Amidst all the Fourth of July action, we missed all the controversy around the Chronicle's Top 100 Bars in the Bay list.  Let's summarize: every once in a while, publications publish a best-of list to boost readership—after all, people like nothing more than seeing how their tastes match up to that of their local editorial board.  So the Chronicle, ever wishing to reclaim the glory days when people with color in their hair and swagger in their step read their rag, published a list that the lubricated youths could rally behind.  But they blew it—oh, how they blew it.

The list largely consisted of restaurants that serve booze (Nopa, Beretta, Hog & Rocks), rather than bars themselves (as local wit TK put it, “I personally think if there are more people eating than just drinking in your place at any given time, you're a restaurant and not a bar”).  And the only dive within the Mission, TL, or Lower Haight was Zeitgeist, whose Top 100 review reads like a pitch for a Totally Zany! sitcom pilot:

Dive bars don't get much better than Zeitgeist. Here you'll find one of the best Bloody Marys in town, dozens of craft beers on tap, not to mention a darn good cheeseburger - all served up with no-nonsense attitude. Add the large, sunny beer garden out back and you have what might well be the quintessential Mission bar experience. Treat the bar and its staff with respect, follow the rules, and you'll do just fine.

Anyway, a darn good attempt from the Chronicle.  Darn good.

[Screencap by Ariel]