Sno-drift

Nominated by: Simon Waterfall, Deepend

Design: Charles Doell and Craige Walters, Fun Display

Location: 1830 3rd Street, San Francisco, California, US

Contact: 00 1 415 413 4766 www.sno-drift.com

‘Business drinks aren’t really my bag. It’s more a case of pouring a few whisky sours down my neck after a hectic session in the studio. But when I am in San Francisco it has to be Sno-Drift. This bar/ restaurant is owned by Charles Doell and Craige Walters, designers of San Francisco bars such as: The Red Room, Zodiac and Backflip, so they have had time to practice. Not only is it on the wrong side of the tracks, it’s a mile down the junction. For this reason you’ll have to be in a fairly hardcore mood to jump into a taxi out into the industrial heartland of Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Terminator films.

At first sight you think the cabby is having a laugh. This place resembles a trucker’s café with its rough Spanish plaster, set off beautifully by the neighbouring dual carriageway. But when you spot the huge queue and dyslexic Sno-drift sign lit up in blue neon, you’ll know you are in the right place. Inside it’s Bond meets Barbarella, with Bambi on look-out. The central focus is the round copper fireplace, with a life-sized deer nestling next to the flames. Behind the bar you will get an eyeful of not only the worst stone cladding known to Man, but, on selected rock ledges, above the back bar of snow, the bottles of booze sit gazing over the buff bar staff. Nice touch. This place is ten out of ten and that’s without even mentioning the restaurant. Definitely the most original and exquisite bar you will never find,’ says Waterfall.

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