Fans of good cocktails in cozy spaces can rejoice, at long last, over the reopening of Dalva’s Hideout, the separate, semi-secret bar back behind Dalva on 16th Street that hasn’t welcomed guests since early 2020.
Eater caught the news of the reopening this week — though unfortunately calls the main bar “Davla” — and The Hideout made the announcement on Instagram that tonight is the night of the big reopening, starting at 8 p.m. (Though Dalva opens earlier, the Hideout never opened much before 7 or 7:30 back in the day.)
View this post on Instagram
Dalva is one of the OGs in the Mission bar scene as we know it, having opened in the pre-dot-com era of 1993, back when Bill Clinton was president and The Slanted Door was still on Valencia Street around the corner.
The larger bar underwent a major pandemic renovation and reopened in January, with owner Erik Reichborn-Kjennerud telling Eater that he brought in partner Eric Ochoa to help revamp the bar program from top to bottom. Where once it was a bar that served a lot of vodka sodas and whiskey-gingers, it now has a whole new look and serves things like The New Wave Fix — a mix of Italian gin, French wine, pineapple, and coconut Chartreuse.
The Hideout, which debuted amid a larger craft cocktail renaissance across the city in 2007, has long been a beloved late-night pitstop for industry folk and cocktail connoisseurs.
The Hideout also underwent some renovation, but mostly only behind the six-seat bar itself. And the new menu is more of a return to the classics, with a Martini, Manhattan, Negroni, Daiquiri, and Gimlet all featured, along with a Gin Rickey, a Dark & Stormy, and (ugh) a Mojito. Gone are some of the more creative concoctions on the former menu — Ochoa has opted to flip things around, with the more out-of-the-ordinary cocktails featured in the front bar these days, and The Hideout bar staff working with a more limited number of ingredients.
There’s talk of pop-ups happening at the space, and the 40-seat, two-level Hideout is also available for private events.
Reichborn-Kjennerud tells Eater he hopes to see industry folks return for after-work “classic cocktails done with really good booze.”
The Hideout at Dalva — 3121 16th Street, in back — reopens Friday, August 19, 8 p.m. to 2 a.m.
Top image: Photo by Nicola Parisi via Instagram
