Choose your location
Fri / Jan 22
Pinpointing the actual boundaries of Western Addition can be tricky, but most consider it to be the area sandwiched between Golden Gate Park, the main thoroughfare of Van Ness Avenue, The Haight, and Pacific Heights.
Alamo Square Park on the southern edge is easily the most recognizable – and most photographed – site, where an open field is bordered by a half-dozen restored Victorians (aka “The Painted Ladies”) back-dropped by a stellar city skyline view. Things get a little grittier heading north on Fillmore Street, though ongoing urban renewal has seen this stretch improve markedly in recent years, and the historic Fillmore Auditorium remains as important a concert hall as it was when The Grateful Dead used to regularly take the stage.
Those looking for a bit of Asian flavor head further north to Japantown, where the main drag of Post Street welcomes visitors with Japanese-oriented shopping centers, several authentic restaurants, and a looming Buddhist peace pagoda.
A good assortment of wine bars and chichi lounges have sprung up in the Addition due to ongoing gentrification, while stellar old jazz haunts highlight the time when luminaries like Louis Armstrong and Billie Holiday played the local scene so often people called it the Harlem of the West.
Nightlife options in general are by no means endless, but whether visitors are on the hunt for music, mixology, or mahi-mahi, Western Addition has plenty up its sleeve worth adding to the social calendar.
After Work / Ambient / Blouses
Party Earth Review As its name would suggest, Candybar is all about dessert. But this is not a place for doe-eyed children to frolic with bags of jelly beans and chocolate bars; this is a grown-up’s confectionary ... more
1335 Fulton Street
San Francisco, California 94117
ATM / All Ages / All Types / Bands
Party Earth Review The Fillmore emerged in the 1960s as a central component to the counterculture movement, hosting some of the biggest bands of the era and arguably fostering the emergence of psychedelic ... more
1805 Geary Boulevard
San Francisco, CA 94115
20s and up / Bar / Baseball Caps
Party Earth Review Yo-ho-ho and holy crap, there’s a lot of bottles of rum at Smuggler’s Cove! More than two hundred rums and seventy-plus rum-infused cocktails to be exact, from slow-sipping ... more
650 Gough Street
San Francisco, California 94102
All Ages / All Types / Breakfast
Reviewed by Sabrina G.
"My Take: Tucked away on Divisadero is a small unassuming joint called Eddie’s Café and Soul Food Restaurant. My friend and I were meandering along Div ..." more
800 Divisadero Street
San Francisco, CA 94117
30s / 40s / Ambient Rock / Bar Food
Party Earth Review Part of Fat Angel’s name stems from the fact that much of the interior was salvaged from an old church, and part probably stems from the impish cherub statue above its door, no doubt ... more
1740 O’Farrell Street
San Francisco, CA 94115