Chopbiscuit on the road dining review {booze edition}: Mr. Bing's - San Francisco, CA

Welcome (again) to another delightful ad hoc Chopbiscuit inspection of some of the USA's most frequented saloons, dining halls, dive bars, food trucks, in-room dining and high end bistro's. At least one of your humble contributors is on the road virtually every week and luckily have the opportunity to dine at some of the finest institutions and loathsome watering holes known to man. Now and then we had a hope that if we lived and were good, some deity would permit us to be pirates and savage our nutriment.

We like eating. It fascinates us. We sit and look at the food for hours. We often eat while laying down in my hotel room with a bib in my lap and my outlook calendar open. Eating is our tweeting, except it's much cooler. Food is often made into the celebrity of carnage, which makes us appear to be pompous and scarce in regards to the act of eating itself. You eat because you fuel. We eat because we're hungry. We eat because it's our job. We go out to these establishments to consume their lineups with arrogance.

I then judge it. (Poncho Sinatra style)

Mr. Bing's
01 Columbus Ave
San Francisco, CA
(415) 362-1545


It's a Mr. Bing's world and we are all just living in it. As you all know, I have an inappropriate relationship with the culture of American Dive Bars. I've been intrigued by the culture since my hometown Elmira Heights, NY was "chock" full of them during my adolescence. Its' a melting pot of American culture from the gritty factory worker, to the local town drunk and now - the progressive, hipster looking for that "alternative stop" for his or her hipster yearning.

Mr. Bing's has all you want in a Dive Bar.

Ripped out leather seats (check)
Limited or no food menu (check)
Regulars look or could be possibly homeless (check)
Doesn't take credit cards (check)
No high end alcohol (check)
A jukebox with shitty music and/or majority country (check)
The bartender contiguously drops F-bombs (check)
Condom machines from a company you've never heard of in the ladies restroom (check) 

What differentiates Mr. Bing's from most of America's most famous dive joints is that it has an Asian flare. I'm not sure who Mr. Bing is, but I'm sure he is one of the coolest Asian guys you've ever met. I'm sure he was involved in some seedy dealings during the "Bing" high years - probably in the late 70's. (That's the era the Mr. Bing's sign out front suggests at least)

For all you Dive bar enthusiasts such as myself, don't miss this valuable stop during your journey to San Francisco.

I've forever been "Binged".

Is this Mr. Bing?