Comments (0) Best 6 a.m. Bar - 2007

Vesuvio

For a town notorious for its liquor consumption and overall decadence, San Francisco offers very few options for break-of-dawn, rev-your-motor imbibing. Two of them happen to be located a mere two blocks apart in, appropriately enough, the city's onetime Barbary Coast. Gino & Carlo, on Green between Grant and Columbus, features a nice neighborhood vibe and a terrific jukebox as well as those rise-and-shine boilermakers, while Vesuvio looks pretty much like it has since it opened for business 59 years ago — rickety, colorful, and venerable. Original art, newspaper clippings, old photographs, Beat memorabilia, Tiffany lamps, coffeehouse posters, and oblique sayings decorate the brick, tile, and worn wood that once sheltered Dylan Thomas, Jack Kerouac, and other round-the-clock boozers, and from the upstairs mezzanine you can look out on City Lights Bookstore, Vesuvio's partner in Bohemia for lo these many years. It's a fine place to sip an amaretto-laced coffee and toast the rising sun. If you'd care for a baguette with your eye-opener, the Italian French Baking Company at Grant and Union opens at 5:30 a.m.