How do you get into The Ipswitch?
We have not confirmed it. The Ipswitch is in the directory because it calls itself a speakeasy, and that is the whole of what we can stand behind about its door.
The drinks at The Ipswitch
How the venue describes itself: “Bourbon & Branch is a San Francisco speakeasy that operated illegally during Prohibition from 1921 to 1933. Password required, craft cocktails, and a set of house rules straight from the era. 501 Jones St.” (from its own website, retrieved 9 October 2026)
The venue publishes a price range of $$$.
Beyond what the venue publishes we have not verified a list, so what follows is the period rather than the bar: Sidecar, Boulevardier, and Vieux Carré are all drinks of this era, and each links to its origin and its build.
Where The Ipswitch sits
The Ipswitch is in San Francisco, California, in the county of the same name, in the West of the United States. The city sits inside the Bay Area metropolitan area.
Our directory currently lists 21 speakeasies and hidden bars in San Francisco. The full list is on our guide to hidden bars in San Francisco.
Measured from the map pins, the closest of those to The Ipswitch are The Library, a few doors away, Bourbon and Branch, a few doors away, and Hidden Bar SF, about 150 m away.
California holds 173 listed venues in this directory. See them all on our California speakeasy guide.
Prohibition in California
California came under national prohibition on 17 January 1920, when the Eighteenth Amendment took effect and the Volstead Act defined an intoxicating beverage as anything above one half of one per cent alcohol — a threshold strict enough to close breweries that had expected to survive.
More on the period in our history of Prohibition in California.
What the newspapers recorded in San Francisco
Searching the Library of Congress run of California newspapers for speakeasy, blind pig and bootlegger across 1920 to 1933 returns dated pages anyone can open. These are from San Francisco:
- The Western outlook, December 24, 1927 — read the page at the Library of Congress
Planning a visit
Hours published by the venue:
- Sun–Wed 6pm–12am
- Thurs–Sat 6pm–2am
Hours as published on the venue’s own site, retrieved 9 October 2026.
You can reach The Ipswitch by phone on (415) 346-1735, through its own website, and on Instagram and Facebook.
The address is 501 Jones St, San Francisco, CA 94102. Open in Google Maps.
What we have confirmed
For The Ipswitch we hold street address, telephone number, official website, social accounts, opening hours, and an online booking link. We do not yet hold a published drinks list or a listed-building record.
It is in the directory because the description in the source data describes it as a speakeasy.
Overture Maps carries this venue; OpenStreetMap has no matching record.
The source data classifies the premises as a bar.