Anyone know of any good cigar lounges near pier 39 in San Francisco? I'll be there the 15th and 16th and wanted to check out the local scene.

Here are a couple of great spots given to me months ago by a member of this forum Roy Cigar.I was in San Diego not in San Fran but if your gonna be around a while check them out i had a great time.

"nothing like having a cigar and cocktail at sunset on the outdoor patio of the Hotel del Coronado. They sell a limited selection (probably expensive). Another good suggestion would be Sunday afternoon/early evening at Del Mar Plaza. There is free jazz right in front of Il Fornaio restaurant and you can grab a rooftop patio table overlooking the Pacific (bit of a pretentious crowd, but enjoy the view and good music)".

"For eye candy, the place to be is the rooftop bar of the new Ivy Hotel in downtown San Diego (think along the lines of Hotel Gansevoort in the Meatpacking district). Best to be here on a Friday or Saturday night prior to 9PM so you avoid the $20 cover charge and can enjoy your cigar before the place gets packed at 10PM; You can also try one of the 5 or 6 outdoor, patio tables at Pascuale's Italian restaurant (decent Italian food--especially the bone in veal chop) on Prospect in the Village of La Jolla....finally, speaking of Del Mar above and where the turf meets the surf, the beautiful racetrack opens for the season next Wednesday, July 18th--nothing like catching a couple of races and enjoying a cigar"

It's been about 4 years since I was there, but there's the Occidential Cigar Club, an owner-operated establishment exempt from the state's smoking ban. It's in the financial district on Pine Street. Small humidor on site, but feel free to bring your own.

www.occidentalcigarclub.com

Another place, closed when I was there, is the Cigar Bar & Grill. It now has employees so cannot have smoking indoors, but their large patio is smoke-friendly. It's on Montgomery Street.

www.cigarbarandgrill.com

I was fortunate to be allowed to enter the member's only Guanxi cigar lounge inside Shanghai 1930 restaurante--one of the nicest cigar lounges in the world I have ever been to....it is located on Steuart Street, in close proximity to Boulevard restaurant and the Harbor Court Hotel. Perhaps if you have dinner at the upstairs restaurant (very good Chinese cuisine) you can ask for the owner and let him know you dined upstairs, are an out of town visitor, and ask if could he let you into the Guannxi cigar lounge this one time--that's what I did. I ended up meeting member and Mayor Willie Brown when I was there a few years back.

Thanks everyone. I have been hearing good things about the Shanghai lounge. Might need a taxi ride over but no biggie if so. If I find some good stuff down there i'll report back for everyone. A map i have shows a spot close by to pier 39. Could be old and gone by now??

Shanghai is no more than 1.5 miles from Pier 39, if that....no guarantee they will let you in since it is a private, members only club but perhaps if you gift the owner a cigar and explain your out of town visitor status, perhaps they will let you--particularly if it is a slow night and you are dressed appropriately (i.e. you do not have to be dressed like James Bond, but I would not wear jeans and sneakers, either).

Stogie:

Do yourself a favor and have a couple of meals outside the tourist/popular areas....some of the best restaurants in town where the locals dine are in the Mission District, a pseudo sketchy, "up and coming" area that is in transition but is home to some of the finer restaurants in the city and accessible by the BART (subway) system.

A couple of my favorite restaurants are Delfina (outstanding Italian restaurant and very reasonable prices--advanced reservations a must...they have an attached pizzeria, but make sure to eat at the restaurant) and Foreign Cinema. Try and have at least 1 meal outside Union Square/Chinatown/North Beach. Both of these places are outstanding and you can do a Google search to find their respective websites with menus.