Free Entry at Pier 45's Coin-Op Arcade, Then Irish Coffee
The Pier 45 collection is free to walk through and coin-fed to play, so budget quarters rather than tickets, then ten minutes on foot to Hyde Street for Irish coffee.
Pier 45 to Hyde and Beach
🪙 Free to walk in, coins to play
Musée Mécanique fills Shed A at the end of Taylor Street on Pier 45. Entry is free; playing is not, because the machines run on coins, so bring a pocket of quarters. The hall opens at 10 a.m. and shuts at 8 p.m. every day of the year, and more than 300 pieces still work: hand-cranked music boxes, dioramas, Laffing Sal, Susie the Can-Can Dancer. Food and drink stay outside.
☕ Irish coffee, ten minutes from the machines
It is about ten minutes on foot to 2765 Hyde Street at Beach, just west of the Powell-Hyde cable car turnaround. The cafe rebuilt Irish coffee here on the night of November 10, 1952, from the Shannon Airport original, and still serves it in a six-ounce goblet under cream frothed to float. Open 8 a.m.–11 p.m. Sunday, 9 a.m.–11 p.m. Monday to Thursday, 9 a.m.–midnight Friday, 8 a.m.–midnight Saturday; the kitchen closes at 9:30 p.m. every night.
🚶 Machines first, Irish coffee second
Play first, drink second: the arcade shuts at 8 p.m., hours before the bar. The walk is about ten minutes each way and both ends sit inside Fisherman's Wharf, so the plan holds on a cold night and for a group that cannot agree on a bar. Budget quarters for the machines and one drink at the far end; the Powell-Hyde turnaround is directly across Hyde Street from the cafe.
