Okay, we know what you’re thinking. North Beach needs another slick lounge-bar-watering hole teeming with clusters of twentysomethings kvetching over specialty cocktails like it needs another strip joint.

Thankfully, newcomer Sip Bar & Lounge has several things in its favor. For one, owner John Eric Sanchez is intent on keeping his new baby cover charge-free.

Not that it wouldn’t be worth forking over a fiver to get in. While the front is done up in golden caramels and chocolate browns, a back lounge with black leather sofas, deep gray velvet curtains, and a kitschy fake fire await patrons seeking a more clandestine experience.

Specialty cocktails feature Starbucks liqueur (to match the coffee-colored interior, of course), and the vodka selection is great. For your visual and aural pleasure, films run silently on the giant screen hanging in the main bar, while tunes — everything from hip-hop to new wave — play in the background.

In other words, it’s worth a pit stop.

Even if you can’t get a lap dance.

Sip Bar & Lounge, 787 Broadway, at Powell Street (415-699-6545).