North Beach at Night and other San Francisco, CA Nightlife Tips

Nightlife Spot: Various in the Country

A great time to visit North Beach is at night. The part of town stays alive well into the evening with sidewalk cafe service and night clubs serving up good business even on a rainy winter evening like the one I recently experienced. Restaurants bring out the patio space warmers to keep the outdoors warm, and canopies overhead keep heads dry. City Lights Bookstore stays open late. I like North Beach at night because of the lighting. There's the remaining porn neon billboards at one end, and in the middle the restaurants and bars provide their own atmospheric lighting. Incidentally, just on the border between the North Beach and Chinatown districts is a tiny alleyway named for the famous American author, Jack Kerouac. This passageway used to be called Alder. It's also safe enough to walk through Chinatown after the businesses have closed down for the night, in my opinion.

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Theme: Adult Spot
Dress Code: Dress warm in winter or summer at night in SF. Casual clothes are OK, but a lot of people in the city like to dress up all the time.
Directions: Start walking at the intersection of Columbus, Grant, and Broadway. Try to find parking up the hill somewhere.

Nightlife Spot: Yerba Buena Center for the Arts

Yerba Buena Center for the Arts Theater is the venue for San Francisco Performances Dance Series. The 755-seat theater is located at the Center for Arts at Yerba Buena Gardens on Third Street, between Mission and Howard Streets. The center is just a short walk from the Powell or Montgomery BART/Muni stations, and there's a parking garage nearby. The Moscone Convention Center is right across the street. This is an excellent theater showcasing international acts but with an intimate venue. We usually purchase tickets on-line for one of the internationally acclaimed modern dance performances, such as the recent Compania Nacional de Danza, a multi-national troupe of modern dancers based in Spain. Since these shows are often sold-out, those staying in the city should plan for this in advance. Program descriptions, seat selection, and ticket purchase is easy at the website, the link for which is below. I recommend arriving and having the daytime open for other activities, then treat yourself to this at night. There are matinee performances too for some acts, however. San Francisco Performances also has world-class classical, jazz, and ethnic musical acts at the Herbst Theater, among other venues.

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Theme: Theater
Dress Code: Informal is OK, but a lot of people choose to dress up. Don't wear shorts and a T-shirt, that's for sure. I usually wear a brown leather jacket and decent slacks.
Website: http://www.performances.org/tickets/tickets.asp