Tenderloin Cocaine and Prostitute Dispensary Goes Upscale

RJ's Sports Bar on Geary was a weird place.  My introduction to it was last summer, when I was characteristically drinking with some idiots at Whiskey Thieves until it became uncomfortably packed and sought refuge inside RJ's most unwelcoming doors.  There was a vague feeling of menace in the air, but the bar was host to an exceptional TV-to-person ratio and the old Korean ladies behind the bar seemed nice enough, so we saddled up and resumed our nightly demise.

As we got deeper into our beers, we tried to figure out the scene we had happened upon.  There were piles of massive speakers stacked in the corner in anticipation of some great event that would never happen.  The gray haired man sporting a fishing hat who feverishly danced with a pair of worn out whores seemed a bit too happy with his situation.  And why the fuck was the jukebox playing Aqua and strange Mexican Oompah music in seemingly equal quantity?

Well, as the night dragged on, we apparently ordered the magic combination of beers and liquor because the nice old Korean bartender finally put it all together for us with a simple offer: “Cocaine?”

I guess that explained the unexpectedly clean bathroom complete with chest-high shelving.

As these things usually go, the bar was shut down by ABC some weeks later.  Who could be surprised?  Their Yelp reviews range from coked-out praise to grim tales of whoring amongst the staff.  And now it's shedding its ironic crime-scene appeal and going upscale.

SFist reports:

Most of you know RJ's Sports Bar as that yellow-signage watering hole you see while smoking on the patio at Rye. “What is that place,” you ask yourself between drags. “It scares me a bit.” Well, it's a bar. Obviously. And now it's been sold to House of Shields owner Dennis Leary and bar manager Eric Passetti. Brava!

Now, will the noted Canteen chef and expert bar manager turn Sports Bar into yet another reclaimed-wood-and-Edison-bulb bar of mixology? Hardly. In fact, they've reportedly had it up to here with the overemphasis on cocktailologyness.

Let's hope they don't let the old fishing hat dude down.

[SFist]

Comments (12)

Makes me hungry for some kimchi w/fried rice. Also, cocaine is bad, mmkay?..?..?

This is a tragedy.When is it gonna stop! Leave some bars for us creepy Old people!

Seriously, where are the weirdos gonna drink??

Thank god i did not discover this place in my 20s

why would you care? You really have a problem with nasty ass places….unless you can hang there without feeling threatened.
You want a ‘dive’ bar ( a phrase that is so class loaded you don’t even get it)..and then ….over the whole length of your blog talk about
bars that have drug dealing going on. Thanks so much Kevin for helping to clean up the city. I hate junk and coke, but I hate more people posting on their apolitical snarky blogs about cess pools of urban life. You make great fun of that guy ‘bad people acting badly’…..but you are really just a ‘libertarian’ version of the same thing. Your urban disneyland fits only your narrow age and scope. I am thinking
of your past posts about Phone Booth too. yeah I don’t like it. But your flippant snarky shit about drug dealing, and smoking, in bars not only out of line, but shows you to be a little brat playing cop and overseer. Just DONT go to places you don’t like. Just leave SOME OF US alone.

WTF is exactly what I’m thinking right now.

“Mexican Oompah music”
Fucking embarrassing.

Learn about Narcocorridos, cracker-lookin ass Ass and remenber you are from Michigan not Michoacan.

Tejano music *IS* essentially Mexican Oompah music.

Bingo. Don’t believe it? Consult the internet!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tejano_music
“In the 1850s Europeans that came from Germany (first during Spanish time and 1830s), Poland, and what is now the Czech Republic migrated to Texas and Mexico, bringing with them their style of music and dance. They brought with them the waltz, polkas and other popular forms of music and dance. However it was not until the Mexican Revolution (1910–1917) that forced many of these Europeans to flee Mexico and into South Texas, that their musical influence was to have a major impact on Tejanos.”

Exactly.