Pier 23 Cafe Restaurant & Bar

Embarcadero, San Francisco Bay Area · Seafood · $$

Flicka McGurrin took over a rough Embarcadero bar in 1985 and turned it into something that still behaves like a bar: live music most nights, a back patio sitting directly over the water, Treasure Island across the way. Her three children run it now. Oysters and crab cakes on that patio at sunset is the entire pitch, and the annual dog costume parade tells you what kind of room it is.