San Francisco is My Home

03
Jan

Jupiter and the Jungle Queen

Author: kris, Category: Bars and Clubs, Berkeley

I went to Jupiter in Berkeley last night for the first time in at least a year. Jupiter serves excellent — and I mean excellent, in the finest tradition of California cuisine — pizzas, as well as an assortment of its own beers and many guest beers. The inside is all dark wood and white lights, and the patio out back is multi-level, with a fountain and heat lamps and plenty of tables, oh my.

This bar also served up two of my three significant ex-boyfriends, and though it has been years since either of them worked there, the waitstaff is still amply stocked with handsome young folk of all genders and orientations.

The only downside is that the upstairs area used to boast a truly top-notch pinball machine known as The Jungle Queen, a game around which an impressive layer of staff myths and rules had been constructed. (For example, I was once chastised for jokingly blaming the machine for my own bad playing. “We don’t blame the Queen,” my then-fella told me, looking ashamed for my transgression.) Now the Queen is nowhere to be found, and today’s waitstaff have not even heard of her legend, nor can anyone tell me of her fall. Just one more sign that I am getting old, I guess.