Our Story
Third Rail is a cocktail and jerky bar tucked away on a quiet street in San Francisco’s Dogpatch neighborhood. The bar is the result of the collaboration between barkeep Jeff Lyon and Chef Phil West, two life-long restaurant guys who worked together at West’s restaurant, Range.
Our cocktails feature fresh, seasonal ingredients, high-quality spirits, hand-cut and hand-crushed ice. Third Rail is also a great place for a simple shot and a beer. What really sets us apart is the jerky. Some of it is smoked, some of it is dehydrated, some of it is vegetarian, and all of it is delicious!
In the Press
Top Cocktail Bars in San Francisco
The city’s 19 best destinations for a well-made drink.
San Francisco Chronicle By Esther Mobley | Sept. 8, 2021
Cocktails, shots, and the most extensive selection of jerky you’ll ever find.
Few bars — or restaurants, for that matter — lean into jerky as strongly as Third Rail, a cocktail spot on a side street in Dogpatch. These dehydrated strips of meat (or no meat; there’s also a vegetarian option) do turn out to be good drinking snacks, salty enough to keep you thirsty. It’s perfectly acceptable here to order a trio of jerky, beer, and a shot, but it’s also very much worth perusing the cocktail menu to try one of bartender Jeff Lyon’s creations. He divides the menu, helpfully, between citrusy cocktails and spirit-forward cocktails (what other categories do you really need?). You might as well go with the signature order, also called the Third Rail, which tastes like a more interesting, floral whiskey sour, adding Lillet aperitif and honey to a base of bourbon and lemon juice.
25 Top-Shelf Cocktail Bars in San Francisco
SF's most influential cocktail bars are still pouring strong drinks
Eater by Eater Staff | Jul 14, 2021
This bar from the team behind Range — former bar manager Jeff Lyon and owner-chef Phil West — has a subtle railway theme and cocktails that feature seasonal ingredients and hand-cut and hand-crushed ice. The cocktails are all affordable, and don’t miss the beer, shot, and bite of homemade jerky. These days, they’re teaming up with a neighbor to comply with liquor license laws, so Wooly Pig is providing the food, and Third Rail is bottling up the cocktails to go.
