6 Best San Francisco Nightlife Districts

So many places to get tanked and try to hook up. Visitors to San Francisco, you’re welcome …
 

1. Mission District: Start in the red-hot Mission District, where Valencia Street has become the hottest area in San Francisco after dark. Valencia and neighboring Mission Street are full of cool kids, some tired from fighting gentrification wars and overindulging on the neighborhood’s famed burritos. The Mission leads the city in dive bars. Hit the Elbow Room, party a bit harder at the Valencia Lounge, then head over to the Make-Out Room at 22nd Street. Finish with a late-night burrito. Before a breakfast burrito in the morning. BART takes you to 16th and Mission, a block from the heart of it all. You can take an Uber home or just stagger the whole way.

 

2. Polk Street: Probably San Francisco’s hottest nightlife these days; it used to be home to drag queen hookers mostly. The California Street cable car will drop you off right in the middle of it all, and on the edge of the notorious Tenderloin district. Don’t worry, homeless people are just looking to drink and get laid too. Hit the dance floor at Rouge on Broadway. The Hi-Lo Club is known for its cocktails, and the Lush Lounge, where you can drink downstairs by a warm fire on a cold San Francisco night.

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3. SOMA: South of Market, the West’s answer to SoHo in New York City, never disappoints the partygoer. Especially one looking to dance the night away. Folsom Street has long been known for its dance clubs; the Cat Club and Raven Bar pack in patrons. Nowadays 11th Street might have more and better clubs like the famous DNA Lounge and the Audio discotech with its super sound system. It also offers Oasis, a popular gay bar, and Butter, where you can dance and eat fried twinkies, at the same time if you want. If the Giants play, the area around South Beach and Third and King streets will be hopping. The Temple Nightclub on Natoma Street near Market Street is a hell raiser of a place too. One of the best in SOMA.

 

4. Castro Street: You can’t mix this much color, sex appeal and booze and not have a legendary nightlife district. The mecca for gayness, Castro is dotted with bars that let you sip late into the night. Take the street car up Market Street and begin at Twin Peaks Tavern, as legendary as any place in the city. The guys next to you will be gay; it’s OK, get some fashion tips. The Lookout, also at the corner of Market and Castro, is always full of fun people. A trek down Market Street for live music at the historic speakeasy Cafe du Nord is worth the effort.

 

5. Union Square: The stores do big business by day, but the bars ring it up at night, mostly from tourists. There is no shortage of bars and clubs in the neighborhood, including some that offer amazing views of the city, like the Cityscape Lounge on O’Farrell Street and the Grand Hyatt’s top-floor restaurant by Chinatown, two blocks from Union Square. O’Farrell Street also is home to Bartlett Hall, one of the best microbreweries in town. Hawthorn, as nightclubs go, will wow anyone. Dress to impress there, for sure. Monroe also ranks on the top level of clubs, anywhere. 

 

6. North Beach: It was good enough for Jack Kerouac, and the party is still going on in the area also known as Little Italy. Broadway and Columbus light up with late-night offerings, some of the most risque in the city. Around the corner, the side streets near Washington Square Park are alive nightly around Green Street. On the other side of North Beach, Vesuvio still serves its bloody marys where Kerouac once drank them. Check out the Comstock Saloon with its 120-year-old mahogany bar, the last standing bar on the Barbary Coast, they say. Bimbo’s 365 Club is historic, a must-see. Tope is known for its happy hour and happy bartenders. The Barbarossa Lounge, in an old jailhouse that somehow survived the 1906 earthquake, offers a memorable bar experience.