The Lone Palm, perfect for a pre-dinner Scotch

Dinner and drinks go together like movies and popcorn, milk and cookies, olives and caramel. It’s good idea to have some standby combos, ideally a bar and a restaurant located a stone’s-throw away from each other.

The best way to get the most out of it is, of course, kill two birds with that stone: Put your name on a waiting list at a busy restaurant, give your phone number to the host and sweetly ask them to call you when your table’s ready. Then, go get your drink. Waiting while drinking a negroni is fun. Waiting while completely sober and standing out in the fog is not.

Here are some of my favorite (and my friends' favorites) twosomes. Keep this list in your back pocket and you’ll never go wrong. You’ve got a date for every day of the week, plus two.

The Mission: Lone Palm and Kiji

The Mission(ish): Nihon and Chez Spencer

The Mission:Casanova and Puerto Alegre

The Mission:500 Club and Delfina Pizzeria

Pac Heights: Florio and SPQR

NoPa:Bar 821 and Little Star

Hayes Valley:Hotel Biron and Zuni Café

The Richmond:Blue Danube and Burma Superstar

Russian Hill: Bacchus and Sushi Groove