The Mix, San Francisco

About The Mix

A no-frills gay bar on 18th Street in the Castro, half a block off Castro Street, built into the garage of a Victorian. There's been a bar on this exact spot since 1976 — first The Village, then Uncle Bert's, and The Mix since around 2005 — and it has stayed stubbornly a neighborhood place the whole way through. Cheap drinks, a pool table, an internet jukebox, and bartenders who recognize the regulars. The draw is the open-air back patio: its own bar, bench and table seating, heat lamps, and enough cover to ride out the rain. It opens early and runs to last call, which makes it as much a daytime hang as a night out — the low-key counterweight to the louder rooms up the block.