On a cold, rainy night in January 2019, Jimmy Mollé and his friend Hamilton Cline decided to try to go viral on Reddit. They’d been scrolling through r/SanFrancisco for years and had a hunch they could craft the perfect question to grab attention.
“What’s your favorite bar, and why? Mine in comments,” Mollé posted from the time-worn stools of his chosen watering hole, House of Shields on New Montgomery Street in the Financial District.
Mollé explained why he loved House of Shields: its age, its original wood bar, the underground tunnel to The Palace hotel, the rumor that President Harding died there — and then he added a quick note. “I’m here now. Come in, mention this, and I buy your drink.”
Not thinking anyone would respond, Cline headed home, while Mollé stayed for a final pint. Shortly thereafter, he felt a tap on his shoulder.
He turned to see Peg Tran — a 5-foot woman draped in a sopping wet leather biker’s jacket. She had ventured from the Sunset, through the storm, to House of Shields after reading his post.
“You’re not going to murder me, are you?” she asked.
“Well, not here. I’d take you at least to the alley,” Mollé joked.
A friendship was born, and so was a tradition. That first night, only Tran arrived, but sporadically for the next six years, Mollé would post something similar in the local subreddit: I’m at the bar, come join me, and I’ll buy you a drink. To make it more fun, he wouldn’t name House of Shields but would challenge people to figure out his location based on clues he’d provide. He always offered to buy anyone new a drink. And always, people showed up.
Mollé can’t say how much he has paid in drinks over the years, but he admits that on more than one occasion, he has racked up a thousand-dollar tab.
On Jan. 31, Mollé and around 60 people crowded into House of Shields to celebrate the 100th monthly meetup of his Reddit-based drinking club. In attendance were many friends who had serendipitously met at the now-legendary event. Tran was there. She recalled fondly that she and Mollé attended each other’s weddings after that first fateful rainy-night drink. Hell, even Reddit CEO Steve Huffman dropped in.
“I started coming to them like anybody else found it — through the San Francisco subreddit,” Huffman said through the chatter of the packed bar.
Mollé, whose day job is as a technical instructor at local tech firm Okta, has become something of an r/celebrity since that first post, showered in upvotes and complimentary comments for his years of conviviality. Stocky and boisterous, Mollé arrives at each meetup wearing his signature blazer with an alien Reddit pin on the lapel.
“I still to this day don’t know how it took off,” he said with characteristic modesty, while holding a drink. “I mean, come on, seriously, there’s a guy on the internet posting ‘Come meet me at a bar.’ But it’s a beautiful little organic thing that I’ll just keep doing until people stop coming.”
People show no signs of losing interest. At the Jan. 31 meetup, The Standard spoke with mathematicians from Stanford, tech founders, full-time moms, émigrés, and C-suite execs. It was Reddit boss Huffman’s first appearance at one of Mollé’s events since before Covid — he didn’t want to miss the anniversary of such an auspicious tradition.
“I think what’s interesting about it is, unlike a hobby or professional reason that people have to be together, I think the tie that binds here is that people want to just hang out,” Huffman said. “Everyone is very nice and affable. Jimmy is the steward of the vibe, and he’s a real mensch.”
Heather Bou, 42, has been to more than a dozen of the meetups and said they are always the highlight of her month. “When I come, I feel like I’m my genuine self,” she said, wearing a collection of Reddit alien pins on her blouse. “I don’t just want to be a mom or a wife or whatever. I’m an extreme extrovert, so this outlet, every time I come each month, I meet a handful of new people, I see old faces and friends.”
Lotem Weinrob, 37, moved from Israel to San Francisco three years ago, and though she was eager to make friends, she was hesitant to attend a Reddit meetup. “It took me a while to get here, but it ended up being so amazing,” she said. She was particularly touched that Mollé invited her and her husband to his home for their first-ever Super Bowl and Thanksgiving celebrations.
If you didn’t make it to the 100th gathering, there is always next time. Mollé is already gearing up for the 101st meetup, where he’ll surely buy you a pint.
