Kerryman’s speakeasy bar namedin America’s top 10 bar destinations
Brian Sheehy, 37, who grew up on a small farm in Annascaul, Co Kerry, has recreated a 1920s speakeasy — complete with a hidden location in a dodgy part of town where customers must whisper a password to gain entry.
His Bourbon and Branch tavern has become one of the hottest nightspots in San Francisco and was named among the top 10 bars in America by Esquire magazine.
Brian said: “This building has been a pub since 1865 and right through the prohibition years from 1920 to 1933 it operated as a speakeasy. That was the atmosphere we wanted to recreate and that’s what we’ve done.
“We don’t advertise at all. We have never spent a cent on marketing and there isn’t even a sign up outside to tell you there is a pub here because that would ruin the speakeasy flavour.”
Going to Bourbon and Branch is not like going to any other pub. You have to ring ahead to book a table in the bar, although they don’t serve food. Once you have been accepted — such is its popularity that 700 people are rejected every week — you are sent a password by email and given a time to be there. Any more than 15 minutes late and you’re not getting in.
The next ordeal is finding the pub. Bourbon and Branch is located at 501 Jones Street in San Francisco’s downmarket Tenderloin District.
It’s the equivalent of locating your plush winebar in a crime engulfed inner city housing estate.
The Tenderloin is home to marauding drug addicts and menacing pimps and drug dealers who skulk on street corners.
Once you’ve braved the city’s dark side and arrived at the junction of Jones and O’Farrell Streets, you still have to work out which door hides the bar. There isn’t even a number on the building to tell you where you are.
So you ring the bell of the most likely looking doorway and moments later a beautiful young waitress dressed in black peeks from a crack in the door and smiles, asking “What is tonight’s password?”
Inside, the decor has been restored to an early 20th century style.
The intention is to bring you back in time to the early part of the last century, before bars were filled with neon lights, plastic seats and loud music.
It’s a relaxed atmosphere. The strict booking policy means it never gets too crowded and one of the rules is, no standing at the bar. The patrons sit in snugs, attended by cheerful floor staff and the barmen are among the top mixologists in America.
Their dress is immaculate, ties covering top buttons and waistcoats fitted like corsets.
A typical cocktail costs $11 — cheap compared to cities like New York but about average in San Francisco.
The bar is a goldmine or a “machine” as Brian dubs it. Turning away 700 potential customers every week sounds bad for business but the bar is now entering its fifth year and its popularity shows no sign of abating.
It’s a long way from the life of a small farmer in Annascaul.
He said: “I was born in Boston so I’m an American citizen but I grew up in Annascaul from the age of two.”
Once school was over, he studied hotel management in Galway and in 1994 travelled to Boston where he gained a strong reputation working at various high class hotels.
In 1997 an offer came to run the then fledgling Druid’s Glen Marriott Hotel in Wicklow but Uncle Sam’s grip was tight and it held him in the USA.
By 2002 he had opened his first pub, Anú, with his friend Daithi Donnelly from Armagh. Daithi died 18 months ago, exactly one year to the day that he was told he had lung cancer.
His legacy lives on through Brian and his two business partners who run four pubs in San Francisco — Swig, Anú and Rickhouse being the others.
They are all landmarks on the San Francisco bar scene, famed for the expertise of their mixologists.
And Brian is going from strength to strength, with plans to open two new bars in the coming months.
His parents Dan and Bridie still run a small farm in Annascaul, he remains a relative unknown but in the States he is big noise.
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