Artful and historic haunt next to Jack Kerouac Alley

Talk of the town: Neal Cassady, beat poet and hero of Jack Kerouac’s ‘On the Road’, stopped here for a drink in 1955 on the way to a poetry reading at the legendary Six Gallery. Thereafter, Vesuvio became the stomping ground for Kerouac and other poets.

Tipple of choice: They have absinthe on tap – order a shot and wash it down with an Anchor Steam.

The legend of the beat generation – a collection of wanderlust-filled, alcohol-fueled poets and writers who predated the hippies of the 1960s – is alive and drinking at Vesuvio. It’s a dimly lit bar filled with artsy, well-loved furniture and old-fashioned touches like stained glass and velvet. Murals frame the doorway and art peppers the walls.

There’s also a second-floor balcony that allows you to peer over at the patrons below or across the street to the famous City Lights Bookstore, another landmark of the Beat scene. Come here for any kind of drink. This place is bohemian, eclectic and truly San Franciscan.