Savoy Tivoli

Hear ye, hear ye! The Savoy Tivoli is open on Sundays! I found this out last Sunday when I was strolling Grant Ave. I’m always happy to see this place open so crossed the street to see why it was open… there was no one there except the bartender and door man. Obviously I went in — a chance to have the place to myself! The bartender and door man explained the trouble they’ve had in the past with a neighbor’s complaint about live music. So, while the situation has been solved by not having live music, the place is still wonderful and needs people to enjoy it. Check it out! Great staff, great place, great beer selection, and great music (the bartender was playing some sick house music when I was there.)

I stopped in for a draft beer and realized they need to clean their taps. I asked for a different beer and it too had the taste of lines that had not been cleaned in awhile. I suggest getting cocktail instead. I was disappointed because I liked the layout and feel of the patio.

I was waiting for a table at a restaurant in North Beach, so I was looking for a place to get a quick drink. Savoy Tivoli’s open patio was very inviting on that warm night. We had their house margaritas which were great. It’s usually hit or miss with the margaritas, and they definitely hit it.

What happened to The Savoy?
This was THE SPOT back in the day. It was always completely packed every weekend. So much so that we north beachers would actually make sure to avoid it.
This was the birthplace of Beach Blanket Babylon. The first run was here, before they got the Club Fugazi space a couple of blocks away.
And despite being predisposed to being overrun w tourists, euro trash, & people that could not hold their alcohol, The Savoy was still an institution. It was still a place I was sure to bring my girlfriends when they came to visit from out of town. That was the thing w this place; we avoided it, but we still respected it.
There was a big problem w noise a few years back. Apparently, several neighborhood residents complained & complained. I never understood this. If you want peace & quiet, then you shouldn’t move near a bar. Common sense, right? They were temporarily shut down. So, consequently, today they’re only allowed to have live music for a very limited amount of hours a month. Sad.
It’s all about that front patio. Totally romantic, sexy, & european. It’s still to this day a chronic movie scene to be sitting on this patio, wearing a slinky dress, sipping a cocktail. Preferably while smoking a cigarette. Think «A Streetcar Named Desire.»
The mystique is still here. It has that café swank & dive bar thing down. The patio for the former, the second barroom for the latter.
It would be great if the Savoy could pick itself up & be a player in the hood again. The history & the space deserve that.
I know I’m not the only one that misses it.
3 stars.

Like the outdoors/​indoors feel. Super open to the patio area which is also heated. There is pool (change machine was broken but bar helped us out) and a jukebox (bar turned it off to play their own music after we had put money in). It was super empty and the music was too loud for the volume of people, we had to shout just to hold a conversation. Overall, okay.

Don’t come here if you expect a 16 ounce pint, at least today but maybe every day. The boss has them pouring «pints» into 14 ounce plastics cups (they say «14 ounces» on the bottom) to take advantage of tourists here for the North Beach Festival.
We ordered pints of Lagunitas beer for $ 6, already not cheap. The plastic cups they poured us looked small, but the bartender insisted they were pints. So we paid and drank them. I was thinking of asking the bartender to fill one with water and pour it into a pint glass, when my friend found the «14 ounces» printed on the bottom. We pointed it out to the bartender and he said, «They must have changed it.» I don’t think the International Bureau of Weights and Measures has changed the measurement for a pint.
Oh, and the bartender tried to grab $ 3 from under my forearm when I wasn’t looking, but I’m going to chalk that up to inexperience. Really? A $ 3 tip on a $ 6 14 ounce pint? Bold!
Anyway, go somewhere else and get a real pint, 16 ounces, of lagunitas for $ 5. Or just quit drinking for awhile. It’s a waste of money anyway.

The weekend jazz is one of my favorite SF experiences for a lazy yet lively weekend afternoon. Kids aren’t allowed, and we now have a toddler, but it’s open to the street and fun just dancing along in the streets.

Another of the rare surviving San Francisco classics. It surprisingly roomy and a fun bar to hide out whether you’re at the café tables open to the street (all too rare) or hunkered down in back near the pool tables.

Went here on Santacon, and i understand it’s a very busy day, but a male bartender was incredibly rude and passed over me multiple times. I’m so upset with my experience at this place that I don’t ever plan to go back.

Stopped by Savoy for a friend’s birthday. I’m a sucker for open indoor patios and pool tables, so this place gets a thumbs up from me. Decent dive bar for a chill night with friends.

I’ve only lived in North Beach for 6 months now, but I’ve managed to visit Savoy Tivoli a handful of times, the first being before I even signed a lease to live in SF.
Apparently there is plenty of history in this bar… it was opened in 1906 and has survived earthquakes, fires, and political drama.
Honestly, I’m surprised that this bar manages to stay open. It always appears to be dead when I bring out of town visitors here. It was so dead that I walked in and back out right away the last two times I had guests with me. The bar just appeared to be a little «lame».
The «vibe» of this place is awkward and kind of creepy. I can’t put a finger on what kind of patrons visit this place– are they tourists? Folks from the nearby hostels? Townies? There’s a random dance floor playing modern music and then a mix of throw-​back historical fixtures. What exactly is Savoy trying to convey? Pick a genre and run with it…
I must say though, I love the open-​air indoor patio deal that opens up to Grant Ave.
This bar is cash only, so come prepared!

I don’t know why I haven’t review the ST, Savoy Tivoli yet.
This is my school era hang out.
I still remember very vividly, September 1981, I was with my room mate, even though we were so stoned, by Thai-​stick, walking upper Grant Avenue on one sunny Saturday afternoon, ended up the ST, sitting at the balcony, drinking corona, watching and making fun of people for hours, eating NB pizza cross the street. I had 4 corona and 5 slices of pizza after a big burrito lunch at a Mexican place on Columbus Street, so as my room mate. We were so high and drunk, we must look so stupid Japo-​ass, laughing for anything moves for all day, omfg!
I don’t think I told the story to my sons yet, should I? I don’t know.
I remember that the NB pizza was so filthy back then, I saw so much cockroaches in there, but, none of us cared. Also, the Mexican place on Columbus Street, now it calls Taqueria Zorro, but in 1981, we saw 3 Korean guys were making burrito! So, when we were ordering, we were trying really hard not to laugh, because why 3 Korean guy doing burrito?
Btw, the last Saturday, I was here with my gf and 2 other friends, I did not know that there was Mal Sharpe’s Big Money in Jazz Band at the ST.
Malcolm Sharpe is an American television and radio personality with roots in San Francisco, California. In the early 1960s, Sharpe teamed with Jim Coyle to create a series of comic on-​the-​street interviews for San Francisco radio station KGO.
Take a look, this is Mal Sharpe’s San Francisco!
Mal Sharpe’s San Francisco?
Hell Yes, He was the best!
What’s your favorite fish?
The ST is still my best in SF.
Btw, my favorite fish is Saba.

Cute. Open outdoor seating area. Plenty of space. Couple of pool tables, dance floor. Very feisty and flirtatious male bartender working on a Friday night.

Awesome place to listen to jazz on a Saturday afternoon!!! Great band and nice crowd. The cocktail waitress we had was very out of touch with her job, but she was nice enough. My biggest bummer is that it’s a cash only bar. Cash??? That’s crazy.

It’s funny… when I started this review on my phone, I had five stars penciled in and raved about Henry the bartender.
Then, Henry served my friend a vodka and sprite instead of a vodka ginger ale, told my friend he could go f*** himself if he didn’t like it, and charged him double for the trouble.
By the end of the experience, we had a choice between our friend getting arrested for capital murder or sticking around to see if the owner would fix the problem. We decided to err on the side of caution and leave.
Henry was probably the worst bartender I’ve ever see, and this place sucks all kinds of rotten eggs.
Never, ever, ever go.
By the way, management, this incident was last year. I never finished the review because my adrenaline was running high and Unilocal fell down my lists of priorities that night. Fire Henry. The bar was relatively cool without that psycho pouring drinks.

I want to really love this place since it is pretty big and has pool tables and plenty of seating that is directly near open windows. There is also a cool little picture booth that costs $ 3 for pics.
My only bad thing I have to say is that they do not take credit cards and are cash only. They had a swiper thing but said they only took cash??? I don’t know if they only do that for the late night crowd but it makes it a hassle.

As this place is literally half a block from my place, our apartment and associated friends frequent this place quite a bit.
Big fan: $ 1.25 pool tables, drinks happy hours until 10pm, foosball table, space heaters, and of course tvs to watch Lakers games.
Downside: live bands that interrupt wonderful afternoon naps. Just kidding, the live band is amazing and y’all should definitely check it out.

Yeah, at the end of Grant street, far far away from the other bars… it MUST be good. But it’s not. Its a decent place to hang out if you’re looking for a really quiet night, but if you’re going to Northbeach instead of the dive down the street… are you really looking for a quiet night?
The first time I came here was for my birthday. Rolled in with a crew about 20 people deep, mixed guys and girls. We became the entire crowd. What intrigued us was $ 3 shots until 11PM. Forreals?! Selection wasn’t crap liquor too: Grey Goose, Fernet, Jamie. All my liquors were here! The amount didn’t seem like a full shot, but for $ 3 bucks each, its not bad.
I like it as a quiet spot to start the night out with really cheap liquor. Other than that, there’s not really anything pulling me to this place.

Oh the Savoy. I keep getting older, and you stay the same. Actually, that isn’t quite true. Have they always had a dance floor and I just never noticed? Or is that a new thing? Not sure, but on the Saturday night I went there was a single man dancing. By single, I mean, one person… jamming by himself. Get your groove on sir, get your groove on, I say.
We ended up here around midnight after getting kicked out of the Church Key (hey, it closes at midnight???) It was crowded, but we still found a table at the patio area. Yay for heat lamps. It wasn’t that hard to get a drink either.
The most exciting part of the evening was when the bouncer refused to let to underage kids into the bar and the kids start swinging punches at the bouncer. It was crazy! They actually managed to rip the sleeve off of his jacket.
All in all, when you find yourself in North Beach and are looking for a bar, the Savoy is good bet.

Disclaimer: I BARELY remember being here. but I will write about the things I do remember :)
It’s mostly an older crowd. The music was loud. The patrons were more on the «let’s relax and hang out» side versus the «let’s get CRUNK TONIGHT!!» side. There was a football table and two pool tables.
Oh, and $ 2 Jamesen shots on Firday night until 12am.
…
Now you know why I don’t remember anything here. :)
It was a Friday night, and it wasn’t too crowded. I love sitting towards the front because they have huge windows that open up. kind of gives the place a pseudo-​outdoor feel. Since it’s in SF, it does get cold. but they have heat lamps everywhere, so we stayed nice and cozy.
Despite all the good things I’ve said about this place, it’s still just 3 stars because the overall flow of this bar just didn’t fit me. It was kind of dark and sticky? I know those are two very different adjectives to describe a place, but I can’t think of any other way to describe it. The football table was old and all the pieces felt disgusting. It’s almost as if beer had been spilled all over the place, but it wasn’t cleaned thoroughly enough… does that even make sense?
Overall, this probably isn’t a place I’d stay at all night. I would probably just grab a drink here and then move on to something else.