Choose your location
Wed / May 22
Party Earth Review Opened in 1965 by Marty Balin of Jefferson Airplane, MatrixFillmore (formerly The Matrix) once featured some of the biggest bands of the flower-power generation, including The Grateful Dead, The Doors, and many other formative members of San Francisco’s rock scene. After undergoing many incarnations since the original ... more
3138 Fillmore Street
San Francisco, CA 94123
Bar / Club / Live Music Venue
Party Earth Review Sandwiched between barren lots and auto body shops, the unassuming Bottom of the Hill may never win any awards for “cool” based on its façade, but what it lacks on the outside it more than makes up for on the inside – and Bay Area music lovers know it’s one of the best spots in town to catch the cream of the under-the-radar ... more
1233 17th Street
San Francisco, CA 94107
Club / Lounge
Party Earth Review During the 1800s Gold Rush, a large stretch of San Francisco was known as the Barbary Coast – and even better known for the “professional” ladies who worked its streets. Dark and decadent, Harlot is a SoMa club designed to celebrate the most famous of these women, the dolled-up gals who were as sophisticated as they were ... more
46 Minna Street
San Francisco, CA 94105
Bar / Club / Live Music Venue
Party Earth Review Part dive bar, part DJ dance floor, and part live performance venue, Make-Out Room is a smorgasbord of nightlife delights clearly seen through the horn-rimmed specs of its regular clientele. After forking over the cover to the hipsteroid bouncer, patrons enter an elaborately decorated room featuring hundreds of streamers ... more
3225 22nd Street
San Francisco, CA 94110
Art Gallery / Bar / Club
Party Earth Review With stark white walls, gnarled wooden sculptures, and wide-open dance floors, 111 Minna is what might happen if an art gallery and bar/restaurant gave birth to a club. During the day, the two-room venue doubles as a gallery, attracting erstwhile creative types and trendy intellectuals with widely varied rotating ... more
111 Minna Street
San Francisco, CA 94105
Bar / Club
Party Earth Review A popular watering hole for tatted metalheads and over-pierced punks, Cat Club is a twisted dance hall where karaoke, bondage, and 80s pop live together in perfect harmony. Motown nights, regular wedding ceremonies, and who knows what else fill the rest of the docket, but one thing’s for sure – even though the clientele ... more
1190 Folsom Street
San Francisco, CA 94103
Club / Live Music Venue
Party Earth Review All-ages clubs are hard to come by in San Francisco, which may explain why so many of the city’s dance-happy teenagers routinely pile into The Rickshaw Stop. Set inside a former television studio, the divey venue hosts live bands and DJs throughout the week at affordable ticket prices that match its million-miles-from ... more
155 Fell Street
San Francisco, CA 94102
Bar / Club / Lounge / Sports Bar
Party Earth Review Located in tourist-heavy Fisherman’s Wharf, The Parlor is equal parts dance club, sports bar, and classic cocktail lounge. Daily Happy Hours entice preppy young Giants fans from the nearby Marina to drop in for a game and a Bud, not to mention the tidal waves of out-of-towners making a pit stop before hitting the area’s ... more
2801 Leavenworth Street
San Francisco, CA 94133
Party Earth Review The remnants of old Hollywood live on at Monroe, an upscale lounge that infuses a little classic celebrity glamour into the hard-partying North Beach scene. With ubiquitous dark wood flooring, sleek low banquettes, and wall-sized fashion and art tapestries bearing everything from galloping horses to sultry models, the venue ... more
473 Broadway Street
San Francisco, CA 94133
Art Gallery / Bar / Club / Lounge
Party Earth Review With its Burberry-plaid and gold-plated AK-47 over the bar and a mirror-covered bomb standing in for a disco ball, Madrone Art Bar already eschews the typical club look. Add to this a jumbled hodgepodge of paintings, sculptures, and video displays, a few snaking wooden chandeliers, and wildly varied music, and it’s no wonder ... more
500 Divisadero Street
San Francisco, CA 94117
Club
Reviewed by Sonia Z.
"I'm sorry to dismay all of the overeager, freshly legal partiers who love it but, The Grand is not my cup of tea. The line can reach all the way acros ..." more
520 4th Street
San Francisco, CA 94107
Club / Dive Bar
Party Earth Review In business since the mid-90s, Skylark prides itself on being one of the only hip-hop dives in the city, hosting DJs nightly who specialize in urban beats with a little bit of disco, reggae, R&B, and soul thrown in. As the sun sets, this joint draws a vast clientele of pop lockers, beat street bad boys, kids from the East ... more
3089 16th Street
San Francisco, CA 94103
Madrone Art Bar
Art Gallery / Bar / Club / Lounge
With its Burberry-plaid and gold-plated AK-47 over the bar and a mirror-covered bomb standing in for a disco ball, Madrone Art Bar already eschews the typical club look. Add to this a jumbled hodgepodge of paintings, sculptures ... read more
No, it’s not the club capital of the world, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t a host of clubs in San Francisco to choose from when planning a night out.
The highest concentration of traditional San Francisco clubs is in SoMa (South of Market), North Beach, and around Union Square Downtown. Plenty of swanky nightclubs offer a see-and-be-seen atmosphere, while long-standing institutions like Ruby Skye are so expansive they have room for everyone on the dance floor.
Cool underground jazz clubs and blues clubs are easy to find in The Mission, while those looking for a guaranteed upscale evening (that will no doubt degenerate into an anything-goes fest after a few drinks) need look no further than the Marina clubs.
Big warehouses in SoMa have been cleaned out since the dotcom madness and replaced with massive multi-level DJ dance clubs, and even a few 18+ clubs have popped up in this area too.
The Castro, of course, is where to go for a bumping gay SF club scene, although that nightlife scene is flourishing out into SoMa as well – especially the hardcore leather and S&M clubs. But hey, it’s San Francisco, a city known for letting it all hang out.