(Alan Berry Rhys / For The Times)
Is San Francisco in its comeback era? Here are 12 terrific new things to do in the city
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Maybe you’ve heard about San Francisco’s doom loop. But have you met its jumbo nude?
As just about any San Franciscan could tell you, “doom loop” is shorthand for the city’s post-pandemic troubles. Many of those worries stem from dwindling demand for office space, but would-be visitors have also been nervous about crime and withering retail energy.
That brings us to the jumbo nude. It’s a 45-foot, semi-translucent sculpture of a woman now standing at the foot of Market Street, officially named R-Evolution. Not everyone loves her, but she is one among many new or improved elements attracting locals and visitors these days.
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Even with San Francisco’s office vacancy rate hovering around 35%, the sun keeps rising and visitors keep smiling, most of them, much of the time.
Make your way to the city and you can see major park upgrades at the Presidio and Ocean Beach. Or you can frolic among massive balloon installations, vintage photo booths and ’60s artifacts in permanent and pop-up places that bill themselves as museums.
There’s also the prospect of a new “bay lights” show with 50,000 illumination points on the Bay Bridge. (Those lights were supposed to be on by now, but installation snags led to a delay; organizers say they’re hoping to be ready “sometime this fall.”)
Also, the food doesn’t hurt. When our critic Bill Addison chose 101 of his favorite California restaurants recently, 35 of them were in San Francisco.
Meanwhile, crime has been falling since early 2023, especially this year. Tourist arrivals are 11% behind 2019 but have grown steadily since 2021.
As this list attests, there’s plenty to see. But first, we should talk about a few places not on this list.
One is Fisherman’s Wharf. It has added a SkyStar Ferris wheel (which migrated from Golden Gate Park in 2023) and the Port of San Francisco says it will soon begin a big redevelopment, but the area remains dominated by T-shirt shops and multiple old-school restaurants that have been shuttered since the pandemic. The neighborhood was to have added a Museum of Failure this year but, not kidding, the enterprise collapsed amid an intellectual property dispute before opening. The storefront “failure” sign was still up in June, creating the snarkiest photo op ever.
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Another mixed bag is Union Square, whose hotels, department stores and passing cable cars have made it the starting point for legions of tourists through the decades. The square is still pleasant by day, with young visitors drawn to assorted free games (ping-pong, badminton, cornhole) while cable cars pass, tourists line up for Big Bus tours and guests at the adjacent Beacon Grand Hotel (formerly the Sir Francis Drake) explore the neighborhood. But many key retailers have shuttered, including Saks Fifth Avenue and Nordstrom, and Macy’s will follow. (The company has said it will close as soon as it finds a buyer for the property.)
“We feel safe here. But kind of disappointed by all the closures,” said Melinda Parker, visiting San Francisco with her husband from Boise. Also, Parker said, “a city should be judged on the quality of its public toilets. They have one here, and it’s closed.”
Still, there are more than enough bright spots to light up a San Francisco visit. Let’s go back for a second to Tunnel Tops, one of the city’s recently improved park spaces. You grab a snack, commandeer a patio table and gaze upon the Presidio and Golden Gate. A family debate erupts over whether to hit a museum next or try an urban hike. This is a sort of problem, but a nice choice to have. And San Francisco now offers plenty like that.
Stroll or pedal past cool sculptures in the new, carless Sunset Dunes Park
San Francisco Park
(Christopher Reynolds / Los Angeles Times)
The cars are gone. Sunset Dunes Park is a 2-mile stretch of seaside highway, reclaimed in April in the name of cyclists, runners, dog-walkers, beach-strollers and their ilk.
The park amounts to 43 or 50 acres, depending who’s counting, and runs south along Ocean Beach from Golden Gate Park (Lincoln Way) to the San Francisco Zoo at Sloat Boulevard. City officials call it “the largest pedestrianization project in California’s history.”
Its territory is basically the four lanes and shoulders of the Great Highway, sand now creeping onto the blacktop, separate lanes set aside for fast traffic (bikes, mostly) and slower traffic (everyone else).
Within the first few blocks, I came across three local youths who had abandoned their bikes to plonk on a stray piano. As you walk or ride, you’ll find public art here and there, and you’ll get peeks of the waves along Ocean Beach but not a steady view, because the dunes (and non-native but ubiquitous ice plant) form a sort of berm between the pavement and the beach.
On the inland side is the mostly residential Outer Sunset neighborhood. Leo’s Tacos truck, a familiar name in Southern California, has set up shop at the park’s north end near Golden Gate Park. Local favorite Java Beach Cafe is within a few blocks at La Playa and Judah streets.
As you move between north and south, you’ll come across art installations, murals, exercise equipment, log benches, hammocks, bathrooms, a fledgling skateboard park, a pair of giraffe statues and an orange octopus.
If you want to make Sunset Dunes part of a larger itinerary, just cross into Golden Gate Park, where the 3.4-mile-long JFK Promenade has also been reclaimed from cars.
The park amounts to 43 or 50 acres, depending who’s counting, and runs south along Ocean Beach from Golden Gate Park (Lincoln Way) to the San Francisco Zoo at Sloat Boulevard. City officials call it “the largest pedestrianization project in California’s history.”
Its territory is basically the four lanes and shoulders of the Great Highway, sand now creeping onto the blacktop, separate lanes set aside for fast traffic (bikes, mostly) and slower traffic (everyone else).
Within the first few blocks, I came across three local youths who had abandoned their bikes to plonk on a stray piano. As you walk or ride, you’ll find public art here and there, and you’ll get peeks of the waves along Ocean Beach but not a steady view, because the dunes (and non-native but ubiquitous ice plant) form a sort of berm between the pavement and the beach.
On the inland side is the mostly residential Outer Sunset neighborhood. Leo’s Tacos truck, a familiar name in Southern California, has set up shop at the park’s north end near Golden Gate Park. Local favorite Java Beach Cafe is within a few blocks at La Playa and Judah streets.
As you move between north and south, you’ll come across art installations, murals, exercise equipment, log benches, hammocks, bathrooms, a fledgling skateboard park, a pair of giraffe statues and an orange octopus.
If you want to make Sunset Dunes part of a larger itinerary, just cross into Golden Gate Park, where the 3.4-mile-long JFK Promenade has also been reclaimed from cars.
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Find analog magic behind the curtains at the Photo Booth Museum
San Francisco Experience
(Christopher Reynolds / Los Angeles Times)
The Photo Booth Museum isn’t exactly a museum, but it’s fun and full of vintage goods. The space is a collection of reconditioned old photo booths. For $6.50 to $8.50, you and your friends squeeze in behind the curtain, pose for four pictures, then wait a few minutes while the film is mechanically processed on the spot. (Of course the machines are retrofitted for 2025 to accept credit cards and Apple Pay.)
So far, customers are overwhelmingly female and under 25. The company behind the museum is Photomatica, founded in 2010 to supply photo booths to special events, bars and hotels, now going national.
The “museum” idea dawned after Photomatica placed a booth in the Castro’s Photoworks film lab and immediately drew long lines.
By December 2024, Photomatica had opened the Photo Booth Museum next door and a Club Photomatica space on Haight Street. The Market Street location had three booths then. Now there are seven. Most of them were in use on the weekday afternoon that I visited. Technician Carter Hiett, 23, was helping a maelstrom of customers, including Chloe Docto and Savannah Espinoza, who were celebrating their 21st birthdays with friends. “We found it on TikTok,” Docto said.
Meanwhile, Photomatica keeps growing. Last month, the company opened a Los Angeles Photo Booth Museum in Silver Lake.
So far, customers are overwhelmingly female and under 25. The company behind the museum is Photomatica, founded in 2010 to supply photo booths to special events, bars and hotels, now going national.
The “museum” idea dawned after Photomatica placed a booth in the Castro’s Photoworks film lab and immediately drew long lines.
By December 2024, Photomatica had opened the Photo Booth Museum next door and a Club Photomatica space on Haight Street. The Market Street location had three booths then. Now there are seven. Most of them were in use on the weekday afternoon that I visited. Technician Carter Hiett, 23, was helping a maelstrom of customers, including Chloe Docto and Savannah Espinoza, who were celebrating their 21st birthdays with friends. “We found it on TikTok,” Docto said.
Meanwhile, Photomatica keeps growing. Last month, the company opened a Los Angeles Photo Booth Museum in Silver Lake.
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Admire the statuesque woman named R-Evolution
San Francisco Public Art
(Christopher Reynolds / Los Angeles Times)
She’s 45 feet tall and made of mesh. She arrived in Embarcadero Plaza, at the foot of Market Street, in April. From 5 p.m. to 6 p.m. every day she breathes, sort of, and from sunset to 11 p.m., she glows faintly.
The woman in question is R-Evolution, a work of moving, illuminated metal that artist Marco Cochrane originally made for Burning Man in 2015. For about an hour every afternoon, her chest expands and contracts in subtle breathing motions. Through an arrangement with a couple of private arts organizations, the city’s Recreation and Parks Department brought her in for temporary display through October.
“This sculpture is about being seen,” Cochrane said in a statement. “She stands strong, aware, and grounded — calling for a world where all people can walk freely and without fear.”
When her stint in the city ends, Cochrane is offering her for sale.
Of course she has been controversial. I’d say she carries herself with more dignity than the skirt-flying Marilyn Monroe in Palm Springs, less than the huddled-masses-liberating Statue of Liberty. I only wish someone could introduce her to the 49-foot Paul Bunyan in Klamath by the Oregon border.
The woman in question is R-Evolution, a work of moving, illuminated metal that artist Marco Cochrane originally made for Burning Man in 2015. For about an hour every afternoon, her chest expands and contracts in subtle breathing motions. Through an arrangement with a couple of private arts organizations, the city’s Recreation and Parks Department brought her in for temporary display through October.
“This sculpture is about being seen,” Cochrane said in a statement. “She stands strong, aware, and grounded — calling for a world where all people can walk freely and without fear.”
When her stint in the city ends, Cochrane is offering her for sale.
Of course she has been controversial. I’d say she carries herself with more dignity than the skirt-flying Marilyn Monroe in Palm Springs, less than the huddled-masses-liberating Statue of Liberty. I only wish someone could introduce her to the 49-foot Paul Bunyan in Klamath by the Oregon border.
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Taste what's new in the artisanal food wonderland that is the Ferry Building
San Francisco Food Hall
(Christopher Reynolds / Los Angeles Times)
San Francisco’s Ferry Building has been a food-centric destination for about 22 years now, and the individual attractions keep evolving, especially amid post-pandemic churn. One of the most recent arrivals is Nopa Fish, an order-at-the-counter fresh-fish cafe and market that opened in June. On opening night, I showed up and savored a bowl of rainbow trout, corn and shellfish chowder. (Then I came back later for raw fish over sushi rice.)
Meanwhile next door, there’s Lunette Cambodia, which opened in June 2024 and has already made my favorite best-restaurants list. The well-regarded A16 pizza opened early last year. In the second half of 2026, the same owners plan to open Lucania, specializing in southern Italian cuisine, in a long-idle space at the south end of the building that was occupied by MarketBar for 17 years until 2020.
Meanwhile, the next few months will likely bring the Ferry Building’s biggest food event of 2025.
That will be the reopening of the large space at the north end of the building that has been idle since the popular Slanted Door closed six years ago. That site is scheduled to open this summer as Arquet, a dinner-only California cuisine restaurant from the team behind the city’s much-decorated Sorrel restaurant. Next to Arquet (and perhaps opening sooner) will be Parachute Bakery, another venture from the Sorrel team with a breakfast-and-lunch emphasis.
Meanwhile next door, there’s Lunette Cambodia, which opened in June 2024 and has already made my favorite best-restaurants list. The well-regarded A16 pizza opened early last year. In the second half of 2026, the same owners plan to open Lucania, specializing in southern Italian cuisine, in a long-idle space at the south end of the building that was occupied by MarketBar for 17 years until 2020.
Meanwhile, the next few months will likely bring the Ferry Building’s biggest food event of 2025.
That will be the reopening of the large space at the north end of the building that has been idle since the popular Slanted Door closed six years ago. That site is scheduled to open this summer as Arquet, a dinner-only California cuisine restaurant from the team behind the city’s much-decorated Sorrel restaurant. Next to Arquet (and perhaps opening sooner) will be Parachute Bakery, another venture from the Sorrel team with a breakfast-and-lunch emphasis.
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Step into a towering redwood forest on the redesigned Transamerica Pyramid grounds
San Francisco Park
(Christopher Reynolds / Los Angeles Times)
The Transamerica Pyramid, once a controversial newcomer to the city skyline, is old enough now to warrant a major update. And that update has just happened, adding exhibition space to the pyramid’s ground floor and an adjacent restaurant. Best of all, the renovation gives visitors a renewed chance to enter a redwood forest in the middle of the Financial District.
The 48-story pyramid, designed by William Pereira, went up in 1972. Many people hated it at first (and called it “the icicle”), but now it’s one of the most beloved elements in the skyline. In fact, many lament that its grandeur has been overshadowed by the taller Salesforce Tower, which opened in 2018.
Anyway, new owners took over the Transamerica Pyramid a few years ago and set about positioning it as a place for “dining, art, work and nature.” Accordingly, it now features the redesigned park, which includes about 50 of the 80 redwoods that were transplanted from the Santa Cruz Mountains when the pyramid first went up. (Alas, the pond no longer features the sculpted frogs that were added as homage to Mark Twain’s breakthrough story, “The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County.”
Beside the park, the Transamerica grounds include exhibition spaces (currently featuring a Ray and Charles Eames furniture show, a Les Lalanne art show and the contents of a time capsule buried beneath the Transamerica Pyramid in 1974), the adjacent Cafe Sebastian (breakfast and lunch) and a Saturday afternoon outdoor concert series.
Also, for all the Financial District’s troubles, it’s got a few other tempting spots for anyone who hasn’t been there lately. Across the street from the pyramid you can order baked goods at Maison Nico or browse the shops, restaurants and bars of surrounding Jackson Square or check out contemporary art at the Institute of Contemporary Art San Francisco (it’s free, open Wednesday through Sunday), which in late 2024 moved to a Montgomery Street space four blocks from the pyramid.
The 48-story pyramid, designed by William Pereira, went up in 1972. Many people hated it at first (and called it “the icicle”), but now it’s one of the most beloved elements in the skyline. In fact, many lament that its grandeur has been overshadowed by the taller Salesforce Tower, which opened in 2018.
Anyway, new owners took over the Transamerica Pyramid a few years ago and set about positioning it as a place for “dining, art, work and nature.” Accordingly, it now features the redesigned park, which includes about 50 of the 80 redwoods that were transplanted from the Santa Cruz Mountains when the pyramid first went up. (Alas, the pond no longer features the sculpted frogs that were added as homage to Mark Twain’s breakthrough story, “The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County.”
Beside the park, the Transamerica grounds include exhibition spaces (currently featuring a Ray and Charles Eames furniture show, a Les Lalanne art show and the contents of a time capsule buried beneath the Transamerica Pyramid in 1974), the adjacent Cafe Sebastian (breakfast and lunch) and a Saturday afternoon outdoor concert series.
Also, for all the Financial District’s troubles, it’s got a few other tempting spots for anyone who hasn’t been there lately. Across the street from the pyramid you can order baked goods at Maison Nico or browse the shops, restaurants and bars of surrounding Jackson Square or check out contemporary art at the Institute of Contemporary Art San Francisco (it’s free, open Wednesday through Sunday), which in late 2024 moved to a Montgomery Street space four blocks from the pyramid.
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Decompress in the Jay Hotel, a striking Brutalist icon
San Francisco Hotel
(Christopher Reynolds / Los Angeles Times)
The Jay hotel — formerly Le Meridien and before that a Park Hyatt — reopened under its new name in late 2023.
It’s full of contemporary art (which makes sense with ICA SF close at hand) and within easy strolling range of several Jackson Square eateries, galleries and shops. (Tourists on their way through the Financial District to North Beach often miss the small streets and elegant shops on Jackson Square.)
The hotel’s Third Floor restaurant and bar includes a spacious terrace dining area. Its dinner-only restaurant, Prelude, focuses on steaks and rarefied versions of cuisine from the American South.
Since this is the Financial District, the hotel gets a lot of midweek business travelers. In fact, its 360 rooms — many with floor-to-ceiling windows and bay views — have lower rates on weekends, beginning as low as $315. (Just don’t park in the building. Valet parking is mandatory and $88.92 per day.) The hotel is part of Marriott Bonvoy’s Autograph Collection.
It’s full of contemporary art (which makes sense with ICA SF close at hand) and within easy strolling range of several Jackson Square eateries, galleries and shops. (Tourists on their way through the Financial District to North Beach often miss the small streets and elegant shops on Jackson Square.)
The hotel’s Third Floor restaurant and bar includes a spacious terrace dining area. Its dinner-only restaurant, Prelude, focuses on steaks and rarefied versions of cuisine from the American South.
Since this is the Financial District, the hotel gets a lot of midweek business travelers. In fact, its 360 rooms — many with floor-to-ceiling windows and bay views — have lower rates on weekends, beginning as low as $315. (Just don’t park in the building. Valet parking is mandatory and $88.92 per day.) The hotel is part of Marriott Bonvoy’s Autograph Collection.
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Set your kids free in a woodland-style playground at Presidio Tunnel Tops
San Francisco Park
(Christopher Reynolds / Los Angeles Times)
If you haven’t been to the Presidio in the last three years, Presidio Tunnel Tops will be a 14-acre bonus for you. It’s a new territory that was created by building greenspace above and around a pair of tunnels carrying 101 traffic.
In part the new acreage is a great connector, giving hikers an easy route between the high ground of the Presidio and bay-adjacent Crissy Field.
But Tunnel Tops is also a destination, whether you want lunch at Il Parco or your kid needs to burn energy in a “nature playground” with slides, ladders, climbable boulders and driftwood you can crawl through. Or maybe you both need a few minutes in a red Adirondack chair with a Golden Gate view. Also, the highly interactive Presidio Visitor Center is close at hand.
Much of the Tunnel Tops project was completed in 2022. Il Parco restaurant (which offers pizza, pasta and sandwiches and a patio screened from the wind) opened in early 2024. Another 1.5 acres of picnic area, Outpost Meadow, opened in July next to the Outpost play area and Field Station educational building.
In part the new acreage is a great connector, giving hikers an easy route between the high ground of the Presidio and bay-adjacent Crissy Field.
But Tunnel Tops is also a destination, whether you want lunch at Il Parco or your kid needs to burn energy in a “nature playground” with slides, ladders, climbable boulders and driftwood you can crawl through. Or maybe you both need a few minutes in a red Adirondack chair with a Golden Gate view. Also, the highly interactive Presidio Visitor Center is close at hand.
Much of the Tunnel Tops project was completed in 2022. Il Parco restaurant (which offers pizza, pasta and sandwiches and a patio screened from the wind) opened in early 2024. Another 1.5 acres of picnic area, Outpost Meadow, opened in July next to the Outpost play area and Field Station educational building.
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Savor Wayne Thiebaud's candy-colored canvases at the Legion of Honor
San Francisco Museum
(Christopher Reynolds / Los Angeles Times)
This exhibition of Wayne Thiebaud paintings at the Legion of Honor highlights the inspiration the artist drew from other artists. Those influences show up in Thiebaud’s signature still-lives of ice cream sundaes and gumball machines along with nudes, stringed instruments and (mood shift approaching) a powerful image of an electric chair. But the show also includes some of Thiebaud’s candy-colored paintings of San Francisco landscapes with compressed architecture and impossible slopes.
The show runs through Aug. 17. Adult admission is $35 for nonmembers. The rest of the museum focuses on European painting, sculpture, decorative arts, ancient art, graphic arts and contemporary art.
Also, if the weather is friendly, a visit to the Legion of Honor combines well with a hike on the Lands End trail, a 3.4-mile loop with plenty of coastal scenery (and no impossible slopes). Also, if you’re a few days too late for Thiebaud, don’t worry. The Legion of Honor also has a show on Lawrence Ferlinghetti, the poet, publisher, figure of civic conscience and longstanding impresario of City Lights bookshop, who died at 101 in 2021. It turns out that Ferlinghetti also drew, painted and made prints. The Ferlinghetti show will be up through March 22, 2026.
The show runs through Aug. 17. Adult admission is $35 for nonmembers. The rest of the museum focuses on European painting, sculpture, decorative arts, ancient art, graphic arts and contemporary art.
Also, if the weather is friendly, a visit to the Legion of Honor combines well with a hike on the Lands End trail, a 3.4-mile loop with plenty of coastal scenery (and no impossible slopes). Also, if you’re a few days too late for Thiebaud, don’t worry. The Legion of Honor also has a show on Lawrence Ferlinghetti, the poet, publisher, figure of civic conscience and longstanding impresario of City Lights bookshop, who died at 101 in 2021. It turns out that Ferlinghetti also drew, painted and made prints. The Ferlinghetti show will be up through March 22, 2026.
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Dive into the '60s at the Counterculture Museum
San Francisco Museum
(Christopher Reynolds / Los Angeles Times)
Jerry and Estelle Cimino had an idea: Why not open a Beat Museum in North Beach, just a few blocks from landmarks like City Lights bookshop and Caffe Trieste? So they did it, and since 2016 the Beat Museum, a for-profit enterprise with artifacts and books that tell tales of Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg and company, has become a part of the cityscape.
Now the Ciminos are at it again. This time, they have opened a Counterculture Museum (not for profit) at the storied corner of Haight and Ashbury. It opened in May with exhibits focused on five 20th century subject areas with strong resonance in the city: the Beats, the ‘60s, civil rights, feminism and LGBTQ+. Admission is $10 per adult, with assorted items for sale up front.
“I wanted to broaden the focus” from the Beat movement, Estelle Cimino had said a few minutes before. “And the hippies, most of them, are still alive today.” The underlying message, she said, is “you can still make change. Positive change.”
Mostly illustrated by books, magazines, vintage LPs, newspaper pages and photography, the Counterculture Museum space is more casual than most traditional museums. In keeping with that spirit, Jerry Cimino said, future displays will depend in part on who steps up with artifacts to share.
“A guy came in today with stuff that was just unbelievable. Jim Marshall photos of the Trips Festival,” Jerry Cimino said.
That festival took place in early 1966, he explained, when LSD was still legal in California. By then, Marshall was a widely known photographer of musicians, and at the event he spotted and snapped the Grateful Dead’s Bob Weir and Phil Lesh in mid-celebration.
Now the Ciminos are at it again. This time, they have opened a Counterculture Museum (not for profit) at the storied corner of Haight and Ashbury. It opened in May with exhibits focused on five 20th century subject areas with strong resonance in the city: the Beats, the ‘60s, civil rights, feminism and LGBTQ+. Admission is $10 per adult, with assorted items for sale up front.
“I wanted to broaden the focus” from the Beat movement, Estelle Cimino had said a few minutes before. “And the hippies, most of them, are still alive today.” The underlying message, she said, is “you can still make change. Positive change.”
Mostly illustrated by books, magazines, vintage LPs, newspaper pages and photography, the Counterculture Museum space is more casual than most traditional museums. In keeping with that spirit, Jerry Cimino said, future displays will depend in part on who steps up with artifacts to share.
“A guy came in today with stuff that was just unbelievable. Jim Marshall photos of the Trips Festival,” Jerry Cimino said.
That festival took place in early 1966, he explained, when LSD was still legal in California. By then, Marshall was a widely known photographer of musicians, and at the event he spotted and snapped the Grateful Dead’s Bob Weir and Phil Lesh in mid-celebration.
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Sip wine and hear verse at Golden Sardine
Wine Bar
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(Christopher Reynolds / Los Angeles Times)
Let’s start with your first question: Golden Sardine wine bar and poetry bookshop is an homage to the beat poet Bob Kaufman, who published a book by that name in 1967.
His portrait hangs on the wall of the bar, which opened in 2024, its many books and bottles compressed into a snug, two-story layout. The wine menu leans toward Riesling; the food menu, toward tinned fish and cheese. The Golden Sardine stands on Columbus Avenue, appropriately close to City Lights books. In its first year it made Esquire’s “Best Bars in America” list.
On the weekday I showed up to nibble smoked mackerel and sip a Merlot at the bar, the place filled with a smart, young crowd immediately upon opening at 4 p.m.
The proprietors, Andrew Paul Nelson and Caitlyn Sky Wild, stage readings upstairs, where patrons can buy wine and poetry books. Winemakers are often invited. On Dylan’s birthday the proprietors might play his records all day. On Charles Mingus’ birthday, same thing. Closed Mondays.
His portrait hangs on the wall of the bar, which opened in 2024, its many books and bottles compressed into a snug, two-story layout. The wine menu leans toward Riesling; the food menu, toward tinned fish and cheese. The Golden Sardine stands on Columbus Avenue, appropriately close to City Lights books. In its first year it made Esquire’s “Best Bars in America” list.
On the weekday I showed up to nibble smoked mackerel and sip a Merlot at the bar, the place filled with a smart, young crowd immediately upon opening at 4 p.m.
The proprietors, Andrew Paul Nelson and Caitlyn Sky Wild, stage readings upstairs, where patrons can buy wine and poetry books. Winemakers are often invited. On Dylan’s birthday the proprietors might play his records all day. On Charles Mingus’ birthday, same thing. Closed Mondays.
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Wander from room to room at the hands-on Balloon Museum at the Palace of Fine Arts
San Francisco Experience
(Christopher Reynolds / Los Angeles Times)
The idea of a Balloon Museum was born in Rome in 2020. Since then you could say the idea has taken flight — pop-up “museums” have appeared in several cities worldwide, now in four different themes, all filled with artworks involving inflated objects. Instagram candy. If you saw the Balloon Museum “Let’s Fly” show in Los Angeles between October 2024 and April 2025, you know what I mean.
The latest version of the museum, titled “EmotionAir” and born in London two years ago, will be at the Palace of Fine Arts through Sept. 7.
This a deeply kid-friendly experience, and an extensive one. After the relatively forgettable first few rooms, I wasn’t sure I’d recommend it for grown-ups and I was skeptical of the creators’ statement that “this isn’t a theme park. It’s contemporary art that speaks to everyone.”
But as we advanced room to room, the creativity widened and deepened as visitors moved among balls, balloons, bubble-blowers, video projections, false windows and hands-on tables that allowed something very much like finger-painting with liquid stained glass. Some rooms were duds and others were astonishing. It’s not just a kid thing; it’s a creative thing.
Admission is $41 for adults, $37 for children 13-17, $31 for children 4-12. I spent about 90 minutes inside, followed by a few more pleasant minutes wandering the grounds of the Palace of Fine Arts.
The latest version of the museum, titled “EmotionAir” and born in London two years ago, will be at the Palace of Fine Arts through Sept. 7.
This a deeply kid-friendly experience, and an extensive one. After the relatively forgettable first few rooms, I wasn’t sure I’d recommend it for grown-ups and I was skeptical of the creators’ statement that “this isn’t a theme park. It’s contemporary art that speaks to everyone.”
But as we advanced room to room, the creativity widened and deepened as visitors moved among balls, balloons, bubble-blowers, video projections, false windows and hands-on tables that allowed something very much like finger-painting with liquid stained glass. Some rooms were duds and others were astonishing. It’s not just a kid thing; it’s a creative thing.
Admission is $41 for adults, $37 for children 13-17, $31 for children 4-12. I spent about 90 minutes inside, followed by a few more pleasant minutes wandering the grounds of the Palace of Fine Arts.
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Drink something cool and munch a Cubano on Cubita's rooftop
Restaurant
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(Christopher Reynolds / Los Angeles Times)
Cubita is a festive Mission District rooftop bar and restaurant with a Cuban menu and decor to match, including pastel hues, checkerboard floors and pictures of shiny old cars and young women brandishing cigars. There’s also a hat collection.
It opened in June, taking over from a Mexican eatery called El Techo (which had the same ownership).
The nighttime views are full of twinkling city lights. The mojitos ($15) are tasty. Every dish (except those designed for two) is $26 or under.
The staff was still working out kinks in service when I was there in its first week or two, but the rooftop was full of merry customers, and it’s the only rooftop bar in the Mission.
One mainstay on the menu is the Cubano sandwich, featuring roasted pig, pickles, Swiss cheese and whole grain mustard on French bread.
It opened in June, taking over from a Mexican eatery called El Techo (which had the same ownership).
The nighttime views are full of twinkling city lights. The mojitos ($15) are tasty. Every dish (except those designed for two) is $26 or under.
The staff was still working out kinks in service when I was there in its first week or two, but the rooftop was full of merry customers, and it’s the only rooftop bar in the Mission.
One mainstay on the menu is the Cubano sandwich, featuring roasted pig, pickles, Swiss cheese and whole grain mustard on French bread.
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