Playbar

This place is pretty much the new next spot to go under.
Drinks: About 25% more than at most expensive clubs — and terrible.
Crowd: Generic bridge and tunnel — felt like a bar that wished it could be in North Beach but couldn’t quite afford the rent.
Music: Meh — probably didn’t matter much as nobody there could dance.
Sadly, my complaints above aren’t the reason I won’t be going back to the place. My real issue was blatant racism by the cut rate security staff.
It just so happened I ended up there on some Asian night that my buddy dragged me to (or maybe it’s usually ridiculously Asian — who knows, who cares). I’m not Asian.
Basically — somehow it was fine for all the wannabe thuggy Asian kids to wear their ridiculously oversize sports paraphernalia and hats, however my brimmed beanie when matched with a nice blazer, button up shirt, and dressy jeans made me a threat. When I asked why it was ok for them, the security staff pretended not to notice anyone else wearing ball caps, and force me to walk around like a jerk with hat head all night.
Cool — I always love being a victim to the arrogance of the powerless.
Oh yah — and $ 20 cover for what is a bar on top of your friends basement.
The one redeeming quality — a SMOKING HOT 10 OF A BARTENDRESS. Really the only reason the bar got any stars at all.
GFY Playbar. Enjoy your time at the top of the worst club in town charts. It’s a rapid descent.

look at the drink menu!
wow!
—
excuse me, can i get the lychee martini?
no
how about the mango?
no
umm pomegranate?
no sorry, we don’t have any of those liqueurs
mmkay. two soco&lime please…
——
maybe next time you guys should turn off the fat neon sign with all the tropical exotic drinks so the crowd doesn’t stand there starring into the friggin ceiling like idiots. but drinks aside, the music is pretty good with the live dj downstairs. there are two full bars, one on each level. the dance floor is a bit small but it does create the illusion of crowd if you drag a few of your friends onto the dance floor.
parking is a bit tough on the street but i parked at the lot across from metreon for safety sake and its only a block away so i highly recommend it. i would suggest the ladies who go sans male chaperons to put a death grip on your purse and each other and run to the car when you’re done partying… especially if while in line, the security guards are shooing the vagrants away.

Playbar is a fun bar with great drinks. The crowd is friendly and easy going in a hip space. The neighborhood isn’t half as bad as some say. Check it out.

Cool hip bar. I was here on a Thursday night which wasn’t very busy but they played hiphop. It is currently being renovated for its large capacity underground club that should be opened for partying in december.

This place ain’t bad folks. You just fraddy cats of the action outside. You do get occasional wanderers in, but it’s ok for a quick night cap or an in tha neigh beer or two. The ol’ owner of Loft 11 Mike Quan is a cool cat. If he opens up the downstairs area and blows it up into a place to play music or dance, should be ok in the coming weeks!!! Needs Lizzy on the juke though… Just my thoughts!!!

Playbar is now The Room SF. The owners have transformed it into a high end lounge with a new downstairs area that has private booths, bottle service and lots of space to get down :) Attended the grand opening hosted by Donovan a couple of weeks ago and the pretty people were definitely in the house :) Great new place to check out in SF.
Stumbled in during a 6^th street bar crawl last week and was pleasantly surprised with PBSF!!!
Curbside appeal is not the greatest but you are definitely in store for a treat once you walk in the front door. Décor is modern and contemporary, there wasn’t a cover that night, drinks were cheap and made just right. Plus they had a DJ spinning along with a kick back crowd having a good time.
Would definitely go back!

What a difference a change in ownership makes. I would only go to this spot out of proximity when it was Lit, but now I jump on any time I hear my buddy Juan is heading there. Will and Menace are cool cats that ensure the glasses are full and yeah i would dance on that pole, but they didn’t have any anti-​bacterial on hand. A great place to start the night.

ive been there a total of 2 times for the their happy hour on saturdays. and basically its only been my GF and I along with the bartender and bouncer. Happy hour pricing is great. I just hope more people start to frequent this place cause it is kinda dead… great placde to hit before you head out to a club.

EDIT: 3.27.08: This place was formerly called Lit Lounge and was a cool hip hop joint before Playbar took over. My review was about Lit Lounge before the link changed.
— — —
I miss this place. Stiff drinks and great company. It’s one of those dives you couldn’t help but keep going back to.

Ummm, I have to walk by Playbar occassionally and saw it before it became «Playbar”-I would not been seen dead at this place-​EVER.
This is because of a few reasons. First, Playbar is on probably the worst street in the city, the apex of skid row. Every five minutes some wacko is having a freakout on that corner, and the cops end up getting called.
I have a right to say it because I actually live in the neighborhood. I have rarely ever seen anyone in Playbar which doesn’t make it really inviting. The music sucks from what I hear and doesn’t even remotely contain the panache or fun-​spirited adventure of The Cat Club, or Asia SF or any of the cutsey bars on Folsom. That’s because its on Mission. And I have really haven’t seen more than 3 people in there and this includes Fridays and Saturdays.
The Second and MOST important reason is that on Sunday (?) someone must have been stabbed, shot, gutted or otherwise right in the clubs alcove, because for 2 days a rather largish blood stain was a stark reminder of the fracas. A blood trail was evident from the stain, and was slightly unnerving. It took the peeps at Playbar TWO days to wash away the blood stain, just in time for Thursday’s clients. Yuck!

Yikes, I could carve a better bar out of a banana. Awful, generic ‘oonce oonce’ music, Plastic Cups !!! and a clientele imported from Livermore or San Ramon or someplace equally horrifying. The one star goes to the bartendress who filled my PLASTIC CUP with a whole lotta tequila (love). Otherwise it would be starless (were that a possibility). Or negative stars. My mistake was reading Unilocal reviews for the old bar, and not seeing this list of reviews. Whoops. Never Again!

Okay, so you know when yours truly, Whitey McWhiteboy here is dancing to hip hop, I must be wasted.
And I didn’t get mugged when I left, which was a bonus.

This place just didn’t sit right — it all started when the bartender placed my wonderful scotch in a plastic cup. I had to refrain from going into full Silence of the Lambs mode and telling him ‘It doesn’t put the scotch in the plastic cup, it puts it in glass or it gets the hose’. Man, it’s not like this place is rockin enough to have to worry about breakage…
I would go elsewhere on 6^th but that’s just me…

OK I’ve only been here once.
There was nobody there and a relatively uninteresting atmosphere, unless you enjoy a lackluster version of the Chevy’s Fresh Mex vibe.
And man, the bartender was like the dumbest guy I’ve ever met. My friend ordered a Grey Goose on the rocks with a twist.
we got a blank look. «Uh, we don’t really have twists.»
My friend said that was fine.
Another blank look.
Grey Goose?
yes, she said.
On the rocks?
yes please.
…
She got her drink eventually but man, how hard is it to pour some Vodka on ice?

Wow. Um yeah. This place was the site of some co-​workery trouble a few nights ago on shall we say a, um, Wednesday night.
Great DJ playing the exact kind of ghetto thrustin music that one wants to hear during the wee hours of the night. Drinks strong enough to impair your judgement and disregard the fact that you look pretty ridiculous gittin yo freak on the dancefloor and yet, say eff it and decide to grind up against a wall and slap your own ass anyway. And the kind of place that makes you giggle and snicker the whole next day over said activities.
Yeah, Playbar… awesome place to go and definitely leave your camera at home… that stuff is considered illegal in some states :)

What do you get when you mix a bunch of Rockstar/​Wasabe drinking Unilocalers, an empty dance floor and an awesome DJ that plays everything from the newest LL Cool J to old school MJ? A hell of a great party. Even if it is on one of the sketchiest blocks in town.

We stumbled into Playbar since Añu was packed, and were surprised to find such a good time inside. Maybe it was the inebriated condition we arrived in, but our party immediately became the party as we hit the dance floor MTV Grind style. Outrageous, scandalous, bumping, some catch phrases like these come to mind.
This place used to be Pow, I mean Lit, so in this third incarnation we’ll see how they manage to keep things going.
Special all star bonus — the bouncer was so excited that we brought in fifteen people to the bar that he bought me three shots.
Special bonus for the sketch factor, this being in the Skid Row vicinty. Any bar where you fear for at least your wallet if not your safety helps increase the need for alcoholic consumption.

Any bar with a name Playbar that serves $ 7.00 cocktails in a plastic cup from a taqueria is destined to be come a strip club. These people are a joke. The whole place is designed for lap dancing. The vinyl covered chairs, the dark walls, and the freshly painted bathroom that still stinks like the gutter outside. The only saving grace to give them a star is the large big ass out of this world drink menu that is hanging above the bar glowing.

WE MISS YOU!!!
First things first people… they pour ‘em stiff at LIT and we LIKES that! The price is right whether you’re a Pabst drinker or a Patron sipper. They also tend to have a few speciialty drinks back there if you’re looking for something off the shelf. Bartenders are super-​cool and super-​sexy & they serve it up without a side of attitude.
LIT has one of the most beautiful, antique, wood and mirror bars that I’ve ever seen in my life… think bar scene in «The Shining» minus the creepyness. They rotate the works of home-​grown artists all over the walls which is refreshing in this suffocating climate of hipster lounges. AND… they have a dance floor for your boogie bones!!!
Music you ask? The scene at LIT changes everytime I go but the music is always bumpin… hip-​hop to reggae to latin to electro to house to punk… it’s all there and it’s not just cd’s…they line up tight DJ’s and also host live performances on some weekends.
What’s that… your homeboy/​girl is Drunk, Faded, Lit, Pickled, Blotto… got those munchies? Never fear, just around the corner awaits a drunkard’s paradise… CHICO’s Pizza, which has been known to stay open past 2 am on any given night. Basically LIT is a win-​win as far as i’m concerned. If you didn’t know then you should add this one to your list of haunts…
Cheers for Beers

Lit Lounge is a great dive bar.
The bar side has a really big, nice old wooden bar and some comfortable couches & chairs. The other side has a small dance floor and raised DJ booth. The DJs they get are decent and even when they are playing you can have a non-​shouting conversation on the bar side.
The hues of the space are deep red, purple and dark wood. There is always some interesting art on the wall.
The drinks are cheap and pretty strong — plus they have a surpsingly good selection of liquor (Mount Gay extra old even).
There is rarely a crowd or a problem getting the bartenders attention.
I like to start out here, meet up with everyone, have a few drinks and some conversation and then walk the half a block to Club Six to dance.