Beer Hall Near Me in the Outer Sunset: Fifty Vara's House Lagers

Fifty Vara brews its own lagers at 1735 Noriega St., a two-story restaurant and brewery in the Outer Sunset that Brian Reccow opened in April 2025 in the old Sunset Reservoir Brewing space. A pint of the house Vara Lager is $6, a pitcher is $23, and on weekdays from 3:30 to 5:30 pm the bar pours it for $5. For a beer hall near me search west of 19th Avenue, this is the neighborhood room with tanks, pitchers and a full dinner menu.

Reccow is a longtime Sunset resident whose resume runs through the Beach Chalet, ThirstyBear and Magnolia Brewing. In the early 1990s, at 22, he lived in what is now Czechia and spent time in Bohemian pubs, and that experience shows up on the menu. He told the San Francisco Standard that Fifty Vara is ambitiously unambitious, and that what he is serving goes against the grain of everything, meaning the wave of hazy IPAs that dominate most taprooms.

The building has brewing history. Sunset Reservoir Brewing Company opened here in 2015 and closed in August 2024. Reccow inherited its equipment and modified it to brew lagers more efficiently. The name comes from the vara, a unit of measurement from the Spanish colonial era that has long since fallen out of use. The Standard also reported that the house lager does extra work in the kitchen, going into the house michelada and the batter for fried green beans.

The house beer menu posted on Fifty Vara's site, dated November 2025, lists six beers sold in three sizes: half pint, pint and pitcher. Vara Lager is the anchor at 5 percent, light and crisp, at $3.50, $6 and $23. Westglow Pilsner, brewed with pilsner malt and noble Saaz hops, is $4, $7 and $27. Duneshadow Black Lager, made with roasted barley and honey malt, costs the same, and the brewery describes it as a beer to keep the cold days away.

For fall, Reccow Fest Lager is a 6 percent copper autumn lager at $4, $7 and $27. The two ales are Dolcita Hazy Drift, a 6 percent hazy with stone fruit and honeydew, and Evergreen Pale Ale, a piney 5 percent pale. Guest taps fill the gaps: Sierra Nevada Celebration IPA, Guinness and Sincere Dry Apple Cider are $8 each. The site notes that the beer list rotates, so the lineup shifts with what the brewers are making next.

The pitcher prices make this one of the better group deals in the Sunset. Four friends sharing two pitchers of Vara Lager spend $46 on beer, less than the cost of eight individual pints. The Standard also reported 32-ounce crowlers to go, so you can take a house lager home to the avenues.

Happy hour runs Monday through Friday from 3:30 to 5:30 pm in the bar area only. Vara Lager drops to $5, all house brews are $1 off, and a Vara Lager with a select shot is $10. Bar bites get cheaper too: chips and grilled-onion dip for $5, herb and garlic fries for $6, Vara wings with Point Reyes blue cheese for $11, and a Margherita pizza for $17.

Honest advice: skip the dinner-hour rush on weekends if what you really want is lager and snacks. Come on a weekday at 3:30, take a seat at the bar, and you get the same beer for less, plus space to talk. Happy hour pricing applies only in the bar area, so if you sit in the dining room you pay full price, and by 6 pm the dining room has turned into a dinner crowd.

Fifty Vara is a restaurant first in the evenings, and the food is California comfort. From the current dinner menu, the corn fritters with lime and cumin crema and cotija are $12, the bubbling garlic shrimp with grilled bread are $15, and the crispy calamari is $18. The Vara Burger uses Brandt beef with caramelized onions, cheddar and aioli for $22, and the buttermilk fried chicken sandwich is $21.

Larger plates include orecchiette with sausage, rapini and tomato ragu for $24, a grilled Duroc pork chop for $29 and a flat iron steak for $36. Note two house rules printed on the menu: a 4 percent service charge is added to all bills, and corkage is $20 with a limit of two bottles. Weekend brunch runs Saturday and Sunday from 11:30 am to 2:30 pm.

Fifty Vara is open noon to 9 pm Monday through Friday, 11:30 am to 9 pm Saturday and 11:30 am to 8 pm Sunday. Reservations go through OpenTable, and large parties use the restaurant's private event page. The bar area is the place for a beer-hall style visit, while the dining room is set up for full meals.

If you arrive and the bar is full, put your name down and order a crowler to go if the wait runs past half an hour; a sealed 32-ounce Vara Lager travels home well, and the restaurant also sells food to go through its online ordering. The Standard noted that the restaurant is family-friendly with a kids' menu, so Sunday afternoons bring parents and strollers, a good reason to aim for a weekday if you want a quieter pint.

Address: 1735 Noriega St., San Francisco, CA 94122. Email: info@fiftyvarasf.com. Street parking is available in the surrounding avenues, and the 7 Haight-Noriega Muni line runs along Noriega Street, making it an easy bus ride from Haight Street and downtown.

After your beer, walk west on Noriega past the surf shops and bakeries of the Outer Sunset toward Ocean Beach and the Great Highway, about a mile and a half away, or ride the 7 west toward the ocean end of the line. Time it for the late afternoon and you can catch the light over the Pacific, then come back for a pitcher of Vara Lager and a plate of fritters while the fog rolls in.