Halloween fun brings increased business for San Francisco bars and pubs

By John Ramos

Bars and pubs in San Francisco were buzzing Saturday as excited adults gathered to celebrate Halloween. 

A Polk Street neighborhood was ground zero for people looking for fun.

Susan Hogan was one such adult, leading a group dressed as witches down the street.  She said there was no better place to celebrate the holiday than in the city.

“We love coming here.  It’s always been fun,” Susan Hogan said. “This is our fourth year, right?  Every time we come here it looks better.  Our walking group comes here just to get the energy from the City.”

Matt Corvi owns the Mayes Oyster House on Polk Street, which is considered the starting point of Crawloween, a citywide, progressive drinking party that began about 10 years ago.

“They were very small and now they’re gigantic.  You’re looking at around 11,000 to 15,000 people on Halloween, going out to all the pub crawls,” said Corvi.  “They all start here, yeah, they all start here at Mayes.”

Corvi said that from a business standpoint, events like Crawloween are a major boost.  

“Well, I’m gearing up to make, all in one day, what we’ve been missing out on for the last 4 or 5 months.  We make a lot of money in one day and we kind of like store it away,” Corvi said.

Bar Lopo is a Spanish wine bar on the next block.  Though wine is not a traditional drink at a pub crawl, bartender Judith Reyes said they still see increased business on Crawloween.

“You just want to go where everyone’s at,” Reyes said.  “So, if everyone’s in San Francisco on Polk Street, you want to be where everyone’s at.”

But not everyone has a good time.  

Kamin Eskandarian owns Victor’s Pizza.  He shuts his dining room down on Halloween night, selling slices of pizza from his front door.

“It gets crazy because people start behaving bad.  And that’s why I don’t want them to come inside,” he said.  “The first year was very bad.  Because, to be honest with you, I didn’t know what to do, and there were a bunch of people here, they were all drunk.”

Earlier in the afternoon, local Michael Metzger was having lunch in the quiet before the storm.  He enjoys Halloween and even started a popular children’s sticker hunt in the city of Vallejo.  

But he said he’s aged out of the bar crawl scene.

“Yeah, I mean, when I was younger I loved big, crowded neighborhood events,” said Metzger.  “They’re still fun but as I get older I don’t want to push my way through a crowd and take 20 minutes to go to a port-a-potty.  That part has become enough of a deterrent.”

Despite the apprehension of some, the crowds that packed Crawloween indicate that the city has an appetite for fun.

“It’s about 90 percent back, I would say,” said Corvi.  “I think we’ve still got to get that last little push, but we’re good.”