Fog, Hills, and
the Bay at
the Edge of the World

North Beach is San Francisco's Italian neighbourhood and its literary heart — the two identities coexisting in extraordinary proximity on Columbus Avenue. City Lights Booksellers (261 Columbus — the bookshop Lawrence Ferlinghetti opened in 1953 that became the Beat Generation's publisher and spiritual home; Allen Ginsberg's Howl was published here in 1956) is the most culturally significant independent bookshop in America. Caffe Trieste (601 Vallejo — opened 1956, the first espresso shop on the West Coast, where Coppola wrote the Godfather screenplay) and Vesuvio Cafe (255 Columbus — the bar across the alley from City Lights, the Beat writers drank here) are the essential stops. Washington Square Park (the neighbourhood's central piazza, bocce courts, Victorian terraces around it) is the finest small park in the city.

The Mission District — San Francisco's historically Latino neighbourhood, centred on Mission and Valencia Streets — gets more sunshine than any other part of the city (the hills to the west block the fog; the Mission is consistently 5–10°F warmer than the rest of SF) and has the best food scene per block of any neighbourhood. The taquerias (La Taqueria at 2889 Mission Street — the carne asada burrito here is the city's most acclaimed; El Farolito at 2779 Mission — open 24 hours; Tartine Bakery at 600 Guerrero — the finest sourdough in California, queue begins at 4pm). Dolores Park (16th and Dolores — the city's most social park, packed on warm weekends, extraordinary views of the skyline from the top of the hill). Balmy Alley (between 24th and 25th, Treat and Harrison — the most concentrated mural art in SF, political and extraordinarily vivid).

The Castro is the spiritual home of the American LGBTQ+ rights movement — the neighbourhood that Harvey Milk made his base before his assassination in 1978, that led the city's response to the AIDS crisis in the 1980s, and that has maintained its identity and community function through every wave of gentrification. Castro Street itself (particularly between 17th and Market) is the neighbourhood's commercial spine: the Castro Theatre (1922 movie palace with the Mighty Wurlitzer organ, programmed art house and classic films, the best single cinema experience in SF), the GLBT Historical Society Museum (free, small, essential), and the intersection of 18th and Castro — the neighbourhood's symbolic heart. Harvey Milk's camera shop (now the Human Rights Campaign Action Center) is at 575 Castro. Twin Peaks Tavern at the corner of Castro and Market is the world's first gay bar with street-visible windows — a deliberate statement when it opened in 1972.

Haight-Ashbury — the intersection that gave its name to the Summer of Love — remains the most visually intact counterculture neighbourhood in America: the Grateful Dead house (710 Ashbury Street — a private residence, but the exterior is a pilgrimage site), the Jimi Hendrix house (1524 Haight), the Janis Joplin residence (122 Lyon). The neighbourhood today is a mix of vintage clothing shops, independent record stores (Amoeba Music on Haight — the largest independent record shop in the USA, 20,000 square feet of vinyl and CDs), and excellent restaurants. Buena Vista Park (above the Upper Haight — the oldest park in SF, woodland paths through old-growth eucalyptus, panoramic Bay views) is the neighbourhood’s quiet escape.

San Francisco’s Chinatown — established in 1848, the oldest in North America — is a 24-block community of extraordinary density: 15,000 residents in 0.25 square miles, the highest residential density in the USA outside of Manhattan. Grant Avenue (the tourist-facing main street, red lanterns, gift shops) and Stockton Street (the real working street — live seafood tanks, vegetable markets, the best dim sum in the USA outside of New York’s Flushing) are the two parallel worlds. The Dragon’s Gate at Bush and Grant marks the entrance; the Fortune Cookie Factory (56 Ross Alley — watch fortunes being folded by hand, free, small donation appreciated) is the most genuine small experience in the city. Nob Hill (immediately to the south — the Grace Cathedral, the Fairmont Hotel’s lobby, the cable cars) is the city’s most imposing residential quarter.

SoMa — South of Market Street, the city’s warehousing and industrial district until the 1990s — is now the city’s most culturally programmed neighbourhood. The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (151 Third Street — the West Coast’s finest modern art museum, USD $25 adult, free Thursdays 1–8pm — the collection includes the largest Matisse in a public collection, Frida Kahlo, Cindy Sherman, Richard Serra) anchors the neighbourhood. The Yerba Buena Center for the Arts (across from SFMOMA — free outdoor garden, Yerba Buena Ice Skating Center below ground, children’s museum) and the Contemporary Jewish Museum and Museum of the African Diaspora on Yerba Buena Lane form a museum row of genuine ambition. The Salesforce Transit Center’s rooftop garden (free, open daily, 1.5km elevated park above First Street) is SoMa’s version of the High Line.

The Marina District — built on fill land after the 1906 earthquake — is the most photogenic waterfront neighbourhood in SF. The Palace of Fine Arts (a Beaux-Arts rotunda and colonnaded arcade reflected in a lagoon, built for the 1915 Panama-Pacific Exposition — the most beautiful building in San Francisco, free, always open) and Crissy Field (the restored wetland along the Bay waterfront between the Palace and Fort Point — the finest Golden Gate Bridge walk-up, the bridge towers visible across the marsh, the Bay to your right) are the neighbourhood’s two great public spaces. Chestnut Street (Marina’s main commercial street) has exceptional cafes, wine bars, and restaurants that serve a wealthy, young professional local population.

The Embarcadero — the city’s waterfront boulevard along the Bay from AT&T Park in the south to Fisherman’s Wharf in the north — is the most continuously enjoyable walk in SF. The Ferry Building (1898 Beaux-Arts ferry terminal, now a premium food hall) is the city’s best food destination: Hog Island Oyster Co. (bar at the back, oysters fresh from Tomales Bay, USD $3–5 each), Acme Bread Company, Blue Bottle Coffee’s original location, and the Saturday Farmers’ Market (8am–2pm, spring through autumn — Alice Waters’ Chez Panisse buys here; the best produce market in the Bay Area). The Bay Bridge (lit nightly with the Bay Lights LED installation) is the Embarcadero’s eastern backdrop.

The Richmond and Sunset — the long avenues running from the park to the Pacific in the city’s western half — are where San Francisco actually lives. Clement Street in the Inner Richmond (between 2nd and 10th Avenues — often called San Francisco’s second Chinatown) has the best Chinese and Southeast Asian restaurants in the city outside of Chinatown itself: Good Luck Dim Sum (736 Clement — takeaway only, the finest dim sum per dollar in SF), Burma Superstar (309 Clement — Burmese cuisine, the restaurant that put Burmese food on the Bay Area map, queue from 5pm). Golden Gate Park runs through the centre of both districts — 1,017 acres including the de Young Museum, the California Academy of Sciences, and the Japanese Tea Garden.