The Sam Maguire

Stepped in for a quick bite… left jolted. Literally.
While munching on my lovely and very tasty burger and 3+ Heineys AND watching rodeo (at an Irish pub?) I settled back into my booth, good friend at my side… and *shake*.
I kick my friend under the table resulting in a dirty look as I said «stop rocking the table».
«I didn’t do anything» he looked at me puzzled.
I realized the same moment when the quiet guy at the bar turned around and said «did you feel that?» … yeah… earthquake.
The poor irish barmaid was frustrated at the fact that she didn’t get to feel her first earthquake.
But the burger was yummy, the bar was quiet, and the service was pleasant.
*update*
Looks as if the Sam Maguire is changing ownership and is going to be a sports bar. This makes me very very sad.

They don’t know my name, but it is my neighborhood bar. Sam Maguire’s is a utilitarian fixture in my universe. If I really need to go to a bar, it’s there. They have bar food until 7pm, which is an added bonus, because after I moved away from Oregon, I lamented the dearth of bars that served up alcohol absorbing grub in San Francisco

I thought this place was a pretty standard looking bar. But we went in and they had some kind of internet jukebox. So the whole time we were in an Irish pub drinking a beer, there was very hyper trance music playing. Kinda weird scenario. Nothing special.

if I ever move a million miles away, if I swore off drinking forever, if I was conked on the head and suffered amnesia for the rest of my days. .. I would still mosey into Sam McGuire’s whenever I could. come for the booze, stay for the yummi-​licious fish & chips !

Take a trip across the vast, lonely expanse that is the Outer Sunset and you will be pleasantly surprised to discover a multitude of really cool, under-​appreciated, low-​pro-​low-​brow gems, from restaurants to bars and pubs to pizza shops, cheap gas, zoos and giant fiberglass doggy heads. This joint is a great example of said little known or undiscovered spots; irish pubs are a-​plenty out this way. A truly authentic example, as you venture in here, you ask yourself if you just hopped over the pond and landed on the emerald isle herself (or maybe its just me who would question reality in such a way).

An Irish bar in a sea of Chinese enterprise, it’s the only place you can laze around for maybe twenty blocks. The kitchen and the barmaids are the strength of the place. Mexican cooks turn out a mean Full Irish Breakfast and the barmaids are fast, competent and — to my experience — easy to talk to. Once I asked where I could get some tylenol and she pulled a bottle out of her purse. That’s service.

Remember the scene in «American Werewolf in London» where Jack and David visited «The Slaughtered Lamb?» Two yanks walk into a pub full of Euros, and the whole crowd goes ice cold. I got the same feeling at the Sam McGuire the first time I popped in for a pint. It was mid afternoon on a Saturday, and I felt like I’d walked in on something… like everyone in the bar was plotting the Irish takeover of the world, then clammed up the minute I walked in, patiently waiting for me to leave before continuing their discussions on Celtic world domination…
It’s not a typical crowd. I’ve seen up to 10 people in this place, none of whom are making eye contact or talking. Sports don’t seem to attract a crowd here… if there’s ever a televised sporting event that’s filling every bar in town, check out Sam’s…and pick your stool at the bar. Barmaids are prompt and service is great, but they seem to avoid chat with strangers, tending to cloister themselves at the end of the bar near the kitchen where they’ll talk softly with a friend or a regular… (Update 5−14−06, a very friendly barmaid was working the day shift).
On the other hand, there’s a kitchen in the back, and it’s pretty good. The chicken sandwich I ordered sported a slab of poultry that was bigger than VCR Tape, and the «Steak and Mushroom Pie» is pretty good too. Windows to the front give the place a pleasant dose of natural light during the day. The interior is nice… old school wood with a pleasant hint of mustiness, but still clean. More of a neighborhood-pub-restaurant…not at all classifiable as a «Dive».
The place changed hands a few years back, and the change in ownership seemed to make it a bit friendlier… though if bars could enter a beauty pageant, this one still wouldn’t come close to being a runner-​up for Miss Congeniality.
I tend to wind up here when I’ve been out on the bicycle on a Sunday, there’s 49er game being televised, and just feel like watching the game with a beer without having some drunken lunatic babbling senselessly to me about the woes of his existence. I usually hang for one pint, staying for two on rare occasion. It’s a great place for lunch, a pint, and humble introspection. On another note, it would be a GREAT place for a large group of people that wanted to simply «take over a bar» for a daytime televised sporting event.
Nice place. Good food. Strange crowd. If your’re ever near 33^rd and Noriega and find yourself in need of a lunch with a beer, check it out. The next bar (Update: Penny Reilly’s, Now Closed) is 12 blocks up Judah. They don’t have food, and the crowd is even stranger.

Alongside Chinese grocery stores and on the same block as multiple competing laundromats, this tiny Irish Pub is yet another great reason to never resent moving to the Sunset. I stopped in after a visit to bars located in the nether regions of the Sunset. The interior is chalk full of Irish road signs and a tudor design that reminded me of the pubs I visited in Dublin. The bartender was Irish, as usual and they had Magner’s on tap. A choice pool table was backed up on a Monday and the nice flat screen television behind the bar played a classic WAC college basketball game. Drink prices seemed reasonable and I was told that food during the day was tasty. I will be back to Maguire’s and I am sure I will run into some friendly Irish Sunset friends as well as a good time.

As Irish Pubs go it may not be the best, but it’s comfortable, the beer’s good and the pool table works. It’s also a pretty damned good jukebox and last and not least great pub food. It’s also a down to earth staff. Once I had a fish and chips with one of the fish sort of small and crumpled. I pointed out more as a joke than anything, and they cut the price and remembered it the next time I came in.