July 28, 2023Updated: Aug. 1, 2023 12:17 p.m. - SFGATE

I’ve been drunk in nearly 30 countries, and Specs’ Twelve Adler Museum Cafe is probably my favorite one. I know it’s not a sovereign nation per se, but Specs’ is certainly a world of its own.

Entering Specs', you almost expect to see Tom Waits at the back piano writing songs about brawlers, bawlers and bastards. The walls of the North Beach institution are covered in strange bric-a-brac — labor union banners, Spanish Civil War propaganda, a giant walrus penis bone. And it operates on unique social bylaws, where you can sit at the bar and have an 85-year-old poet reading a worn copy of “Howl” on one side of you and an influencer on the other. You never really know who you’re gonna see in there. One time, Robin Wright sat next to me at the bar, and we talked for 20 minutes while an old drunk regaled her boyfriend with whatever lies and limericks old drunks blather about when they’ve got your attention.

The history of Specs'

San Francisco dive bar Specs' might as well be its own sovereign nation

And a bit of Alaskana, a walrus penis bone is called an oosik.

Greg

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