Every time I step into a stranger’s house in San Francisco, I make a mental bet with myself. If the occasion is a house party, I’ll shoulder my way to the kitchen. If it’s an ordinary visit, I’ll wait patiently for an opportunity to inspect my host’s glassware. Fifty percent of the time, I spot what I’m looking for as I scan their shelves: a short, stout wine glass with an orange smiley face on the side. Sometimes several.
Among a certain subset of the city’s population — transplants in their 20s who drink, primarily — these glasses, and their smiley face logos, are everywhere. They populate apartments across the city, sitting like trophies on mantles. They share shelves with Goodwill mugs, Costco plates and other accoutrements of young rentership. These are glasses from Bar Part Time, a Mission District wine bar and dance club. Almost invariably, they are stolen.
For bars and restaurants, petty theft isn’t particularly unusual. San Francisco’s Tiki bars have had problems with stolen glassware. What makes Bar Part Time’s glasses unique, though, is their ubiquity. In particular circles, it seems to be an open secret, or a sort of inside joke, that everyone takes these.
Kim, 27, said she knew at least five people who had never stolen anything in their lives, aside from wine glasses from Bar Part Time. She summarizes the phenomenon:…