"There was a time every bar in San Francisco dressed like this," says Clark Facer, who's been behind the bar at Buena Vista for 35 years - more than half his life. "I think this was so standard at one point, if you reach back into the '50s, it was a standard-bearer uniform."
The classic uniform of the bartender is a holdover from the 19th century, when people got much of their daily alcohol from patent medicines and tonic wines, and the lines between a druggist and a drink-slinger were a bit blurred (appropriately enough) - Nathaniel Adams.
You're basically going to still find it at the bars and restaurants that survived, the 61-year-old Facer tells me over an industry-best Irish coffee. And that includes California's oldest restaurant: Tadich Grill.
I had no idea what was going on inside these four walls," Geiger says, before revealing a laundry chute.
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