Vesuvio is the bohemian bar next door to City Lights, separated from it only by Jack Kerouac Alley, and a shrine to the Beat Generation that drank here in the 1950s — Kerouac, Ginsberg, and the rest. Opened in 1948, its cluttered, two-level interior is a collage of stained glass, old posters, murals, and decades of accumulated character, and it still pulls a mix of writers, artists, tourists, and locals rather than a theme-park crowd.
It is a place to settle in with a drink and soak up the atmosphere — order a "Bohemian Coffee" (brandy, amaretto, lemon) or a beer and take a seat by the upstairs window over Columbus Avenue. Together with City Lights and the alley between them, it forms the compact core of Beat North Beach, best appreciated in a slow afternoon hour.