When it comes to the historic architecture of downtown San Francisco, it’s important to never judge a building by its facade. Take the early 1900s-era structure on Mason Street between Post and Geary, originally built for the Native Sons of the Golden West, a fraternal organization. Since 2017, it’s been home to August Hall, one of the best music venues in San Francisco, hosting acts that range from Courtney Barnett to Too $hort. But below the ornate concert hall is a much more exclusive good time waiting to happen.
On a recent Saturday night I walked through a separate side entrance of August Hall, down the stairs and was greeted by a sight I never expected: a private, resplendent, custom-built three-lane bowling alley. It’s called Fifth Arrow. A unique modern-nostalgia design aesthetic accented the walls surrounding the lanes and polished black bowling balls with the Fifth Arrow logo emblazoned on each were ready to be hurled. But before our group could settle into a sleek leather booth for a night of strikes and spares (ideally!), there was a gigantic space to take in and lots more to do.
Beyond the bowling lanes, there’s an adjacent room with an extra-long bar, vintage booths, retro decor, high-top tables and tons of space to mingle over craft cocktails and local beers. On the other side of the basement venue is a feature you’d expect in any bowling alley: a wall of shoes of all sizes waiting to be slipped on. But that’s not the only entertainment on offer here — there are also two Skee-Ball machines next to a pop-a-shot basketball game, as well as a spruced-up photo booth.
“This place is basically like Tommy Lee’s basement from that episode of Cribs,” a friend quipped. “Except this one doesn’t have a Starbucks in it.“
The Best Breweries in San Francisco
The city’s breweries churn out some of the best beer in the countryFifth Arrow is indeed a fun house of the highest order. When August Hall first opened its doors, the basement was open to the public for drinks and food, but today it exists solely as a private events space. And while Drake once booked it for three consecutive nights for him and his touring crew following a notable stop at the Oakland Arena, you don’t have to be a famous rapper to lock it down for a night.
The space is bookable for parties from 30 to around 250. After experiencing it for myself, it’d feel comfortable in either scenario. Sometimes a company will rent out the concert venue upstairs and tack on Fifth Arrow to create a multi-level function for their guests. This setup harkens back to the very beginnings of the building’s 100-plus-year history. It was previously a movie palace and music hall upstairs and a Prohibition-era speakeasy in the basement that lived on into the 1930s named Coffee Dan’s — a damn fine name for a covert drinking establishment if there ever was one.
In the early 1990s, the once-famed dance club Ruby Skye occupied the main August Hall space, while underneath was the subterranean club Slide — with a literal slide that you rode down to enter the club. One of the biggest changes that the current ownership team took on with the space was eliminating that slide and connecting the venues from the inside. But how do you get a custom bowling alley into the basement?
“Getting all of the materials down there was super not easy,” said co-owner Scott Murphy. “Building bowling lanes is a generally difficult proposition. That’s why you typically see like 16 or 32 lanes at a time. But not us, we’re only three. And it’s been a big hit.”
The owners of Fifth Arrow and August Hall know a thing or two about having a good time. Murphy and co-owner Nate Valentine are both born and raised in the Bay Area. Before helping to launch the music team at Eventbrite, Murphy was the co-founder of the artist management company Deckstar, which represented Steve Aoki and the late Adam Goldstein, better known as DJ AM. Valentine is a well-known commodity in the San Francisco nightlife scene, having a hand in nearly a dozen bars and restaurants like Polk Street’s Harper & Rye, Nob Hill’s excellent, retractable-roofed cocktail haven Peacekeeper and most recently, North Beach’s instant standout, Bar April Jean. It’s this bar acumen that’s helped shape the drinks program at August Hall and Fifth Arrow, which also includes the more intimate Green Room Bar upstairs.
The bar program also spun off into Murphy and Valentine’s newest side venture. You see, there’s a full-sized kitchen behind the far wall of the bowling alley that churns out event menus for Fifth Arrow — a noodle bar, tacos galore, passed apps, what have you. And as the economics of San Francisco shifted post-pandemic, the team started providing food and drink catering services for events at other venues too, and thus Gold Leaf Catering was born. While Fifth Arrow is the VIP gem of the building, it’s part of a larger ecosystem where every facet supports each other.
Considering that this building had initially burned down following the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, was rebuilt a few years later and still stands as a center for entertainment in the city today, there’s some serious resilience within these walls. On my Saturday night visit with friends, admittedly, that wasn’t where our minds were at. We were too busy laughing, bowling, drinking, dancing and relishing in the ability to still sink into a vibrant underbelly of the city that most of us didn’t know existed until that night. We had it all to ourselves. And once we made it there, we never wanted to leave.
This article was featured in the InsideHook SF newsletter. Sign up now for more from the Bay Area.