Play hard, play hard
Now a centroid of night clubs and home to the Folsom Street Fair, SOMA's historical edginess is rooted in the 1970s with a migration of sexually-liberated (primarily gay) folks from the Haight-Ashbury district. The devastation of the AIDS virus and the rise of tech-culture in San Francisco has diverted, if not lessened, the intensity of the area.
Adjoining the Civic Center, Downtown, South Beach and Potrero Hill, the "neighborhood" is large, industrial, loosely-defined and best experienced with a game plan.
11th st and Folsom is the main center of clubbing activity, but 1015 Folsom (SF's biggest and most famous night club) and the Endup are towards Downtown off 6th St. Also towards Downtown is Yerba Buena Gardens and its great museums - including MOMA, Zeum and the Contemporary Jewish Museum.
Around SOMA...
Adjoining the Civic Center, Downtown, South Beach and Potrero Hill, the "neighborhood" is large, industrial, loosely-defined and best experienced with a game plan.
11th st and Folsom is the main center of clubbing activity, but 1015 Folsom (SF's biggest and most famous night club) and the Endup are towards Downtown off 6th St. Also towards Downtown is Yerba Buena Gardens and its great museums - including MOMA, Zeum and the Contemporary Jewish Museum.
Around SOMA...
1015 Folsom
Biggest club in the city
1015 is the biggest club in the city and 20,000 square feet and 150,000 watts can make for a good party► - check the schedule.
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Asia SF
Asian fusion :)
Smoking hot trans-gals► augment fruity beverages and passable food for a festive SOMA scene!
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Caltrain
Commuter's delight
Providing train service between San Francisco and San Jose down the middle of the Peninsula, the Caltrain is the cleanest and fastest form of public transportation in the bay area.
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Concourse Exhibition Center
Indie convention center
The smaller, hipper sibling of the massive Moscone Center, the Concourse Exhibition Center hosts a variety of quirky events throughout the year.
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Costco
More is more!
Fear not warehouse adherents, the Church of Consumption has a bustling outpost in San Francisco's SOMA district!
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DNA Lounge
Where the wild things are
Starting with "Death Guild" on Mondays, the DNA lounge pushes SOMA through the week with performance, dance, and beverages in a large split-level venue. Bootie on (most) Saturday nights hosts a reliably packed party.
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Folsom Street Fair
Tour or Terror?
The last Sunday of September brings the world's largest S&M/leather event (with 400,000 attendees) to SOMA, replacing the usual car traffic with a sea of skin and black-leather.
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Glas Kat
Great space - eclectic events
Operating as a club since 1977, the Glas Kat (formerly Trocadero) provides two levels/bars, a lounge, a restaurant, an indoor smoking area, a large dance floor, and gogo dancer cages hanging from the ceiling! Hosting everything from "Mr Maracas" Salsa dancing and lessons to "Bondage A-Go-Go: San Francisco's Longest Running Fetish Dance Club" to "Thai Acoustic Pop" it's important to check the schedule.
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Kryolan
Take a break from yourself :)
A favorite among street performers, actors, burners, and anyone looking to be someone else for a while - Kryolan's astounding collection of high-quality makeup and beauty products provide a huge range of colorful possibilities (including metallics and fluorescents!)
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Mars Bar
Take me to your blender
A combination diner, bar, dance club with heated outdoor patio - Mars Bar fills its own martian niche. A little ways from the main centroids of SOMA-tic nightlife, Mars Bar can be a good place to get a late dinner and see what unfolds.
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Mister S Leather
Gearing up for the erotic wilderness...
If were possible to cover the ever-expanding range of human excitations, Mr. and Mrs. S Leather in the historically-appropriate SOMA district would have it nailed to the bedframe!
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Moscone Center
A city in itself...
With 700,000+ square feet of space, the Moscone Center is (by far!) the largest exhibition space in SF. Most events on the convention calendar are professional and/or academic - both specific and expensive - there are notable exceptions like WonderCon and the SF International Auto Show.
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Rainbow Grocery
What Marx intended
Packing delicious organic vegetables (with samples), bulk► grains, local products (eg, TCHO chocolate), exotic supplements and piles of customers into a not-quite-supersized building often makes for a cozy and exciting grocery experience.
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Sightglass Coffee
Blast off!
The new kids - err, brothers - on the gourmet coffee block in SF, Sightglass sources beans carefully and directly, roasts on sight with a vintage Probat - offers drinks in drip (including a popular iced coffee) and espresso forms. The über-modern split-level space is worth checking out as well.
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Source
Vegetarians Delight
Mashing locally sourced ingredients, an easy-to-love menu - eg, truffle oil on pizza (!) - and a Burning Man aesthetic (tent-patio in front!)... recently-opened Source breaks new ground on the SF dining scene in a food-wise sparse section of SOMA.
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