Tonga Room & Hurricane Bar

Once the indoor pool of the glitzy Fairmont Hotel, in 1945 a set director at Metro Goldwyn Mayer created the Tonga Room and Hurricane Bar we know and love today, a full-blown tiki hallucination with thatched bungalows, a live band playing on a boat floating in a jungle lagoon, and honest-to-God tropical rainstorms. There’s a reason that Anthony Bourdain once called this spot “the greatest place in the history of the world;” the Tonga Room is tiki throwback at its non-ironic best. They're famous for their uber-sweet lychee martinis and overpriced everything, but what the bar lacks in mixology cred it more than makes up for in heart. If the Tonga Room ever closes, San Francisco as we know it would surely not survive.