San Francisco’s quietest cocktail bar is downtown’s RM 212

Strictly speaking, RM 212 has been around for eight years, as a sake-and-soju bar with Ricky as the chef. But last September, he bought a full liquor license, stepped out of the kitchen, and switched formats to a proper cocktail bar, giving Patrick a chance to show off his talents. The brothers’ personalities could not be more different. The elder Ricky is emphatic and effusive; Patrick is a man of few words.

RM 212’s drink menu comprises little but the classics — at least a few of which might otherwise be fading into obscurity, like a sweet-tart Tradewinds (invented during the 1970s tiki craze) or the apricot-forward Slope. Dubbed the “Park Slope” at RM 212, it’s an ode to the Chan brothers’ native New York, where the drink was developed. Some, like the coffee-and-orange Revolver or the orgeat-and-lemon Little Boots, could have been teleported from the Tonga Room in 1965. Others, like appley Pink Lady or the daiquiri-like Hemingway, evoke Key West in 1925. There’s even a take on the Vesper, that gin-and-vodka concoction that feels like a martini ordered a martini. All of the above are priced between $16 and $18.