Lone Palm an ‘oasis’ in San Francisco’s Mission District

It’s easy to walk past Lone Palm without knowing what lies inside.

On a side street off the main Valencia commercial corridor in the Mission, the unassuming exterior boasts a dark-red awning and door, with a neon sign bearing its name. To the average visitor, it could be just another dive bar with sticky floors and cheap drinks. Once inside, however, I was transported to a cocktail lounge in the 1920s, with candles on white tablecloths and Art Deco decor.

Bartender Alec Vengco said that even before he started working there and was just a regular customer, the bar felt like “an oasis” in the middle of the Mission. “You could just pop in here and be like, ‘Oh, my god, I never knew this place was here.’”

I understood what he meant. With the lights turned down and the music turned up, flick