6 places to spend an afternoon.
Balmy Alley has more to say than most galleries in SoMa. Start there, then wander the side streets between 16th and 24th for independent shops selling sneakers, used paperbacks, and clothes you won't find on Market Street. Weekend nights, The Chapel books bands that make the cover worth it.
3 things to do, 3 shops, all in The Mission District.
The Mission District treats its walls like canvases and its old buildings like instruments. Balmy Alley has been arguing in paint since 1972, Precita Eyes will walk you past 60-plus murals with someone who actually paints them, and The Chapel turns a 1914 mortuary's arched ceiling into the best room on Valencia for a Friday night set.
A 1914 mortuary on Valencia converted into one of SF's best small music venues, with a 40-foot arched ceiling that gives it remarkable sound. Around 500 capacity, indie and folk-leaning bookings, and a former body-hoisting crank still hanging on the wall.
Community mural arts nonprofit founded in 1977, running weekend walking tours led by actual working muralists who cover 60 to 70 murals across Calle 24 and the surrounding blocks. Nearly five decades deep in creating and maintaining the Mission's walls.
One block between 24th and 25th in the Inner Mission, completely covered in murals dating back to 1972 and rooted in Chicano activism and Central American solidarity. Political, beautiful, constantly evolving, and best in afternoon light.
Valencia and Calle 24 do the heavy lifting for shopping in The Mission District: Dog Eared Books has held its corner at 20th since 1992, Medicine for Nightmares took over the Alley Cat space in 2021 and named itself after a Sun Ra cut, and Gravel & Gold stocks textiles and ceramics you won't see at a chain.
Independent bookstore on the corner of 20th and Valencia since 1992, open daily until 10pm, stocking new, used, and remaindered titles with a deep bench in Beat literature, small press, and local SF writing. Staff picks that actually reflect someone's real opinions.
Took over the old Alley Cat Books space on Calle 24 in late 2021, naming itself after a Sun Ra track and splitting the room into bookstore up front, gallery in back. Stock leans Chicano poetry, radical politics, and bilingual lit; Fridays, David Boyce books live sets in the back room.
Handmade textiles and locally produced ceramics share shelf space with zines and small-batch pantry goods at this Mission District shop. Gravel & Gold feels like wandering through a friend's impossibly cool apartment where everything happens to be for sale.
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The hotels worth booking in and near The Mission District.
Restaurants, bars, and cafes in The Mission District.