Elysium Cafe
2434 Mission Street
(415) 282-2447
Elysium \E*ly"sium\, n.; pl. E. Elysiums, L. Elysia. [Elysian field.] (Anc. Myth.) 1. A dwelling place assigned to happy souls after death; the seat of future happiness; Paradise.
Elysium is a bar with a heady name, wonderful ambiance and an understanding bar staff.
It may be a little chin-strokingly intellectual, but under closer examination Elysium turns out to be a well chosen name: if paradise indeed exists, why shouldn't it take the form of an underlit bar in the mission ? An eternity is too long spent anyplace, but compare to, say, a burger king or a public toilet, then decide where you'd like to rest your recently deceased self for an age or two.
The bar is on Mission, between 20th & 21st. Which means if you file out sloshed and muttering to yourself, you'll have plenty of like-minded company while you spend half an hour trying to hail a cab home. On the weekends it's busy enough, but not as hectic as other local staples. Week nights are quiet, and maybe a better time to soak up the atmospheric interior.
Soak up? Interior? Ambiance? Yes. Absolutely. Elysium has to be one of the more understatedly beautiful bars in the city. Dimmed lighting, on quieter nights, provokes introspection. The back wall is dominated with an oversized stained glass panorama, a back lit sun as centerpiece. A curtain hung behind another wall of glass creates an uncertain mirror effect. Day of the dead puppets slump limp from gloomy corners.
Still, despite surroundings that call for hush, it can still get raucous come the weekend. The bar staff handle things well. My late night attempts to demonstrate trout-tickling to a pack of unbelieving friends -- rolling up my sleeves and trying to entice an oversized goldfish from a fake rock pool -- were met with a polite cease and desist. Waitstaff deliver drinks promptly.
All in all, it's one thumb enthusiastically up. A fine place for a swallow.
The Slanted Door, 584 Valencia
"But the best entrée was certainly the carmelized shrimp. I actually rolled my eyes to heaven and gasped after tasting one of those beautiful little sea creatures." Leslie Dotson
Ti Couz, 3108 16th Street
"Of course, the menu is choc-a-bloc with crepes. Everything you can ever imagine, including the obvious things like meat crepes, vegetarian crepes such as the ratatouille (yes, take note, this is a good restaurant for veggies), and cheese crepes." Susan MacTavish Best
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