There’s little consensus when it comes to debating the oldest drinking establishments in San Francisco. Different lists will give you different answers. But by all accounts, Shotwell’s, a cherished Mission institution, is at least the fifth-oldest bar in the city.
The saloon has stood at the corner of Shotwell and 20th streets for the past 135 years, an after-work oasis for generations of San Franciscans. During busy hours, the party pours out onto the tree-lined sidewalk and parklet. The fluidity between the outdoor and indoor spaces, combined with a century’s worth of gravitas, gives the impression that Shotwell’s is more than just a neighborhood bar — it is the neighborhood itself.
Caring for a San Francisco institution that’s decades older than the Golden Gate Bridge is not a duty that owners Tom Madonna and David Hall take lightly.
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“There is a responsibility. And I think that, without being too boastful, I feel like I am absolutely the perfect person for it,” Madonna said. He’s got the hands-on experience to back up the claim. Madonna and Hall are also the bar’s primary bartenders.
Shotwell’s Saloon is currently celebrating 135 years at the corner of 20th and Shotwell streets in San Francisco’s Mission District, shown on May 24, 2026.
Kevin Kelleher & Emily Trinh/For SFGATE
Shotwell’s Saloon co-owners and couple Tom Madonna, left, and David Hall sling drinks at their legendary bar in San Francisco’s Mission District on May 15, 2026.
Kevin Kelleher & Emily Trinh/For SFGATE
Co-owners David Hall and Tom Madonna curated the redesign of Shotwell’s Saloon in San Francisco, shown on May 24, 2026.
Kevin Kelleher & Emily Trinh/For SFGATE
The bar that would eventually become Shotwell’s was founded in 1891 by German immigrants as a combination grocery store and saloon.
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“The format was common in the working-class neighborhoods of the American West: food and dry goods up front, beer in the back. One business. Two purposes. One address,” Madonna wrote in an email.
The saloon survived the 1906 earthquake, despite a fire caused by the quake coming within less than a quarter mile of the bar. The establishment passed as just a grocery store during Prohibition — who can say if the taps were ever actually turned off— before transitioning to a full-time bar with the passage of the 21st Amendment. C. Mich “Old Man” Cribbin took over the space and ran it for over 50 years, helping establish it as a neighborhood institution until his death in 1976. Since then, the bar has changed hands and names at least five more times (most recently, it’s been known as El Trébol, Shotwell 59, and Thieves Tavern), but it has never permanently closed.
The walls of Shotwell’s Saloon in San Francisco display local memorabilia along with a nod to co-owner David Hall’s hometown of Boston, shown on May 24, 2026.
Kevin Kelleher & Emily Trinh/For SFGATE
David Hall, a co-owner of Shotwell’s Saloon and a Boston native, serves up tallboys of the storied New England lager Narragansett in his bar in San Francisco’s Mission District on May 24, 2026.
Kevin Kelleher & Emily Trinh/For SFGATE
Madonna and Hall purchased the bar in 2006, renaming it Shotwell’s and adding a museumlike aesthetic appropriate for the historic haunt. From an antique Anchor Steam sign that Madonna estimates is from the 1920s and a room dedicated to the lineage of Chinese workers in California to the hexagonal flooring meant to evoke the building’s early days as a grocer, Shotwell’s is a living embodiment of local history.
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One of the bar’s most prominently featured pieces is a copy of Francisco Goya’s “The Naked Maja,” which sits atop the bar, visible from almost every corner of the establishment. A student of history, Madonna learned it was common for Old West saloons to feature paintings of reclining nude women. Before the 20th century, most saloon patrons were men, and a risqué painting served as an explicit enticement for lonely bachelor drinkers. Reclining nudes became so popular that artist A.D.M. Cooper made an entire career out of painting naked ladies for California bars, earning him the title “Rembrandt of the Saloon Nude.”
In addition to its more eccentric elements, Shotwell’s boasts classic bar features, including a dart board, pool table and jukebox.
Shotwell’s does not have a hard liquor license — Madonna estimates it would cost over $300,000 to attain one — so they make do with wine and beer (plus Underberg, the cult-favorite liqueur that, thanks to a Food and Drug Administration loophole, is considered a food item.) The bar features an ever-rotating assortment of local brews like Drake’s and Fieldwork, as well as classics like Guinness on tap.
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Co-owners David Hall and Tom Madonna curated the redesign of Shotwell’s Saloon in the Mission District of San Francisco, shown on May 24, 2026.
Kevin Kelleher & Emily Trinh/For SFGATE
David Hall, a co-owner of Shotwell’s Saloon, works behind the bar in San Francisco’s Mission District on May 15, 2026.
Kevin Kelleher & Emily Trinh/For SFGATE
Midway through my interview with Madonna and Hall, Madonna explained that the two men aren’t just business partners. They are a couple, a fact they haven’t shared in previous features about the saloon.
“In the very beginning, this was a straight person’s bar, and we didn’t want to alienate any of the regulars,” Madonna said. Turns out, he had nothing to worry about.
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“Not in any way were they ever disrespectful,” he said. “It was 100% our own fear of not being accepted. Not one time did anyone ever make us feel different.”
Madonna said he’s only heard slurs when he’s had to kick drunk people out of the bar — but he supposes that would likely be the case no matter his sexuality.
Tom Madonna, a co-owner of Shotwell’s Saloon, pours a fresh cold drink in San Francisco’s Mission District on May 15, 2026.
Kevin Kelleher & Emily Trinh/For SFGATE
Friday night buzzes at Shotwell’s Saloon in San Francisco’s Mission District on May 15, 2026.
Kevin Kelleher & Emily Trinh/For SFGATE
By 9 p.m. on a recent Friday night, what started as a steady stream of after-work drinkers had turned into a flood. Yet, Madonna and Hall were still able to find time to chat with their regular customers.
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“Didn’t you just get back from the desert?” Madonna asked one.
“Your phone is charging behind the bar, don’t forget it!” he reminded another.
A woman noticed me taking notes for the story. In a perfect deadpan, Madonna nodded to me and said to her, “He’s a monster. He’s gonna try and take down the bar.”
I can tell that being teased by Madonna means I’ve been accepted. I don’t take this lightly.
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True regulars get a Shotwell’s sticker on their credit cards so they stand out during busy nights, making it easier to close out a tab. Madonna said he once received an Instagram DM from someone who’d found a lost wallet with a Shotwell’s sticker-adorned credit card. Thanks to the bar’s quirky tradition, the wallet was safely returned to its owner.
Mikayla Mooney of North Beach, left, kicks back with Diego Rios of the Mission District and Hayden Meyers of Fort Collins, Colo., at Shotwell’s Saloon in San Francisco on May 15, 2026.
Kevin Kelleher & Emily Trinh/For SFGATE
The pool table draws a steady crowd at Shotwell’s Saloon in San Francisco’s Mission District on May 15, 2026.
Kevin Kelleher & Emily Trinh/For SFGATE
Shotwell’s Saloon regular Alisha Ardiana of the Mission hangs with her furry sidekick at the historic neighborhood bar in San Francisco on May 15, 2026.
Kevin Kelleher & Emily Trinh/For SFGATE
Alisha Ardiana, who is a mainstay at the bar along with her pint-sized Papillon puppy, believes places like Shotwell’s are why San Franciscans put up with the difficulties of living in the city. Ardiana is so passionate about the bar that she demanded to be quoted when she saw me speaking to others for this story.
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“By agreeing to live in San Francisco, we give up access to private space,” said Ardiana, referencing the city’s notoriously expensive yet tiny housing options. “But in return, the trade-off is public space. This is my second living room. I am here two or three times a week. I am so grateful for this.”
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Jeff Ellis, another bar regular, is an architect and artist who has lived in the Mission for decades. He’s seen the neighborhood change drastically over the years, yet some stalwarts still remain.
“The building [where] I rent space was an artist studio, a collective studio, in the early ’90s. Some things have lasted the test of time and are still around in the neighborhood,” Ellis said.
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Shotwell’s has similarly been going strong since the ’90s — the 1890s, that is.