Palace Hotel

Beautiful architecture and luxurious rooms. One of the best places in San Francisco for a wine luncheon, under a glass ceiling.

It's $12 for a single malt here, but that's ever so slightly mitigated by the fact that there is English Premier League football on two large screens. The bartenders are efficient and talented, and the entire place is dark and mysterious, even at high noon (not that I'd ever admit knowing that for a fact).

I wrote a novella in which (a) the main character's drink of choice was a dirty martini, three olives and (b) a pivotal scene took place at the bar here. I found myself here on several occasions doing, uh, story research. Yeah. Let's call it research.

I think what I really need to do is write a sequel to that story and do more research.