Are dogs & other pets allowed?
We love dogs! That said, we have to follow the law regarding whether they’re allowed into ODM if we want to maintain the 99-100 Public Health Department score we’ve maintained during our years of operation. The rules around “service animals” & “emotional support” animals are largely misunderstood and we get email asking about it all the time. Hopefully, this clears things up.
Here’s the law:
Under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), privately owned businesses that serve the public, such as bars and restaurants, are prohibited from discriminating against individuals with disabilities. The ADA requires businesses to allow people with disabilities to bring their service animals onto business premises in whatever areas customers are generally allowed.
The ADA defines a service animal as any guide dog, signal dog, or other animal individually trained to provide assistance to an individual with a disability. Service dogs are always permitted in any public space, including bars and restaurants. Service animals can only be dogs (or in very rare cases, miniature horses!).
An emotional support animal is a dog or other animal that is not trained to perform specific acts directly related to an individual’s disability. Instead, the animal's owner derives a sense of well-being, safety, or calm from the animal’s companionship and presence. These are NOT allowed in bars and restaurants.
We are only allowed to ask you two questions if you bring a dog into ODM in order to help us determine whether your dog is a service animal or not:
whether the dog is required because of a disability; and,
what work the dog is trained to perform.
Application of these rules have nothing to do with whether the business serves food out of a kitchen — alcohol & drinks sales are also considered food service. Inspectors from the Public Health Department inspect ODM and all such businesses on a regular basis. Therefore, food service businesses that regularly allow dogs and other pets into their space regardless of whether or not they are service animals are violating local health code. We’re not willing to take on that risk at ODM and greatly value our long running 99-100 health code scores.
We didn’t make the law up, if it were up to us we’d happily have your pet at ODM (heck, we’d probably have a bar dog named Old Devil and a black cat named Moon if we were allowed). If, upon entry and questioning, a customer tells a business, “my dog is a service animal trained to perform a task for me related to a disability I have,” then they must allow you to remain with your pet without further questions; however, if the customer was not telling the truth and the health code inspector happens to show up while they are there and pursues the issue, any resulting fines are on the customer, rather than on the business.
Here are some resources and info if you wish to look into this further:
Are there rules for kids?
We realize this is a very sensitive issue and that parents need to get out and have fun! Kids are an important part of our neighborhood community, you're all part of our big Mission-Bernal-Glen Park-Noe family. We welcome parents and their kids, but we also need folks to understand that we're a bar and so there are both safety and environmental/ambiance issues for us to consider. We came up with these rules with help from area parents, we hope they seem reasonable to you and we thank you for hanging out at ODM!
Kids are welcome until 8PM
It is critical that all children are accompanied by a parent at all times
Issues we've dealt with repeatedly that we’d be stoked for you to help us avoid in the future include kids running around the main space and especially up and down the ramp to the patio (super dangerous, this is where the food pass happens and staff are moving rapidly), screaming and shouting while playing, food and drink in inappropriate places like the bathroom or photo booth, standing on tables and chairs, picking up and playing with elements of the decor, playing videos or music on personal devices at high volume, and sitting at the bar. Also, please notify staff of any spills or messes rather than just leaving it there for others to discover after you leave.
Our goal with this is to come across as very reasonable while also keeping your kids safe & our customers happy (including moms and dads!). We hope you agree that this all makes sense. If you have comments or feedback, please let us know - info@olddevilmoonsf.com. We look forward to seeing you and the fam at ODM in the future!
Do you take cards?
Yep! Cash or card, all good. As of now, we do not accept Apple Pay.
Because fees for card use are a major expense, and to encourage folks to start a tab rather than cash out repeatedly and thus rack card fees up for us, we have a $10 minimum for credit/debit card use.
Can we reserve space?
We VERY much appreciate when folks let us know in advance that they’re coming with a sizable group. Please fill out the form on our Reservations & Parties Page, that way we can plan ahead to ensure that service doesn’t suffer because we were unaware we’d be extra packed on any given night.
Please take note of the following:
Reserved space will be held for 30 minutes, deposits are non-refundable.
You are allowed to bring your own cake or other desserts, but please read the section on outside food below.
If you have a patio reservation that ends at 10pm, please be aware that we ask anyone outside after 10pm to keep their voices down out of respect for our neighbors. If you are loud after this time we will request that you come inside.
Can we bring outside food in?
How about a birthday cake?
We serve a full menu of great NOLA-inspired food during almost all of our open hours, therefore we do not allow folks to bring in outside food. In addition to that, public health code rules do not allow customers to bring outside food into food service businesses.
Exceptions to this rule:
If you are a person with dietary restrictions who cannot order from ODM’s menu, please talk to the bartenders and explain your situation. In most cases we’ll be happy to allow you to bring in something.
Cake for parties is A-OK, but please bring your own plates, a knife for cutting the cake, and utensils. We have only limited amounts of those items out of storage for our use on any given night. Also, our food trays are not ideal for slices of cake. If you want to be extra awesome, bring compostable utensils and plates (which is what we use at ODM) so we can toss them in with the rest of our compostable material. ODM strives to create as little landfill as possible, so all our trays, utensils, straws, etc are compostable. If you would rather not bring your own supplies, please let us know ahead of time, and we can supply them to your group and cut your cake for a fee of $1 per person.
Feel free to offer a slice of cake to your bartender ;)
Can we buy out the space for a private event?
Absolutely, we’d love to host your event! Please fill out our large parties form on our Reservations & Parties Page.
Here’s how buy outs work:
Our space is pretty big, and buy-outs can be pricey, so unless you’re going to have a group of 40+ or just plain old have a sizable budget (hello corporate events!), then you may be better off hitting us up to let us know you’re coming, but not actually buying out the whole space. Give us the details and we’ll advise you about what makes sense for you.
We do not offer open bar, instead we will keep track of everything on one tab for your group towards the agreed upon minimum amount for the buy out. If your tab does not hit this amount you'll cover that apart from the initially agreed minimum fee.
As for food during buy-outs: ODM’s menu of fantastic NOLA-inspired sandos and sides are served Tuesday through Saturday, from 5-10PM. If you have special needs for a buy out, let’s discuss them. If you do not want our food for your buy out, we’re happy to discuss other options. We generally do not allow outside food at ODM, but see the above FAQ for exceptions (such as birthday cakes).
Why don’t you do free taster pours?
Our opinion on free tastes is that getting a little warm foam and half an ounce of beer that's been sitting in the faucet isn't a proper representation of the beer, and does a disservice to you and the breweries that we pour. We curate one of SF’s best tap lists day in and day out at ODM. We’re all about getting people to experience new flavors and breweries, and we enjoy doing education from across the bar for those who are interested, so we believe 4 oz tasters are a huge win for everyone, as it allows you to actually experience the beer you want to taste, and it helps us for the reasons listed below.
We offer 4 oz, 10 oz, and 16 oz (pint) pours of at Old Devil Moon, and we believe all these fractional pour size options are a great way for customers to try new things without making a huge commitment. Unlike at most beer bars, it even allows you to line up a flight if that's what you’re into — our beer smart bartenders (most of whom are Certified or Advanced Cicerones) are happy to help put together a flight for you if you tell us what you like. The majority of our 4 oz taster pours are only $3, though some of the fancier stuff can be slightly more. We also use a 5 oz glass for our "4 oz pours" because we aim to pour beer with a proper head. For the record, our 10 oz and 16 oz glasses are also about an ounce bigger than we say they are, which leaves us room to pour for you with a good head. This is not a feature you’ll find at almost any other craft beer bar (most glassware only holds exactly 16 oz if filled to the brim with no head). That’s the level of thought we at ODM put into the details, all with your customer experience in mind.
Our no-free-tastes rule also allows us to:
keep our prices low rather than pouring loads of free ounces of our pricey sours and barrel aged stouts (and we encourage you to compare our prices to other top beer bars in town…they’re better per ounce, often significantly so…you’ll find many other craft beer bars in town selling the same specialty beer as ODM but at nearly twice the price per ounce!)
ensure quicker service for everyone by saving our bartenders from running back and forth to the taps repeatedly on busy evenings.
We believe our system of fractional pour size options creates wins all around. We’ve heard from the occasional customer who feels VERY strongly that we are wrong to ask folks to pay for real tastes of beer, but we are, respectfully, sticking to our opinions on this matter.