The Long Weekend

San Fran Rising: 3 Neighborhoods to Visit on Your Next Trip

By Noelle Salmi

These budding San Francisco neighborhoods entice with their innovative cuisine and, in one case, a blossoming art scene. For more San Fran news, read about the city's best new restaurants.

Indagare Escape: We have sourced some amazing deals for business class tickets combined with a three-night stay at one of SF’s best properties, the Ritz-Carlton San Francisco, starting from $9,000 for two travelers. Contact Indagare to book this package and to plan a customized trip to San Francisco.

The Mission

Tartine Manufactory is on the outer edge of the Mission, where warehouses and factories have given way to tech start-ups. It shares a building with the factory and SF showroom of Heath Ceramics, makers of earthy yet hip porcelain creations. After lunch at the Manufactory, walk next door to browse the goods.

Dandelion Chocolate will soon open a factory two blocks away from Heath, but check them out now on Valencia Street, the Mission corridor that’s been exploding with dining options. Buy handcrafted chocolates at Dandelion, or enjoy a luscious dessert after eating dinner nearby. There are plenty of places to choose from, including Duna and Burma Love. For something more casual, try the excellent Vietnamese eatery Mau and the Singaporean Hawker Fare, both of which are capitalizing on the current street food fad.

Valencia Street’s shopping scene reflects the young techies that now call the zone home, with shops like Betabrand offering a cheeky interpretation of the tech work uniform, including a navy pinstriped hoodie for men and combined work/yoga pants for women. At Voyager, you’ll find edgy designs in clothing and housewares from designers around world. Aldea offers sustainable items for the home and babies, from organic onesies to all-natural skincare products.

NoPa

This neighborhood is so newly popular, SF locals are still settling on its name. Some call it NoPa, for North of the Golden Gate Park “Panhandle,” even though that’s geographically inaccurate. Others call it the Divisadero Corridor, as that boulevard is the site of the anchor establishments that sparked its growth–Nopa, Bi-Rite Creamery and The Mill.

Try Ju-Ni, where three chefs prepare an omakase experience for just 12 guests. Raw fish fans will love Bar Crudo on Divisadero. Next door is Barvale, a new tapas bar that’s the place to be on a weekend night, and there’s plenty of buzz around the soon-to-open Che Fico, where the former star chef of Flour + Water will be cooking up Italian dishes centered on Rome.

Dogpatch

Dogpatch makes our list of neighborhoods to watch for its ever-expanding art scene. The New York Times recently called this artists’ enclave by the dockyards “America’s next great art neighborhood.” The two-year-old Minnesota Street Project—with the city’s top galleries in a clean, open space—has expanded with new showrooms. If you’re in San Francisco before May, check out Trevor Paglen’s arresting look at the night sky showing at the Altman Siegel gallery there.

Dogpatch’s quaint historic district, with its 150-year-old workers’ houses, is home to Piccino, the neighborhood’s best restaurant, and a few shops like Industrious Life, which features jewelry and crafts from local and west coast artists. Two blocks away is the CalTrain’s last SF stop on its way to Silicon Valley. It’s no wonder Dogpatch is in a frenzy of construction to house employees who’d rather live in SF than sleepy Palo Alto.

The restaurant scene is incipient, with a few notable openings like Hawaiian-themed Aina. The dining scene is still evolving, and many newcomers are sure to arrive soon.

Indagare Escape: We have sourced some amazing deals for business class tickets combined with a three-night stay at one of SF’s best properties, the Ritz-Carlton San Francisco, starting from $9,000 for two travelers. Contact Indagare to book this package and to plan a customized trip to San Francisco.

Published onMarch 29, 2018

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