13 Views Bar

The 13 Views Bar is the bar where you meet that old acquaintance of yours who’s now launching his own startup and tries to get you onboard with a PowerPoint presentation and a slick demo (running on VMWare, of course.)
Since this is the place for that, that’s exactly what I did. I got here a bit early so I ordered a Hendrick’s gin martini, up, with olives. Although it’s a 10 dollar drink, the bartender actually gives a good pour, so it’s not a total rip-​off, despite the upper scale setting in which you’re drinking.
My friend with whom I’d worked in France in the late 90s showed up a little late, cracked open his laptop, and proceeded to sell me his concept. While doing so, he tentatively tried the same drink I was having (he’s French and Martini in France is a completely different beast, believe it or not,) and gave me a demo of his product.
The concept’s got potential and the drinks most certainly hit the spot. Now I simply need to write an adapter for his product and watch the money flow in. Errrr… either that or come back here a few months from now and drown my sorrows with another one of 13 Views’ martinis.

when work is a biyaxxxxch homey needs a drink during happy hour, undisturbed. that is called a quicky. old guys will not bother you because they are with with their business clients and trying to act as if they are on their better mannered ways.
don’t know when happy hour started, but @ 6pm got the drink for $ 8, usually $ 12.
whatevah…now i feel a little less steamed about that total QUEEN!!!
(His tiara was sooo full of pasties photoshoped on his computer too).
Don’t sit on their bar stools. Sit on the black pleather couches

This place sucks a fat one.
While driving through the city my boyfriend and I decided to stop at the Hyatt hoping to go to the Equinox. It closed in May… Dang.
We wandered over to the 13 Views bar, where they had shitty, overpriced food with VERY few vegetarian options. (Maybe I’m spoiled, but I’ve been getting used to the fact that almost everywhere in the Bay Area has Veggie options). We went with the salad and french onion soup. They both were pretty pathetic. The drinks were way over priced too, and the service was grudgingly slow and the waitress was rude too.
*SIGH*

My girlfriend and I took a daytrip to the city yesterday for some shopping and dinner. On our way back to the Embarcadero BART station, we decided we wanted a couple of drinks and after seeing the Hyatt, we decided to go in since we knew the hotel would have a bar. Hitting the lobby level, or Atrium level as they call it, we saw 13 Views and sat down at a table. What I liked about this place was that the table area was very neat, simple, and clean. The tables were spaced apart very well so it didn’t feel like you were listening in on other people’s conversations or vice versa. They also have a lounge area with white curtains. While we were here, the rest of the patrons were business people dressed up in suits, while my girlfriend and I were in our jeans, tank tops, and holding a bunch of shopping bags. Despite our very casual wear and being a lot younger than the other patrons (we’re only 21! haha), our waitress was great, and she treated us with very prompt service and readily let us know all of the specials. We ended up making it during their $ 5 drinks/​beer/​house wine happy hour. My friend and I had an apple-​tini and vodka cranberry juice for only $ 5.00 each. On top of that, the drinks were very good. Before they take your order, they give you a martini glass shaped container of pretzels, which was nice since it gave us something to munch on without having to buy an appetizer or anything.
Since it’s getting close to Christmas time, they had these white lights coming down from the ceiling that were gorgeous… There had to had been almost a couple hundred of strings of lights coming down. There was also a Christmas tree shaped lighting display. Overall, I had a really nice experience here. The tables and seats were very comfortable, and the ambience was nice with the soft music playing in the speakers hanging above and around the perimeter. But like Daryl E. mentioned, I can see why it would be a pain to be there when it gets crowded. There really aren’t that many tables. However, if it isn’t crowded, it’s a nice place to be.

The last time I came here, I was ready to give this place the devastating «one-​star» rating for the simple fact that the be-​yotch waitress completely ignored us. However, one word has changed my mind significantly… Christmas.
Oh, look at the pretty streamers of light from the ceiling. Isn’t that new? And oh look, they put up the tree and started putting ornaments on top. Ah yes, they’ve started to build the teeny-​tiny Christmas village on the fountain with the movable skiers and tramway. But best of all — by far, best of all — that fricking Oracle Convention didn’t start until the following day, so there were no massive, drunken crowds of badged employees flooding the Hyatt Regency lobby. Now that’s what I call a Merry Christmas!
It was a cold, rainy Saturday night, and we came here after seeing «Lars and the Real Girl» at the Embarcadero. Jamie W. and I were able to secure a sofa next to the show window and watch one wobbly soul brave the elements to skate in the plaza rink. We had a nice view of the Ferry Building as the rain kept pouring down.
It’s an elaborate bar menu. I had the $ 11 Kurant Imperial Kir (see photo), which was a berry version of a Kir Royale, while Jamie had the $ 12 Long Island Iced Tea (see photo). Both were decadent enough, but we decided to share the tasty and surprisingly light $ 8 Raspberry-​White Chocolate Cheesecake (see photo). It was a nice way to spend a rainy evening before the foreboding call of Larry Ellison’s chest-​beating beckons.
FOOD/​DRINKS — 4 stars… must have been the spirit of Christmas or some kind of spirit
AMBIANCE — 4 stars… nice during Christmas, for sure… if you can avoid the crowds
SERVICE — 3.5 stars… surprisingly responsive this time, looks like they hired more staff for the Oracle onslaught
TOTAL — 4 stars… this is a Christmastime rating… let’s see how they do on Arbor Day

Wow, people are really rough on this place. I actually really like it when you want a really mellow place to have a nice drink and just relax. The back corners with the big comfy booths that look out over the bay are awesome. Also how can you not love that weird post apocalyptic, hanging garden, vaulted ceiling thingamijiggy?

Slow service, mediocre food, irritating waitress, and completely lame.
However, I knew this coming in and wanted a quiet place to entertain a lovely young lass. Many of you may disagree with my strategy, but I like to take a new girl to the lamest, most boring, most unimaginative place I can think of to get to know her. Set the bar low, and you can only climb higher. See where I’m going with this?
Never order the $ 15 crab cakes as an appetizer. it’s like ordering the strawberry waffle at Norm’s. Granted, Norm’s is really only good for people watching at 4 am while drunk, but if you have ever ordered the strawberry waffle from there. Wow! It’s like popping one Eggo waffle in the toaster, putting it on a plate, and topping it with half of a strawberry and a light dab of whipped cream. Then pay your $ 6 plus tax while everyone else in the place is devouring their lumberjack breakfast that only cost $ 5.
That was a completely unrelated tangent, but the point is, don’t come to 13 views expecting anything other than 13 views of your own sheer stupidity. Two stars for the functional giant sculpture out the window by the Ferry Building, and the lack of people in the joint.

Enjoyed a Thursday evening happy hour here. It was not at all crowded and our large group had the run of the place. They had $ 5 beers, wells, and house wines. Liked the view of the ferry building. We have a fun group of people, which enhanced the atmosphere. Overall I was happy with 13 Views, but can see how things could go south if it was crowded.

Nice atmosphere and I love the the atrium…
Drinks are over priced and the service is slow… if you go when it is not to crowded it then you will enjoy it a whole lot better… try to avoid it when there is a convention going on…

The service and food were terrible that we went across the way to Monte Cristo.
The space has a lot of potential but need better design to activate the area.

3.10.2007
10:30PM
I came in here to wait for my girlfriend to get off of work; I should have waited in the car. Paid $ 18 dollar for a Ketal One Rocks and was forced to sip it while listening to tacky early 90’s mexican pop. The atrium is cool, but the sofa I sat on had crumbs on it and the people… wow. This spot os lame; unless you bring your own crowd of UBER entertaining friends, I’d avoid this joint at all costs.

I really like the space – it’s like the urban hanging gardens of Babylon – but there’s something smacking of unhipness that bugs me about this bar. Is it the weird mix of lame, outdated house music and reggaeton (which was alright)? Or the total Z Gallery furniture that hasn’t been updated since Z Gallery was hip? Or the conventioneers who had to go «WOOOOOOOOOO!!!» every time someone snapped a group photo?
The drinks aren’t cheap. A shitty Miller is $ 4.50 here and the damage can get worse as you climb up to top shelf. They have virgin pina coladas, daiquiris, and margaritas for $ 5. The piña colada was yummy, and hypothetically, one could easily get virgin drinks and make it less chaste with a flask. not that I’m saying it should be done. Last call is before midnight, so you will get kicked out conveniently before last BART, which is not even a block away.
While we understand it must test one’s patience to serve conventioneers who go WOOOOOOOOOO, we thought the service was a few eye-​rolls short of downright hostile. First, before the WOOOOOOO people arrived and the bar wasn’t busy, it took us a while to flag down someone to take our orders because there were 4 – 5 staff members chatting it up. Our server was a few eye-​rolls short of being downright hostile. When we asked her a question, we could hear the exasperation in her answer – is asking what kind of bourbon the bar stocks such a lame or complicated question? We overheard her being similarly rude to the people at the next table, too. And when we asked for more bar snacks, she just gave this disgusted «ok» as if the martini glass full of peanuts came out of her paycheck. Maybe she was having an extremely bad night, but still, why rain on our parade and yank out our daisies?
The kicker is that when she abruptly gave us our check without asking us if we wanted to settle, she gave us the tab from someone else’s table. We did the math and found out that the bill we got was for less than what we actually ordered.

I watched the Bond movie and just had to order an $ 8 martini. Mission: Eat comp pretzels with debonair class. It was my obligation as a man, nay, a human being. Like going to the gym after Rocky.
It had to be done.

The $ 5.50 price tag for a pint of Anchor prevents me from rating more than three stars in good conscience. Otherwise, this barfly actually liked his time at 13 Views.
To be clear, there’s no outside view, much less 13 of them. It’s on the third floor of the Hyatt (which is a much better descriptor than simply 5EC), so you do get to look around the Hyatt’s interior, which is kind of neat, especially during the holidays (see the pictures). I did like that it felt very open-​air, and didn’t have the stuffy, exclusive feel that goes along with many $ 5.50/pint places.
They had a small but decent beer selection, and they had an impressive menu of house cocktails, wines, and brown liquors. All a bit pricey, but I wouldn’t be against going back here, though the price alone would prevent it from ever being a first choice.