{"id":84080,"date":"2025-12-06T15:20:15","date_gmt":"2025-12-06T15:20:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/84080\/"},"modified":"2025-12-06T15:20:15","modified_gmt":"2025-12-06T15:20:15","slug":"this-is-sfs-best-nightlife-neighborhood-and-its-only-getting-better","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/84080\/","title":{"rendered":"This is SF\u2019s best nightlife neighborhood \u2014 and it\u2019s only getting better"},"content":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s a few minutes before midnight, and every seat at Lillie Coit\u2019s (opens in new tab)<\/a> massive, horseshoe-shaped bar is occupied. Mortadella sandwiches, bavette steaks with crinkle-cut fries, and French omelets shuttle out of the kitchen. So do plate after plate of oysters on the half shell, the results of the North Beach brasserie\u2019s wildly popular<\/a> buy six, get six free \u201cOyster Jubilee,\u201d which runs every night from 10 p.m. until last-shuck at 1 a.m. On one wall, the Oyster Leader Board shows that the current winner is \u201cLia\u2019s Ba-Team,\u201d who managed to put away 396 bivalves in one sitting.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo one\u2019s on their phones,\u201d owner Nick Floulis says as he scans the crowd. It\u2019s both a compliment (his patrons are cool) and a boast (his restaurant is jumping). A gregarious restaurateur who usually stays until closing, Flouis embodies an old-school, shoulder-grabbing style of hospitality \u2014 a throwback in an age of ordering kiosks and QR codes. And in North Beach, home to San Francisco\u2019s most resilient and re-energized nightlife scene, it\u2019s working. \u201cThe 1 a.m. kitchen can be done,\u201d Floulis says, passing out \u201ccheekies,\u201d or small pours, of Amaro Montenegro to a reporter and a well-known Bay Area barbecue chef who had happened to walk in at the same time. The cheekies keep coming.<\/p>\n

\"AA patron and his dog outside Gino and Carlo in North Beach. Friday, November 21, 2025.\"AThe line at Golden Boy. Friday, November 21, 2025.<\/p>\n

For decades, North Beach has been beckoning San Franciscans and visitors to get drunk and see where the night takes them. But having emerged from the pandemic with its bohemian vibes fully intact<\/a>, the neighborhood seems to have cemented its dominance over the city\u2019s nightlife \u2014 and into the early morning. Indeed, it may never have been as cool as it is now.<\/p>\n

The past two years have seen a cluster of openings along the Columbus Avenue corridor. Besides Lillie Coit\u2019s, the dive-y taqueria Next Door Bar<\/a> and cocktail dens Long Weekend<\/a>, April Jean<\/a>, and The Lucky Spot<\/a> have all found a niche.<\/p>\n

\"AThe scene outside Vesuvio. | Source: Poppy Lynch for The Standard<\/p>\n

The neighborhood\u2019s magic stems from a number of factors. It\u2019s compact, close to downtown, and well-known far beyond the city. The building stock is dense, with many Instagrammable alleys but few backyard patios \u2014 meaning that during Covid, any bars and restaurants seeking outdoor space expanded out front, augmenting an already lively, European-style street scene with San Francisco-style parklets. While bar-heavy neighborhoods like Polk Gulch, the Mission\u2019s Valencia corridor, and the Castro labor to regain their pre-pandemic vitality, this corner of the city never seemed to flag.<\/p>\n

North Beach is growing up<\/p>\n

Joe Poz opened cocktail bar April Jean in the spring of 2024, taking over the former Grant & Green Saloon, a raucous venue with a diverse clientele, in a building that has housed a bar for more than a century. He and partners Nate Valentine and Jamal Blake-Williams are aware of the location\u2019s history \u2014 and the responsibility that comes with it.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Realizing that many April Jean patrons frequented Grant & Green Saloon, Poz trained his staff to handle any grumbling with tact: \u201cI said, \u2018We\u2019re going to get a lot of \u201cI remember when this used to be Grant & Green,\u201d\u2019 and it\u2019s important to honor that and allow people to express their feelings toward the loss of something very personal.\u201d Vinyl nights with DJs spinning funk and disco, plus a cocktail list in the $14 range, are meant to entice the widest possible audience, in line with April Jean\u2019s predecessor.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Still, Poz, who is of Guatemalan descent, is putting his own fingerprint on the neighborhood in small ways. In October, he installed an ofrenda, or altar, in the bar to commemorate D\u00eda de Los Muertos \u2014 a rarity for the historically Italian American neighborhood. The consensus among bar owners, he says, is that North Beach is undergoing a vibe shift \u2014 not an uncomfortable demographic change borne of gentrification but a maturation, with a sense that a rising tide is lifting all boats. \u201cI couldn\u2019t be happier with my decision to open this bar,\u201d he says.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"AMario\u2019s Bohemian Cigar Bar co-owner Mario Crismani makes pizza at his family\u2019s restaurant in North Beach. \"AThe pamplemousse French 75 at Petite Lil\u2019s.<\/p>\n

Nowhere is the tidal pull stronger than on Green Street between Grant and Columbus, where, under crisscrossing strings of red, white, and green lights, there are no fewer than five restaurant parklets in a row \u2014 a configuration that may be unique in the city.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Will DeVault, one of a trio of bartenders who took over the 89-year-old Columbus Cafe (opens in new tab)<\/a> months before the pandemic struck, says maintaining these parklets is a group effort between the bar and its neighbors, including Bar Next Door, Sotto Mare, and Caffe Sport. The owners band together as much as they can, power-washing the sidewalks and generally augmenting the city\u2019s beautification efforts. \u201cIt\u2019s definitely cleaner,\u201d he says. \u201cWe do a lot of that on our own, take that into our own hands, fix up the neighborhood, and remove graffiti.\u201d<\/p>\n

A cleaner neighborhood means room for some out-of-left-field projects. Bunny Cafe (opens in new tab)<\/a>, San Francisco\u2019s first space dedicated to rabbits, will open this month on Columbus Avenue. Owner Kathreen Kato was the human companion to one of the city\u2019s most beloved pets: the 28-pound Flemish Giant Alex the Great (opens in new tab)<\/a>, a member of SFO\u2019s passenger-greeting Wag Brigade (opens in new tab)<\/a>, who died in July.\u00a0<\/p>\n

She\u2019s opening the cafe in his honor, as a place where people can sip wine and beer while eating vegetarian-friendly Korean food \u2014 and maybe decide to foster a new long-eared friend. Kato chose North Beach because of the proximity to Fisherman\u2019s Wharf and because she believes the rabbits will be secure overnight. \u201cI\u2019m putting everything into this,\u201d Kato says. \u201cAlex was my baby.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018You\u2019ve gotta love where you live\u2019<\/p>\n

Of course, not everyone is wholly supportive of the way the neighborhood is changing. Artist Jeremy Fish might be one of North Beach\u2019s biggest boosters (opens in new tab)<\/a>, known for designing prints that pay tribute to the community he has called home for 31 years. \u201cIt\u2019s the last neighborhood where you can go out any night of the week and see live music.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"APetite Lil\u2019s in North Beach is decked out for the holidays. \"APeople wait outside Tony\u2019s Pizza Napoletana.\"TwoThe scene at Mario\u2019s Bohemian Cigar Bar.<\/p>\n

On First Friday (opens in new tab)<\/a> in December, Fish releases 100 copies of a fresh screenprint that go for free to anyone who can show that they spent at least $100 at one of 60 local businesses. Over the last four years, he has effectively injected $40,000 into the neighborhood. \u201cI lose money on it every year, but I love doing it,\u201d he says. \u201cYou\u2019ve gotta love where you live, or you\u2019ve gotta leave.\u201d<\/p>\n

Still, he\u2019s wary about the neighborhood\u2019s trajectory. Though he laments the reduced international tourism to the city and loathes long-boarded-up storefronts \u2014\u00a0like the row on Union Street that remains a ruined facade (opens in new tab)<\/a> after a 2018 fire \u2014\u00a0he\u2019s fiercely protective of the old North Beach. To Fish, nightlife is a zero-sum game in which new arrivals risk cannibalizing business from established operators. Classic places that survived lockdown, like Spec\u2019s, are where people should go for their first drink, he says. Were he a prospective bar owner hunting for a space, he\u2019d venture elsewhere. \u201cIf you\u2019re so in love with North Beach,\u201d he says, maybe reconsider \u201cstealing business from any bars that inspired you.\u201d<\/p>\n

Not everyone finds success. When Yuka Ioroi and husband Kris Toliao moved Cassava (opens in new tab)<\/a> from the Inner Richmond to North Beach in 2022, they were hoping that a Japanese prix-fixe restaurant would benefit from standing out among all the pizza and pasta. \u201cWe thought we\u2019d do double what we were doing on Balboa Street, pre-Covid,\u201d Ioroi recalls, citing bakery Butter & Crumble (opens in new tab)<\/a> and quirky diner Hilda and Jesse (opens in new tab)<\/a> (the only North Beach restaurant with a Michelin star) as breakout stars. \u201cBut we just weren\u2019t a good fit.\u201d<\/p>\n

Insufficient tourist traffic and the difficulty of finding parking spurred Ioroi and Toliao to relocate again, this time to tony Jackson Square, where Cassava now operates as a kiosk. \u201cWe\u2019re happy,\u201d she says, \u201cbut we miss that restaurant. It was gorgeous.\u201d<\/p>\n

At the same time, Lillie Coit\u2019s is flourishing. Echoing Poz and DeVault, Floulis credits this to a camaraderie among restaurateurs and owners who stuck around after the pandemic receded. \u201cNobody went back to their corners,\u201d he says. \u201cWe\u2019re not competition. People go, \u2018You do you, and I\u2019ll do me, and we\u2019re just going to keep on doing right by the neighborhood.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

7 new(ish) bars and restaurants in North Beach