Every article about where to watch European football on the West Coast makes the same omission. They list rooms, screens, atmosphere, beer. They almost never list the opening time, which is the only variable that can rule a bar out entirely. A bar with forty televisions and a wall of scarves is completely useless to you if its door is locked when your match kicks off, and a great many of the bars that appear on soccer lists are exactly that.
Most soccer bar lists ignore the only question that matters, which is what time the door opens. Tell Karpo the kickoff you are planning around and get the San Francisco rooms whose hours actually cover it, sorted by how far you have to go.
The Dubliner on 24th Street in Noe Valley opens at midday on a weekend. That fact does more to tell you what this bar is for than any description of the room could.
What a noon opening rules in and out
European football on Pacific time splits into two populations. The first gets up in the dark for a four thirty or seven in the morning kickoff and needs a bar that will unlock specially. The second watches the later fixtures — the evening matches in Europe that land in the late morning here, the midweek continental games, and the entire domestic American schedule that runs on ordinary afternoon hours. A midday opening excludes the first group completely and serves the second perfectly well.
That is not a criticism, it is a specification, and it is worth knowing before you walk across Noe Valley at seven in the morning. If your club plays in the early window, find a room that opens for it. If you follow anything that kicks off after about eleven, this is a considerably more comfortable option than the places built around dawn.
Nearly forty years on one street
Vincent Hogan opened the bar in 1987 and it has since been recognised as a San Francisco Legacy Business, a designation the city gives to long-standing independents that have become part of the fabric of a neighbourhood. Nearly four decades is an unusual run for any bar and an especially unusual one in a neighbourhood that has changed as much as Noe Valley has over that period. The room has outlasted several complete turnovers of the surrounding population, which tends to produce a particular kind of bar: not fashionable, not a dive, simply reliable.
The equipment matches. Twenty-five draft lines, twelve high-definition screens, and every sports package — which is the detail that actually matters for football, because the leagues you care about are scattered across services and a bar that has only bought the popular ones will let you down twice a season at the worst possible moment. Free wifi is on the list too, which sounds mundane until you are watching a match that is not on any screen and need to stream it at a table with a beer in front of you.
Noe Valley is the unusual part
Sports bars in San Francisco cluster in the Mission, the Marina, Polk Street and around the ballpark. Noe Valley is a residential neighbourhood of hills, prams and bakeries, and having a serious sports bar in the middle of 24th Street is faintly incongruous. The consequence is a room that is rarely as crowded as an equivalent bar would be a mile north, which for a mid-table fixture on a Sunday morning is exactly what you want.
It also means the afternoon afterwards is good. 24th Street between Church and Castro is one of the better short shopping streets in the city — bakeries, cheese, coffee, a couple of excellent places to eat — and it is flat, which after the climb to get here from almost any direction is a genuine relief. Finishing a match at two in the afternoon and walking two blocks for coffee and something from a bakery is a better Sunday than most football bars can offer.
- Opens at midday at weekends — check it against your kickoff before setting out
- Twenty-five taps and twelve screens, with every sports package rather than a selection
- A San Francisco Legacy Business, open since 1987 under founder Vincent Hogan
- Quieter than the equivalent Mission or Marina room for an ordinary fixture
Getting there
The J Church runs along Church Street a couple of blocks east and the 24th Street Mission BART station is a flat fifteen-minute walk or a short bus ride away, which is the route most people take. Driving is possible and parking on 24th itself is competitive on a weekend; the residential blocks running north and south are easier and the walk back up is mild by San Francisco standards. If you are coming from the Mission, the walk west along 24th Street is one of the pleasanter crossings between two neighbourhoods in the city and takes about twenty minutes. The other thing worth planning for is the weather, which in Noe Valley is genuinely different from the Mission a mile east — the neighbourhood catches the edge of the fog that stops at Dolores Park, so a clear warm morning downtown can be grey and cold by the time you reach Church Street.
Practical notes
The Dubliner, 3838 24th Street, Noe Valley, San Francisco. Opened by Vincent Hogan in 1987 and recognised as a San Francisco Legacy Business. Twenty-five draft taps, twelve high-definition screens carrying every sports package, and free wifi. Weekend opening is midday, so it suits later European kickoffs and the full domestic schedule rather than early-morning matches — confirm hours for anything before noon. J Church a couple of blocks east, 24th Street Mission BART a flat walk or short bus east. Quieter than comparable rooms in the Mission or Marina, with a good stretch of 24th Street for afterwards.
Tags: #SanFrancisco #NoeValley #SoccerBar #PremierLeague #24thStreet #LegacyBusiness #IrishPub #CraftBeerSF #WatchParty #SFBars #SportsBar #Football #ThingsToDoSF #BayArea
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Ask Karpo first
Want to know which San Francisco bars open in time for the match you want, which ones carry the package it is on, and what the neighbourhood around them is like afterwards? Ask Karpo for the rooms that fit your kickoff and a plan for the rest of the afternoon once the final whistle goes.
