Nob Hill bar has big shoes to fill

by Drew Lyness

Daily Lobo

When a new bar opens in your neighborhood, it merits some careful consideration.

Bars are important. Culturally, socially and intellectually, we need them. They are the glue that holds society together.

I will admit when I walked into Sig's, the new bar in Nob Hill, I was a skeptical patron.

Having spent a good portion of the last five years visiting countless pubs in many countries, I consider myself to be something of a connoisseur. I know what makes a pub good.

I liked the simple charm of Sig's predecessor, O'Niell's, and the move toward a trendy, pretentious city bar was unlikely to win me over.

The thing I liked about O'Niell's was it didn't try too hard to be something it wasn't. For an Irish pub in particular, there is always the abominable pitfall of becoming a poor parody, an offensive mess with plastic leprechauns behind the bar and misspelled Gaelic phrases etched on the walls. This is the worst of all crimes a bar owner can commit.

O'Niell's avoided this by relying on basic comfort and a relaxed atmosphere.

The first thing that strikes you about Sig's is the dÇcor. The owners are obviously targeting a young crowd, and the image is one of a chic East Coast nightspot. The bar staff is universally attractive and the service is good.

Gone is the old wooden bar. In its place, there is a shiny, synthetic countertop. The wooden floorboards remain, but a long padded couch spans one wall and most of the floor space is taken up by chairs and tables.

While the image is not quite contrived, it does strike me as somewhat confused. The theme of the bar is loosely centered around a New York concept - Sig's' owner hails from Buffalo - and the walls are covered in pictures and paintings of the city.

But it hasn't quite decided what type of bar it would like to be.

The personal touches, right down to the bar's name, are fine, but they make you feel as if you've strayed into somebody's living room and are being subjected to an exhibition of their mish-mash collection of knickknacks.

All three clocks in the bar read different times, and while I appreciate the artsy-fartsy concept that "time doesn't matter," it just confuses drunk people and is pointless.

Sig's has more of a restaurant feel, and the extensive menu reflects this. The homestyle cooking is markedly better than usual bar fare. The bar is also well-stocked and boasts an impressive beer list that could keep me happy for the next month.

One criticism is that Sig's hasn't decided whether it wants to be a smoking or nonsmoking establishment. As it stands, customers can smoke at the bar but not in the rest of the pub. This is absurd. Having a smoking area in a pub is the logical equivalent of having a urination area in a swimming pool.

Overall, Sig's is a pleasant enough place for a few quiet pints and a bite to eat. It retains little of the rustic charm of O'Niell's and is a noticeable improvement in terms of dining, atmosphere and vibrancy.