A Rainy-Night Reddit Post Grows Into a 100-Meetup Social Club at a San Francisco Bar

On a cold, rainy night in January 2019, Jimmy Mollé and his friend Hamilton Cline set out to get a post noticed on Reddit. After years of reading the r/SanFrancisco forum, the pair believed they could write a question that would draw attention.

Writing from a stool at House of Shields on New Montgomery Street in the Financial District, Mollé asked users to name their favorite bar and explain why. He gave his own answer in the comments: the bar's age, its original wood counter, an underground tunnel to The Palace hotel, and a rumor that President Harding died there. He closed with an offer: he was at the bar at that moment, and anyone who came in and mentioned the post would get a drink on him.

Expecting no takers, Cline went home. Mollé stayed for one more pint, and soon felt a tap on his shoulder. Peg Tran had traveled from the Sunset through the storm, wearing a soaked leather biker's jacket, after reading the post. "You're not going to murder me, are you?" she asked. Mollé joked back that he would at least take her to the alley.

That meeting began both a friendship and a routine. Over the following six years, Mollé periodically posted similar invitations to the subreddit. To add some fun, he stopped naming the bar and instead gave clues for people to decipher. He always offered a drink to newcomers, and people kept turning up. He cannot say what he has spent in total, but acknowledges that he has run up a tab of a thousand dollars on more than one occasion.

On Jan. 31, Mollé and roughly 60 others packed into House of Shields for the 100th monthly meetup of his Reddit-based drinking club. Many guests were friends who had first met through the events. Tran attended, and said she and Mollé later went to each other's weddings. Reddit CEO Steve Huffman also came, saying he first found the gatherings the way others do, through the San Francisco subreddit. It was his first appearance at one since before Covid.

Mollé works as a technical instructor at the tech company Okta. He has become a minor celebrity on the forum, and wears a blazer with a Reddit alien pin on the lapel to each event. "I still to this day don't know how it took off," he said. He called the club "a beautiful little organic thing that I'll just keep doing until people stop coming."

Attendees at the anniversary included Stanford mathematicians, tech founders, full-time mothers, immigrants and senior executives. Huffman said that, unlike groups built around a hobby or a profession, the draw here is simply that people want to spend time together. He described Mollé as "the steward of the vibe" and "a real mensch."

Heather Bou, 42, has been to more than a dozen meetups and calls them the highlight of her month. She said she feels like her genuine self there, rather than only a mother or wife, and meets new people each time. Lotem Weinrob, 37, moved from Israel to San Francisco three years ago and hesitated before attending, but said it turned out to be wonderful. She was especially touched when Mollé invited her and her husband to his home for their first Super Bowl and Thanksgiving celebrations.

Those who missed the milestone event will get another chance. Mollé is already preparing for the 101st meetup, where he is expected to buy newcomers a pint.