One beautiful night 15 years ago, Anthony Bourdain got very, very drunk in San Francisco.

The alcohol-fueled 2012 episode of his show “The Layover” takes him from slurping crab backs at Swan Oyster Depot to drinking beers at Toronado. Somewhere in the middle, he ends up at Comstock Saloon on Columbus, bellying up to the bar to ask co-founder Jonny Raglin where he liked to drink.

“We work all the time, so we have to drink at the closest bar, which is right across the street at Mr. Bing’s,” Raglin said. “And I was telling him, ‘I have this record.’”

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The record in question was for who could run over to Mr. Bing’s, take a shot of Chartreuse and be back on the floor at Comstock Saloon the fastest. Raglin’s record? 92 seconds. 

“He was like, ‘Oh, you guys like Chartreuse, huh? Well, if they have the Chartreuse at Bing’s, I think maybe we should go there,’” Raglin said.

San Francisco bar Comstock Saloon was featured in a 2012 episode of “The Layover.”

Mr. Bing’s wasn’t a planned stop on Bourdain and the TV crew’s itinerary. But after a few bourbon shots and Anchor Steam beers at Comstock, plans changed. “He was wasted,” Raglin said, laughing. “... I feel really honored that we were a part of some of his debauchery in a city that I think he really loved to be debaucherous.”

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It’s been eight years since the world tragically lost Bourdain, but the beloved chef and TV host still looms large in the public imagination. A new A24 movie “Tony,” starring Dominic Sessa of “The Holdovers” fame as a young Bourdain, just came out on Friday. And even 10 or 15 years after their episodes........

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