Lately, it appears that San Francisco headlines have been negative, from the city’s homelessness crisis and widely publicized recall elections to the area’s astronomical cost of living and worsening fire seasons.
But San Francisco remains San Francisco. The fog still comes in from the Pacific Ocean to cover the jumbled hills of the city, the sunset still blazes crimson behind the Golden Gate Bridge, and the smell of salt and eucalyptus still comes the moment you see the San Francisco International Airport. Always a city for outdoor enthusiasts, pandemic restrictions led to the near-universal embrace of indoor-outdoor urban living. And at its core, the spirit of the city, an intoxicating brew of creativity, progressiveness and experimentation, remains unbreakable.
San Francisco’s pandemic recovery has been slower than other major metropolitan areas in the United States; according to data from the San Francisco Travel Association, the 2022 forecast estimates 80 percent of 2019 visitor volume. While the Downtown and Union Square neighborhoods remain quieter than prepandemic times, the city’s unique neighborhoods, from the Mission to Russian Hill and the Outer Sunset, vibrant with crowded restaurants and bars, and many boast new parks and personal events. San Francisco no longer imposes a mask mandate, but some companies will require or request masks; masks are recommended but not required on MUNI and BART, the city’s public transportation systems. Many indoor events, including concerts and theater productions, require a vaccination certificate to enter.
New parks and slow streets
San Francisco’s wealth of green spaces has increased thanks to a trio of new parks, including the Presidio Tunnel Tops, a 14-acre new national park that opened this month on the city’s north shore. The park offers panoramic views of the bay and was designed by the same group behind New York’s High Line. It hosts a varying range of food trucks, art installations and performances. For more views, head to Francisco Park in the Russian Hill neighborhood, which opened in April on the site of San Francisco’s first reservoir. In the southeastern neighborhood of Mission Bay, largely protected from the city’s frequent westerlies, Crane Cove Park has become a warm, sunny destination for stand-up paddle boarding, kayaking, and lounging since opening in 2020.
In addition to new parks, San Francisco has become more walkable and bike-friendly with the pandemic-driven development of the Slow Streets program, which restricts or bans car traffic on city-wide streets. Destinations worth seeing include the Great Highway, which runs past Ocean Beach on the city’s western shore (it’s currently closed to vehicular traffic on weekends and often windy days), and the JFK Promenade in Golden Gate Park, which could be built permanently . Nov free. The mile-long stretch of JFK takes you past destinations such as the Conservatory of Flowers and the Rose Garden, plus Skatin’ Place, often home to a rocking roller disco.
A return to personal music events
Golden Gate Park is also host to a number of major personal events this year, including Hardly Strictly Bluegrass, a free, three-day music festival that runs from September 30 to October 2. This year will see Emmylou Harris, Steve Earle and Buddy Miller, with more artists to be announced next week. The Outside Lands Music Festival takes place August 5-7 with artists including Green Day, Post Malone and Lil Uzi Vert (day tickets from $195; three-day tickets from $409). Find even more music in the Sunset District at the 85-year-old Stern Grove Festival. The series of free weekly concerts, taking place Sunday through August 14, features acts ranging from the San Francisco Symphony to Phil Lesh.
The Portola Music Festival (one-day tickets from $200, two-day passes from $400), a new music festival coming to San Francisco from the team behind Coachella, takes place September 24-25 at Pier 80, and will feature electronic acts including Flume, James Blake, The Avalanches and MIA
A new destination for contemporary art
Opening in October, the Institute of Contemporary Art San Francisco aims to offer a fresh approach to the ways contemporary art should be showcased and shared. Bound by its core principles of equality and accessibility, ICASF will have free entry and plans to showcase local artists and artists of color in an environment that is welcome to all. Opening programming includes a solo show by Jeffrey Gibson, a Choctaw-Cherokee painter and sculptor, a group show curated by Tahirah Rasheed and Autumn Breon, Oakland-based members of the collective See Black Womxn, and work by local artists Liz Hernández and Ryan Whelan.
Food and drink
San Francisco’s restaurants have suffered from pandemic constraints, as well as high operating costs and high living costs that are limiting the workforce. Many storefronts remain empty and a number of old businesses have closed, including Alioto’s, an Italian seafood restaurant that has held court in Fisherman’s Wharf for 97 years, and the Cliff House, an iconic destination along the jagged coastline above the Pacific Ocean (a new restaurant may open there by the end of the year).
While undoubtedly challenging, the past two years have had a silver lining: outdoor eating and drinking has popped up everywhere from established restaurants like Nopa to brand-new spots like Casements, a contemporary Irish bar in the Mission that opened in January 2020. Originally the bar was meant to be a cozy indoor-only affair, but instead it now serves great cocktails (starting at $12) on one of the best patios in town, complete with a semi-private outdoor area, live music, DJs and colorful murals by Irish rock musicians, including Dolores O’Riordan of the Cranberries and Phil Lynott of Thin Lizzy.
While marquee openings are still an important part of the city’s food fabric – recent ones include the lavish Palm Court Restaurant in the new RH Gallery and a new Ghirardelli Chocolate Experience store – some of the most exciting development centers for low-key projects from high-end chefs. In the mission, Corey Lee of three-Michelin-star Benu opened San Ho Won, a Korean barbecue spot with classic dishes and riffs on tradition, such as a black pudding pancake and kimchi pozole (appetizers from $16, barbecue from $26). Matthew Kirk, a Lazy Bear sous chef, opened Automat, a day and night destination in the Western Addition for pastries, breakfast sandwiches, and burgers (sandwiches from $9 to $16).
Natural wine is nothing new in San Francisco, but low intervention bottles—small batches, often funky wines made with organic ingredients, native yeast, and usually little to no sulfites—dominate new restaurants and bars. Shuggie’s, a pop art explosion with a vibrant list of bottles from the West Coast and beyond, offers two dollar wine shots and a “trash can pizza” made from recycled food waste (wines from $15 for a glass or $51 for a bottle; pizzas from $ 19). Palm City Wines will open in Spring 2020 in the Outer Sunset as a natural wine bottle takeaway and deli; now it also serves small plates, wines by the glass, Northern California beers, and forearm-sized hoagies (appetizers from $8, sandwiches from $19). Upping the ante is Bar Part Time in the Mission, a natural wine-based disco with a rotating roster of DJs and wine producers.
Where to stay
1 Hotel opened in San Francisco in June on the Embarcadero near the Ferry Building. The striking space features reclaimed wood and native greenery, recyclable key cards and pendants in the 186 rooms and 14 suites (starting at $500 per night), plus a rooftop spa, chef’s garden, and beehives. Terrene, the hotel’s restaurant, offers a farm-to-table inspired menu and a wide selection of mezcal and tequila.
LUMA, which also opened in June, is the first hotel development in the Mission Bay neighborhood. With 299 rooms (starting at $329 per night) and a rooftop lounge opening later this summer, the hotel is close to Oracle Park and the Chase Center. And on June 30, the long-standing Sir Francis Drake Hotel in Union Square reopened as Beacon Grand with 418 renovated rooms (starting at $249 per night), a lobby bar, and will reopen in 2023 with a redesign of the famed top-floor bar, the Starlite room.
