vets and the new owners of the Tenderloin dive bar.
It was the only signage at 768 Geary St. that made anyone realize the place was even a working business. Yet June (everyone knew her by her first name), who had operated the bar for the past “40 or 50 years,” according to Trujillo, still didn’t like it. She had reluctantly let a regular put up the small waymarks in more recent years, but the bar had been fine for the previous decades without them.
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The Geary Club, after all, has thrived in that sweet spot between legendary and anonymous. Perhaps that’s what makes a dive bar great. It’s been that way since Russell and her late husband took over four or five decades ago. A place that is easily missed, unless you are in the know. A place where the curmudgeonly bartenders are more well-known than any sort of cocktail list or craft beers on tap. So when Trujillo and Levin took over once Russell retired, they changed only two things.
“We had two very clear goals when we were reopening the Geary Club. We wanted to increase the liquor selection and clean the bathrooms,” Trujillo said with a laugh during a phone interview with SFGATE. “Besides that, we wanted to keep it as much like the old days as possible.”
Two years after reopening, the place is just as incognito as it was before. Only a few minor touch-ups, including a wall full of pictures as an homage to the glory days when Russell was at the helm, make the bar seem any different. There’s still no signage out front, but beers are priced as low as $5, and beer-plus-shot combos hover around $10. Hidden in plain sight, the Geary Club might be one of San Francisco’s greatest dive bars — a true relic of the city.
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As I neared the corner of Geary and Hyde streets, I actually walked past the bar. Sandwiched between a tattoo parlor and a defunct-looking Vietnamese food takeout spot, the exterior wall, painted navy blue and bordered by green marble tile, looks mundane and deserted. But when I walked through the front door, the bar was vibrant and very much alive. Laughter, chatter, the clinking of shot glasses and the refreshing “phsssh” sound of a just-opened beer echoed through the tiny confines.
And yes, the interior is small. Thrillist listed it as 400 square feet; Trujillo didn’t know the exact number off the top of his head. If it weren’t for San Francisco’s Black Horse London Pub, the Geary Club might be the smallest bar in the city. On the right side, a crooked bar, where the lower peg of the L shape skews downward, stretches all the way to the back wall. Black bricks, speckled with white spots, cover most of the walls except for behind the bar, which is wood paneled and has an old-school cash register in the middle, giving it strong Midwest tavern vibes. Above the register is the head of a stuffed tiger — Tony the Tiger, as June named him. Vintage photos of the bar hang on the wall to the left, with a special section just for photos of June and her reluctance to smile when a camera is in her face.
Originally opened as a bar in 1942, the space was actually connected to the now-tattoo parlor next door. Trujillo said it used to be called Geary Restaurant before a wall was put up that separated the two. There isn’t much history about who owned the bar before 1969, but an ad in the San Francisco Examiner listed the bar at only $8,000 that year. If June was the person who purchased it at that price, she surely could have made no better investment.
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As I sit at the very end of the bar toward the back with two co-workers, sipping on $6 cans of Modelo Especial and chatting with Trujillo and Levin, it seems like the owners know every person who walks through the door. They are constantly stopping midsentence to say “What’s up?” to regulars who stop in for a one-and-done shot or a long haul (also known as the rest of the night). That kind of warmth has kept this sanctum as a home away from home for the residents of the Tenderloin.
The convivial vibe is exactly how Trujillo likes his bars. Growing up, he would watch TV and was fascinated by how bars were places where people would congregate and talk with each other, face to face. Nowadays, he sees too many people at other bars on their phones and “in their own world.” It was important to him to maintain the vibe when he and Levin took over the Geary Club.
“I think that was always one of my favorite things about bars — the interaction with strangers,” he said. “You know, getting to know people and making new friends. The Geary Club, being so small, I felt it naturally brought that out of people.”
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“That’s something you can’t really describe unless you are there,” he continued. “You can’t put a price on that.”
Trujillo had actually been coming to the Geary Club for 10 years before he bought the bar from June. From the first time he stepped into the Geary Club, he told June that it was his favorite bar in the city.
Trujillo recalls June telling him in 2009, “You know, in 10 years, I’m gonna sell it.”
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It became a running joke between him and June. Every year, he would say, “Hey, would you want to sell it?” and she would reply, “In nine years, I wanna sell it.” “In eight years, I’m gonna sell it.” So on and so forth.
“She had her timeline, and she stuck to it,” Trujillo said.
In 2019, when Trujillo asked June if she was still going to retire that year, she said she had already put the bar up for sale. Trujillo told her he was happy for her, but in the back of his head, he still wanted to be the buyer.
“But I’m not sure those people are serious,” June told him.
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“Well, I’m very serious,” he replied. “This is my dream bar.”
Trujillo, who also co-owns The Tempest, among other city establishments, contacted his friend Levin almost immediately and told him they might have a chance to buy the Geary Club. Levin used to live a few blocks from the bar and was also a frequent visitor. They both felt they would be the right owners because they knew they would hardly change anything. In the eyes of Trujillo and Levin, they were simply going to continue June’s legacy.
That legacy is one of family. Ultimately, the Geary Club is a place you feel welcome. Across from the bathrooms, you’ll see Polaroid pictures of regulars and old staff stapled to the wall. If you’re lucky, you might encounter a regular named Sir Thomas Winston walking atop the bar. He is a brown dachshund who lives across the street and comes in with his owner.
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The Geary Club is still all about June (who now lives with her daughter) and the neighborhood.
“She used to say to people at the bar, ‘You see Tony [the stuffed tiger] up there? Well his other half is on the other side of the wall,’” Levin regaled. “She was the heart and soul of this place.”
With Trujillo and Levin now at the helm, she still is. The legacy of June Russell lives on at the Geary Club, and that’s the way it should be.
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San Francisco, CA
San Francisco dispensaries struggling as they continue to compete with illegal market
The co-owner of a San Francisco marijuana dispensary says it’s a challenge to draw in customers lately.
Nate Haas operates Moe Greens Dispensary & Lounge in San Francisco as co-owner and CEO.
“We’re charging our customers way too much. As a dispensary, it’s tough for us to compete with the illicit market,” said Nate Haas of Moe Greens Dispensary & Lounge.
That black market includes illegal grow operations, distribution, and unlicensed dispensaries. California Governor Gavin Newsom touted California as the largest legal cannabis market in the world, but licensed cannabis dispensaries are struggling to compete with the black market.
Meanwhile, a team of law enforcement officers are cracking down on illegal operators. It’s one part of the state’s efforts to even the playing field and cultivate a legal marketplace.
Kevin McInearny is a commander with the California Unified Cannabis Enforcement Task Force.
“We exist to specifically deal with the illicit market,” said McInearny.
UCETF officers raided what they say is an uncommon unlicensed dispensary in downtown San Rafael, serving a warrant, detaining two individuals, and seizing all products.
“Instead of single dispensaries, our focus is on organized crime. The more significant violations associated with the cannabis market, including labor trafficking tax evasion the weapons charges,” said McInearney.
The state task force has seized more than $53 million in illegal cannabis in the first quarter of this calendar year and shut down several indoor operations in the Bay Area.
“It starts with the cultivators. There is a lot of indoor cultivation in the area, especially in the East Bay mostly run by Chinese organized crime,” said McInerarney.
Legal dispensary owners like Haas are skeptical law enforcement can make enough of a dent in the illegal market. They believe the only way to survive is if lawmakers slash taxes on cannabis products and more.
“If you tax them out of existence which has happened to a lot of our growers, manufacturers and distributors, it’s going to be difficult for a lot of people to continue,” said Haas.
A national survey conducted in 2022 by Whitney Economics, a cannabis industry research firm, found that fewer than one in four cannabis businesses were profitable.
“We want them to be successful. So in essence everything we do is either to protect the public or to support the legal market and generally those are the same thing at the same time,” said McIneraney.
“We keep cutting and cutting and cutting. With all those cuts, it’s just a tougher environment,” said Haas.
Haas is optimistic despite the hurdles and challenges, and that everything won’t go up in smoke just yet.
Newsom created the Unified Cannabis Enforcement Task Force in 2022. Since inception, UCETF has seized $371,199,431 in unlicensed cannabis through 236 search warrants.
San Francisco, CA
SF's Pier 39 docks empty as crews herd sea lions away for repairs
SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) — A week after San Francisco’s Pier 39 reported a surge in sea lions, the docks are looking emptier on Tuesday.
The harbormaster’s office tells us there were so many sea lions hanging out there, the floating docks needed repairs.
Crews had to herd the sea lions away as they fixed the docks.
MORE: You might be unintentionally harming young marine mammals, rescue center says
The repairs are done now, but the harbormaster says some of the sea lions may be cautious about coming back.
Just look at the comparison to one week ago.
The harbormaster told us they counted about 1,000 sea lions on the docks – the most they’ve seen in 15 years.
VIDEO: Record number of sea lions swarm SF’s Pier 39; largest gathering in about 15 years, officials say
Pier 39 is getting a lot of attention right now. It’s seeing the largest number of sea lions gathered in about 15 years.
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San Francisco, CA
Teen struck by vehicle near San Francisco middle school
SAN FRANCISCO – A 14-year-old in San Francisco was struck by a vehicle Tuesday morning near a middle school, firefighters said.
The San Francisco Fire Department said the teen was struck about 9:30 a.m. near Francisco Middle School on Powell Street and was then taken to the hospital.
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