The ghost stories haunting The Riptide
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Enter if you dare. Photo: Nadia Lopez/Axios
At an Outer Sunset dive bar, staff and regulars have spent years swapping tales of unexplained noises, shadowy figures and even a ghost mouse.
State of play: The spooky stories come courtesy of The Riptide, a neighborhood watering hole on Taraval Street with some unusual history.
Flashback: The bar dates back to 1941, when it was known as the Ore House, before becoming the Sandbar in the 1980s.
- Back then, the establishment had a reputation as a rough-and-tumble haunt, according to Dion Garcia, The Riptide's senior manager.
- Garcia said the building's darker history includes reports of violent incidents and even killings dating back decades, long before it became The Riptide in the early 2000s.
Garcia told Axios that multiple employees, himself included, have experienced what they believe could be paranormal activity over the years.
- Some have spotted shadowy figures out of the corners of their eyes or felt someone brush past them when nobody else was around.
- One former manager reported feeling someone lean against her and breathe on her while she was alone in the bar.
- On another occasion, she told Garcia a stack of coasters inexplicably flew off a storage area and across part of the room.
"I think there's something going on," Garcia said. "I also don't think it's like a malevolent thing."
Enter Charlie, the Riptide's resident ghost mouse, whose legend was shared with Axios by reader and bar regular J.B. Roth.
- Roth said he first became curious earlier this year after watching three dogs repeatedly bark at the same corner of a storage room door near the fireplace.
- When he jokingly suggested there might be a mouse behind the door, another patron floated a more supernatural explanation.
Reality check: Garcia said the bar once had a raccoon and its baby living in the building, which could explain the barking.
- But Charlie has since become something of a running joke among staff, who blame the ghost mouse whenever something inexplicable happens.
- Most recently, an electric kettle reportedly switched itself on, while an Elvis bobblehead that sits on the fireplace mysteriously lost its head.
🌫️ Zoom out: Garcia thinks the bar's history is fueled by the Outer Sunset's eerie reputation.
- From the shipwrecks off Ocean Beach to the ghost stories surrounding the Beach Chalet and Sutro Baths, the city's western edge has no shortage of local lore.
The bottom line: In the sound of crashing waves, dark streets and some fog, it's not hard to see why the neighborhood inspires a good ghost story.