A lightly sparkling cocktail of Peruvian pisco, pineapple-infused gum syrup, lemon and a touch of cold water. The defining Gold Rush-era San Francisco drink.
Pisco Punch was made famous at the Bank Exchange Saloon at Montgomery and Washington from the 1860s through Prohibition, under bartender Duncan Nicol who closed the recipe to the grave. Rudyard Kipling drank it in 1889 and wrote it tasted of clouds. Modern bars reconstructed the formula using period accounts; Comstock Saloon in North Beach pours the canonical contemporary version, and most San Francisco classic-cocktail bars now feature it.
3 editor picks for Pisco Punch in San Francisco, ranked by editorial score. All San Francisco signature dishes · Pisco Punch across every city.
Pacific Cocktail Haven ★ 4.5
550 Sutter Street, San Francisco, CA 94102
Pacific Cocktail Haven (PCH) in San Francisco is Kevin Diedrich's Union Square cocktail room, with a Southeast Asian flavour palette and a kaffir lime gimlet.
Comstock Saloon ★ 4.3
155 Columbus Avenue, San Francisco, CA 94133
Comstock Saloon in San Francisco is the North Beach saloon reopened to a 19th-century template, with the Pisco Punch made to the long-lost Bank Exchange.
Bourbon & Branch ★ 4.3
501 Jones St, San Francisco, CA 94102
Bourbon & Branch in San Francisco is the Tenderloin Prohibition-style speakeasy, with a password door, a 200-page bourbon menu and a Sazerac that runs.