Welcome to Drinking Companion, a column about our favorite bars in San Francisco. Each month, we’ll be toasting the places that inspire us to get dressed, go out, and get a drink or two. Next up: Mauna Loa Club.
Mauna Loa Club (3009 Fillmore St.) is some of the best value — drinks, vibes, and otherwise — that you can find in the Marina. The 90-year-old institution is a real shot-and-beer joint, and one of the few on that stretch of Fillmore Street that won’t request your arms, legs, or Anthropic shares in return.
Well drinks and PBRs are $3.50 or $3 apiece, respectively, before 8 p.m. on weekdays. If you’d like something tiki, the bartenders pour Mai Tais, Coladas, and Palomas. You could easily have a great night hanging ten (dollars).
Surfboards, old framed photographs, and wood-paneled walls offer a laidback setting. (The six televisions, three behind the bar alone, playing sports nonstop, are another story.)
For recreation, one may choose between pool, foosball, an AC/DC pinball machine, the Big Buck Hunter, or oversharing to the friendly bartenders. Its middle-American tilt would contrast more aggressively against the creaky tiki interior if it weren’t for the clientele, which is best described as a bona fide crapshoot.
It’s a far cry from the nearby “frat row,” so if a few Stanford grads stumble in, at least you know they came for the same good reasons as you. Unlike its neighboring Balboa Cafe or White Rabbit, people come here to talk to one another, not over, if at all. Mauna Loa has been long regarded as a bar for blue collars and immigrants, especially waterfront workers, merchant marines, and sailors. These days, more office types trickle in, but I imagine the after-work vibe isn’t much different than it was 50, 70 years ago, but, probably, with more women.
The bar was opened by John and Marie Martin, who’d just moved to San Francisco from Hawaii, in 1939. The couple purchased Mauna Loa’s original location at 3165 Steiner St., the former Silk Hat Inn, for $10. Under the terms of the sale, the Martins operated the bar under the Silk Hat name for ten years before changing it to the Mauna Loa Club in 1949. (The Mauna Loa volcano on the island of Hawaii had been particularly active in 1936, the year the Martins moved to San Francisco.)
On June 1, 1950, the bar moved two blocks to its current location. That same day, the Mauna Loa volcano began one of its most famous eruptions. Today, a framed Herb Caen column sits behind the bar: “Coincidence of the week: On the same day that the volcano of Mauna Loa erupted over on Hawaii, the Mauna Loa saloon at 3165 Stein closed its doors and moved two blocks away! To get away from the lava?”
The bar was passed down to the Martins’ children, John and Diana, and then to John’s son Curt, who has overseen the bar since the 1980s. Still a family affair, the photos on the wall document the Martins’ immigration journey from Portugal to Hawaii to San Francisco. The decor of the bar has remained largely unchanged, including the recreation of Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec’s Jane Avril in the doorway.
Despite the concrete surroundings and its fugly building, Mauna Loa’s yellow-gold exterior is sunny and welcoming. There’s an island-like small town feel to the place, probably assisted by the bartenders, most of whom have been there for years.
Sometimes it’s quiet, sometimes it’s popping. While it has Hawaiian roots and decor, this little dive couldn’t be more San Francisco. Go check it out so that we can enjoy Mauna Loa for another century.
Go if you like: Family stories, finger block parquet, the 49ers
Ask for: A PBR, duh
Leave: Your opinions of the Marina at the door
Avoid if you want: Trop-house and a rattan swing chair
Mauna Loa is open 2 p.m. to 2 a.m. Monday through Wednesday and 12 p.m. to 2 a.m. Thursday through Sunday.
