Diverse crowd, cheap drinks, awesome patio and great energy. Sunday afternoon live music on pato is a great long-standing tradtions. Long happy hours and extra special drink specials throughout the week.

South of Chavez aka Socha. The "cha" in Socha stands for Chávez--which makes sense since the neighborhood was known for generations as South of Army. It's walkable from the 24th Street BART although BART Director Tom Radulovich wants a new BART station at 30th and Mission it may not happen in our lifetimes so you can also get to know the busiest line West of Chicago and East of Geary St. the Mission-14 if its too late or intimidating to walk..

Mondays - Dollar Days w/ Well $2 and Pabst $1, All Day
Tues-Fri - Well and Pints (Intl/Dom) $3.00
and Bloody Mary Pints $5, 5-9pm
Free Oysters on the Half Shell Every Friday 5:30pm
Free BBQ's every Friday and Sunday during the summer

Featured above is 150 years of el Rio history put together by mostly Mission neighborhood blog Burrito Justice Here's the gas station on the corner of Valencia and Mission in 1944.

Some will remember the then-and-now shot Burrito Justice made a while back.

YELP FAVE: "Great drink specials that vary through out the week. The outdoor patio is friggin awesome and I love that they have heat lamps, which means that even on a chilly night you can take your beer and cig to chill out and relax in the fresh air. Events here include bands in the back room, fundraisers and such, burlesque shows on Fridays and salsa on Sundays. I love coming on Fridays for the free oysters at 5 pm and free bbq starting at 8 pm. The oysters don't always last very long so you gotta come quick." P D. 7/7/2009