Tuesday, August 13, 2013

Where to Drink: Top of the Mark

The iconic Top of the Mark is famous for two things: stunning views of San Francisco from the top of Nob Hill and an irresponsibly large "martini" menu. Seriously, the thing has 100 cocktails. I generally avoid hotel prices like the plague, but a friend recently talked me into a Sunday evening cocktail hour at Top of the Mark and I relented. The view, as you might suspect, is immediately arresting.

Top of the Mark

It was foggy when we went, as it often is, so much of the time we saw this:

Top of the Mark

Or this:

Top of the Mark

But, every few minutes a fog bank would pass us and we'd see clearly:

Top of the Mark

A really beautiful spot. The interior is stunning as well. You feel as though you've stepped back in time:

Top of the Mark

Top of the Mark

The place has some cool history behind it. The menus explain it all, but in a nutshell, WWII soldiers would visit the Top of the Mark while on leave and buy a bottle for the next solider to have a free drink. Whoever finished the bottle would buy a new one and pay it forward. When you first walk in, you'll see some signed bottles, which I enjoyed reading.

The cocktails are pricey––$14 a pop.

Top of the Mark Martini

My favorite part of these drinks were the custom toothpicks, which say "Top of the Mark" and have a streetcar at the end.

Top of the Mark Martini

If you're a regular martini or cocktail drinker, I'd recommend opting for a beer or a glass of wine, sitting back, and enjoying the view.

Check out the Flickr set for more pictures and pictures of the entire (19 page!) cocktail menu:



Top of the Mark
InterContinental Mark Hopkins
999 California St.

Hours

2 comments:

Unknown said...

This is my very first time that I am visiting here and I’m truly pleasurable to see everything at one place.500,000 hotels

Unknown said...

I don’t suppose many of websites give this kind of information.
hotel web sites