4 Best Bars in Nob Hill, San Francisco

With swing jazz on the soundtrack, bartenders in white jackets, and an immaculately detailed art-deco interior, it's always a trip back to the Bing Crosby–Ella Fitzgerald era at this charming Lower Nob Hill cocktail bar.

Shuffleboard, arcade basketball, a jukebox, and plenty of flat-screen TVs make this spacious yet divey place feel like a time machine back to your college days. On weekends the crowd is a sea of popped collars, baseball caps, and chest bumps, so get there early if you yearn for a turn at one of the games.

Since the 1940s, the Tonga Room has supplied the city with high Polynesian kitsch. Fake palm trees, grass huts, a lagoon (three-piece combos play pop standards on a floating barge), and faux monsoons—courtesy of sprinkler-system rain and simulated thunder and lightning—grow more surreal as you quaff mai tais and other fruit-flavored cocktails.

A famous magazine photograph immortalized the bar atop the Mark Hopkins as a hot spot for World War II servicemen on leave or about to ship out. The view remains sensational. Entertainment on many evenings ranges from solo piano to six-piece jazz ensembles (sometimes with a cover charge). Drinks and small bites can vary in quality, but you're really here to drink in the view and history.