Ernie's Tin Bar
Ernie's has poured on Lakeville Highway since 1923, out of a corrugated tin shack, and the taps run from Pliny the Younger to a $1.75 can of Hamm's. Put your phone away.1
Why go
Ernie Altenreuther is the third generation behind the bar and he lives on the family ranch up the road.1 In winter a stove fire runs and a neon Speakeasy sign burns in a fogged window, which is how commuters stuck on Lakeville decide to stop.1 Derek Moore found a San Francisco construction worker at the bar drinking a German Fuchshof cider next to people who had come from wine tasting.1 The peanuts are shelled and unlimited.1
Order this / avoid
- Order: whatever is on that you cannot get elsewhere. In early February the Pliny the Younger kegs arrive from Russian River, which is the one week this bar is not a secret.1
- Order: a Hamm's if you want the other end of it. It was $1.75 a can in January 2020.1
- Avoid: your phone. The owners frown on it and the whole room runs on the assumption you will talk to whoever sat down next to you.1
What locals & experts say
- Derek Moore, Sonoma Magazine (January 2020):
To the surprise of many who stop here, Ernie's has one of the North Bay's most satisfying and eclectic beer and cider selections on tap, including Pliny the Younger.
1 - Ernie Altenreuther, the third-generation proprietor, on the phone rule:
People talk, and if you sit down, you're going to end up in a conversation with somebody.
1
Good to know
- They will drive you home. Free rides within sixteen miles, Friday to Sunday, 3 to 10pm, on 707-478-0586. Lakeville Highway is a notoriously dangerous road and that is the point of the service.1
- The prices here are January 2020 prices, which is the newest thing published on this bar that I could read.
Verdict
could-visit — Derek Moore called the tap list one of the North Bay's most satisfying and eclectic, which is not what you expect from a shack full of people who have just come off a job site. Ernie Altenreuther is the third generation and he asks people to put their phones away, because, in his words, if you sit down you end up in a conversation. Held here rather than higher because the only source is six years old and there is no food to speak of, and the bar's own site is behind a captcha so nothing current could be read.