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. 

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Nina and Kim’s collections of Bar Part Time glasses.

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:

“I can’t tell if this is selection bias because of who I surround myself with — aka people who commit petty crimes — but I would probably say like 60% of people I know have a glass in their house or apartment.”

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All of which begs the question: Why? Why do so many people steal glasses from one San Francisco bar? 

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In one respect, Bar Part Time is an unusual San Francisco nightlife establishment. In a city where some clubs are deserted by 12:30 a.m., the bar, which describes itself as “probably the best wine bar in the world,” is consistently packed. On Friday and Saturday nights, a line trails out the door, sometimes wrapping around the corner to Guerrero Street. The bar pours........

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