Doc’s Clock — a bartender’s bar

Not all of San Francisco’s great bars are cocktail bars.

We captured the 2016 class of Bar Stars at Doc’s Clock, the beloved Mission dive bar, not only because the Stars themselves named it among their favorite bars in town, but also because we believe it tells an important story about the state of the city’s bars today.

“Growing up, I always wanted to have an old man bar,” says Carey Suckow, who has owned Doc’s Clock since 2005. “Not a bar with a theme. The kind of place where you see the whole community: the old guy sitting next to the 21-year-old, sitting next to the middleaged couple, and it’s not weird.”

The “bar with a theme” is what tends to draw attention and accolades these days. Just look at the various concepts at the Bar Stars’ places of employment, for example — all ambitiously conceived and deftly executed.

The development of such a landscape has put new pressures on bars like Doc’s Clock, and on neighborhoods like the Mission. Last summer, a new landlord bought the building that houses Doc’s Clock. Leticia Luna, who owns a number of other restaurant properties around the city, apparently has other plans for the space; she did not renew Suckow’s lease.

Fortunately, Suckow was able to secure a new lease just a block away, where she and husband Brian MacGregor will re-open the bar in July. “We’re trying to keep things as similar as possible,” Suckow says. They’ll move as much of the physical space as they can; whether they’ll be able to keep the iconic front sign — a Mission Street beacon — is still TBD.

The fact that Suckow, 42, and MacGregor, 38, didn’t found Doc’s Clock doesn’t make them any less committed to its preservation. They see themselves as custodians of an institution whose legacy outsizes any special decorations or drink recipes they could impose on it. In fact, Suckow says she was able to purchase the bar in the first place, despite being beat out by higher bidders, because she could assure the then owners that she wouldn’t change a thing.

And what could she have wanted to change? The Doc’s Clock formula has been a winning one for decades: the cash-only policy, the Barbie dolls hanging from the ceiling, the linoleum floors, the shuffle board and darts. “Everybody needs a bar,” Suckow says. “We don’t do anything fancy. It’s just what you’d expect — you want to go to a bar, you walk in, and it’s a bar.”

These preservation efforts have not been in vain. The bar was awarded Legacy Business status last month. News of the changes for Doc’s Clock jolted the community, and Suckow says she’s seen an outpouring of support. “It’s nice that people are worried,” she says. “The city’s lost too much, and people are worried they’re going to lose even more.”