Jack’s Club, situated on the corner of 24th and Utah Streets in San Francisco’s Mission district, is fairly unremarkable from the outside. If you didn’t know about it, you probably wouldn’t even go in. There are plenty of bars nearby that are hipper, cheaper, flashier or more conveniently located. In fact, for the most part its clientele is made up of doctors, nurses and healthcare workers from the nearby general hospital, who come in to take advantage of their happy hour offers.
Their beer and drinks selection is fine; they have the usual selection of national beers (Budweiser, Coors, etc) with a few local ones thrown in for good measure. Prices are four to five dollars, or a recession busting two dollars during happy hour, which runs every week day from 2pm until 7pm. You can’t say better than that, really.
They also have a pool table, and on Thursday nights there is karaoke. It’s nominally a sports bar, and actually makes for a pretty decent place to watch games, as it’s nice and quiet and for the most part not populated by idiots.
So, why does this qualify as a hidden gem? It sounds pretty normal, no? Well, the answer lies
to the right of the bar, the other side of a wooden hatch. And the answer is Yats (as in whereyat?), a Cajun kitchen which sits inside the bar itself. Their menu includes daily specials such as chicken wings, or jambalaya, as well as any of southern favorite that you could possibly desire. And boy, is it good. There are a few southern style restaurants in the Bay Area that try to fussy things up for a Californian audience, but that’s really not the case here. This is gutsy, honest, soulful cooking.
Personally, I’ve tried a couple of the Po’Boys, and the Veggie Philly (they do cater a little to San Francisco with some vegetarian options!) melt, and have yet to be disappointed. The prices, too, are as reasonable as the food is tasty, topping out at around $10.99 for the priciest entrée, with sides (fries, mac and cheese, all the good stuff) coming in at around $3 or $4.
Perhaps most pleasingly of all, they also deliver to the hospital for orders of over $15. It could be argued by some that it’s food like this that puts people there in the first place, but honestly, if I can’t get a gravy soaked artery choker delivered to me on my deathbed, well, that’s a world in which I don’t want to live in.
One thing worth noting, though, is that the kitchen is only open till three in the afternoon; the first time I tried to go and get some dinner, I was met with disappointment. I have found, though, that a beer and some fresh cheesy, greasy goodness makes a tremendous hangover cure; If you stop down on a Friday lunchtime, I’ll be the one in the corner picking at my fries and thinking about what I’ve done.