El Lopo
Wine bar · Lower Nob Hill
1327 Polk St, San Francisco, CA 94109
Highlights
Spanish sherry bar with tapas, vermouth, and local ingredients
Spanish sherry bar with tapas, vermouth, and local ingredients
"If you want a crash course on the ins and outs of sherry, there’s hardly a better place to go in SF than El Lopo, fronted by owner, alchemist, and Spanish fortified wine enthusiast Daniel Azarkman. With a poetic dedication to sherry, vermouth, and interesting wines from Spain, Cali, and more, El Lopo crafts low-proof cocktails like the manzanilla-centric Old World Margarita and a spectacular “Dirty Martini, Hold The Gin.” There’s a small but mighty kitchen churning out ambitious rustic tapas like Iberico pork meatballs, mussels steamed in a white wine and saffron broth and roasted delicata squash. Besides a “buy one, gift one” daily happy hour, El Lopo also has a “take care of me club” which serves as a monthly Spanish food and drink omakase of sorts." - Adrian Spinelli
"A festive Spanish sherry bar offering a four-course tapas tasting menu for $89 per person with extra à la carte dishes available; patrons can sign up for the bar’s porron competition at midnight (there’s a $15 fee to participate, meant to cover the cost of wine and, as the organizers explain, offers “a little assurance that you won’t flake”), and the lucky winner will receive a custom-etched person as the prize plus free weekly refills at the bar for 2025. Tickets for the night are available via Tock." - Dianne de Guzman
"El Lopo is a casual neighborhood bar from an alternate reality in which California is still a Spanish territory."
"El Lopo requires proof of vaccination for indoor diners." - Lauren Saria
"El Lopo, a cozy vermouth and sherry bar on a bustling stretch of Polk Street, had only been open for a year when the pandemic shut its doors. Its grand reopening is Friday, but this time, drinkers and diners won’t be cuddling up in its narrow space — instead, they’ll spread out across Austin Alley, which has been closed to traffic and replaced by socially-distant tables and chairs." - Eve Batey
