Raise a glass and celebrate craft beer at SF Beer Week's opening gala.

With the ever-increasing prominence of beer lists, beer tastings, beer dinners, and Cicerones (the suds equivalent of a sommelier), San Francisco is prepped and ready to celebrate a panoply of offerings at Beer Week, which starts next Friday. 50+ small, independent craft breweries will showcase their wares at the fest, with many brewers coming in person to talk shop. Beer Week also means plenty of beer dinners at SF restaurants, special offerings at stalwarts like Toronado, City Beer Store, and The Monk's Kettle, and lots of other fun events.

Sake bombs are $4 at Jippidy's happy hour.

Each week, we bring you our picks for the best places to booze on the cheap in SF.

Scribe Winery Vineyard: Where earthy, balanced and flavorful wines are possible.

Lucy Goodhart

One night last fall at a wine dinner at Chez Panisse, Alice Waters got up to address the dining room and made a surprising confession. “Shame on me,” she said, “for paying so little attention to California wine. I had no idea what was going on underneath my nose all this time. And to think that it was through my daughter, Fannie, that I discovered something so important around me.”

Madrone Lounge celebrates a year of great parties with a happy-hour blowout.

Each week, we bring you our picks for the best places to booze on the cheap in SF.

I've been hearing about the difficulties at the House of Shields for some time now. As reported in SFEater a couple of days ago: "The historic bar's lease runs out in June and word on the street is that at this point in time, the landlord has no intention of renewing it, meaning the current team is definitely out. This development, of course, leaves the bar's future very much in flux. "

Nick's Crispy Tacos come with 50-cent margaritas in one magical half-hour.

Each week we bring you our picks for the best places to booze on the cheap in SF. 

Michael Broadbent, the famous wine guy and Christie's auctioneer, kept a note on every wine he tasted and eventually published this epic book of all them. That's pretty cool, as I often neglect to take notes on many of the wines I tasted and you know how the memory goes when you've had a glass of wine...

cbcastro on Flickr

It's happened too many times to remember, and the disappointment is always piercing, but you learn to move on. A bottle of wine--a special one, maybe it's very old, maybe you carried it back in your suitcase from France, maybe it's very expensive. You save it for a special occasion. You dust it off and present it to your guests. You remove the foil, savoring every moment of the process, licking your lips in anticipation. And then you pop the cork and get a whiff. Damn, it's corked. Nothing you can do about it. Have to move on.

$1 margaritas on Fridays are a magnet for Lexington Club's lesbian patrons.

Patrick Dockens

Each week, former sf.myopenbar.com editor Allie Pape brings you her picks for the best places to booze on the cheap in SF. This week: Three classy deals, two trashy deals. Have an event coming up? Want to share a tip? E-mail her.