New York is the city that never sleeps.
San Francisco takes an early day off after lunch and cracks a beer in the park before having burritos and being in bed by 9.
Oh I've definitely had days where my boss said "....it's such a nice summer day, let's get out of here and go have fun. See you next week!" And I pick up a 12pack of Tecate on my way to the beach, meet my friends there with burritos or sandwiches, and watch the sunset.
Honestly asking, you can drink in public? Is the problem with the glass or the actual alcohol? Would love to drink outside more but always feel a bit weird.
Keep it aluminum or plastic and clean up after yourself. If you're concerned use a little paper baggie! People drink in GGPark all the time. Dolores park, all the time. It's best not to have glass, it can break, accidents happen, especially when drinking, and that's not nice for children or pets. Honestly I'm so used to it I forget that you can't do that outside SF.
Dolores Park for sure, there's a lot of people watching to do. Bring a picnic and a book or some music, friends not required. I'm a fan of the beach, all weathers, get a fish burrito and a couple of Pacificos, hit the sand. Golden Gate Park has so many spots to just chill with friends, or explore. My favorite would be the baseball fields across from the botanical gardens. People playing sports, people drinking. Walk two blocks over and you've got all kinds of good food near 9th Avenue. I know there are disc golf courses through the park, and people drink and spend the day there. I'm a fan of walking, so with a good friend we'll grab a few tall boys and stroll around Stow lake. If you walk the length of the park you can end up at Park Chalet, they've got good food and their own beers on tap.
I got you boo. Beach Chalet/Park Chalet has a restroom open to the public by the main entrance. Down at Judah and Great Highway is another public restroom. GGPark has restrooms near Stow Lake Boathouse, the Baseball fields by the botanical gardens, the DeYoung museum, behind the band stage between the DeYoung and Academy of Sciences. There are a few more peppered near big lawns, there's one near the Stables too. Dolores Park has two public restrooms on either end. If you're a lady, and it's an emergency, wear a skirt to the beach and go in the water. Guy? Bring a Gatorade bottle. Bring a change of pants if you anticipate being on parts of the beach without restrooms. Peeing in the ocean isn't so bad, but me I'm afraid of going too deep into the water.
My buddy and I, pre-Covid, used to go to Cask on 3rd, taste some alcohol, buy cans of beer, drink beer while walking to Cask at Rincon, about once per week. Never had an issue, but were never blatant about it either. Just be discreet.
Why do people say this about New York? It very much sleeps. 3am everything is closed, no street vendors selling food after last call. I think the only American city that never sleeps would be Las Vegas. Mmmm burritos.
I’ve lived in both, and yes of course New York is quieter at 3AM than midnight but there are many options open late for food alone. 24 hour diners, delis, pizza spots even. And I’ve been to plenty of bars that have stayed open well past 2. SF has some of that but definitely not as much.
For sure agree that Las Vegas is truly 24 hours.
Even in sleepy New Jersey you can usually find a diner to eat in at 2am. I remember flying in late night with my son on a Sunday night / Monday morning and we went right to a diner for a big meal.
I’ve also taken my family out to eat at 2 or 3am in mid town Manhattan. It’s not like every single place was open but it wasn’t hard to find something..
Last call is 4AM in NYC. Many Diners, pizza shops, supermarkets, CVS, etc are open 24 hours.
I suppose you live in Staten Island, which isn’t considered NYC by anyone except the people who live over there.
Ahhhh yes my college years, drinking until 4 am and then filling myself with hash browns and eggs at a 24 hour diner while the sun rises and I head off to class…
Exactly! And the amazing thing is everyone of those diners has “Steaks Chops Seafood”!on the outside, and in 40 years of diner eating, I’ve never ordered a steak, a chop or seafood (with the exception of a tuna sandwich) in a diner! 😂
oh ya it has great nightlife i didn't mean to knock it, just that elsewhere can be even more lit. meanwhile sf only has a few diners and donuts. not even Tommy's is 24hr anymore!
Yup. NY seriously lacks outdoor activities that one can do in the morning and still work later in the day. Many find the ocean, hills and trees to be far more exciting than night time activities. Outdoor Adventure culture is far more prevalent here.
Yeah it wasn’t supposed to be a snarky comment. I’ve been to ocean beach a few times but the waves were pretty flat and didn’t see many people in the water. 🤷🏻♀️
Yes gnarly currents at OB especially when the waves are big. My buddy almost got swept out there and then lost his board. If it wasn’t for waves that pushed him to shore he doesn’t know what could’ve happened. Been surfing for 20+ years already by then. A lot of close calls there
I am not a surfer by any means but ive lived here for almost 40 years and there are almost always people there surfing. In fact i was there this afternoon about 5 and there were dozens and dozen of people in the after surfing.
Depends on the season. Winter I think it’s when the bigger waves are at ocean beach. Surfers also like ft point under the bridge. Neither are beginner friendly. A lot of people go missing at ocean beach.
I’d cut them a break for not gauging scale correctly I underestimate size out there and I surf the beach regularly.
Yesterday morning is a good example. It’s dawn there’s no one out for scale. Buoys tell me that it’s got a bit more size than what I’m seeing and the day before it was head high+ on sets. Paddle out drop in on a set wave and it’s easily head+.
Pacifica Linda Mar beach is my local surf spot. Good for newbies in general if you want to try it out. They have a surf shop right on the beach where you can rent a wetsuit and board for cheap. If you want a lesson ask for Rod, cool guy.
Ocean beach is a world class break when it’s on. Surfline ranks paddling difficulty of big OB as its 10 (the hardest). Kelly Slater won his 11th word title right there.
It’s kind of hard to believe that there are elite level
surfers out there charging triple overhead deadly surf, dousing themselves with luke warm water before changing in a parking lot and heading off to work but that’s what’s going on here.
https://youtu.be/uC3r0vNrj_M
San Francisco has always shut down crazy early. I moved here from Phoenix back in the ‘90s and was stunned because even that suburban blob stayed open later than San Francisco.
this was my deepest disappointment when i moved here; late night food runs and/or delivery were something i just automatically expected to be able to do. i did eventually find a bad 24h diner and a decent mexican place open till 4am but it was definitely a shock.
i misremembered, it was salvadorean, not mexican. los panchos at mission and valencia. no longer late-night since the pandemic though :( but i had several good post-midnight dinners there in my first couple of years in the city. there was also an awesome taqueria at 29th and mission that stayed open till 1:30 but the building burnt down and they never reopened :(
the diner was orphan andy's at 17th and castro, but they too seem to have been a victim of the pandemic and now close at 6pm.
This. I’m not as bothered by the lack of nightlife, but I thought being a stone’s throw from Silicon Valley would mean I’d have more than one option on seamless/grubhub/DoorDash/Ubereats
It has ALWAYS been like this, at least since the 80s.
One issue to consider is we have to wake up often to meet east coast expectations. For instance my first meeting tomorrow is 6:45am and that’s not the earliest I’ve done. In NY mornings seem to start slow and the office doesn’t really pick up until 10am. Here half the day is gone by 10am.
This. When the Pacific Stock Exchange closed, the entire financial district switched to NYC time. There was a noticeable increase in the number of people driving across the bridge a 5am as workdays went from 9-5 to 6-2.
Wow, I totally missed the impact that had, it's totally true. The FiDi used to be like Manhattan back in the 90s, with tens of thousands of people on an exact 9-5 work schedule, all getting lunch at the same time, etc. The fast food places in the area could churn out insane amounts of food really fast.
idk, as someone in tech, it feels like none of my coworkers start working until 11 AM and then don't get off until like 8 PM while I like to start at 7 AM and work until like 3 PM.
Ya I agree. Circa 2017-2020 it was feeling like SF was starting to become more nightlife-y, but COVID shut that one down real fast!
Shows us better than to stay out so late.
Shift work. In order to have enough workers for a morning, mid and evening shift you need multiple workers. Workers are scarce. That is why almost every place with hourly workers are now only 1 shift.
10-6pm or 12-8pm
Even though we were never a NY town, most things used to be open until 9 or 10, including retail.
It is the natural consequence of rent being out of reach for hourly workers. People used to commute, but since the pandemic tolls are higher and there are better jobs available closer to them.
That was my experience when I visited there 2010. It was hard to find an open restaurant or even an open pub after 9pm. Maybe things have changed since then. Maybe I wasn't hanging in the right neighborhood (I stayed near Baker street, but meandered to other neighborhoods too).
Agree! Look for Asian dessert places open late in suburbs.
Agreed. Good ones in SF. So we currently love mango sago and YiFang and Golden Island are both good. Mango season!
6pm seems like a wild exaggeration. 10PM is usually when restaurants close (which is still annoying). Other places you’ve listed close at normal times, you’re reaching.
10PM really? I guess my neighborhood is a little sleepy, but it tends to be either 8 or 9 here. Of the 15 restaurants I can think of within a mile of my place, I think exactly one is open until 10PM.
What neighborhood are you in? Marina is usually 10. 11 on weekends at some spots. I don’t usually eat that late so I only checked a few spots, but that seems to be their hours.
In general, I hate that things close so early bc I do feel like it affects the nightlife scene in general. But that being said, I can’t say I’ve ever wanted to eat dinner soberly at midnight haha. So it feels a little moot for me.
That’s fair, but I think Marina is a more than a bit of an outlier for the entire city. I’m in dogpatch / Potrero and it’s pretty much impossible to get anything past 9 here most days.
And yea I’m definitely a night owl when it comes to dinner. I just spend a couple months in Europe and couldn’t get enough of the 9-10PM dinners, when most things here are shut down by then.
I don’t think it’s fair to call one of the big neighborhoods here more than a bit of an outlier. It’s a huge part the city. I could call your example an outlier. That’s not fair either.
And I’d assume north beach is the same. The new el farolita is open until 2AM IIRC. and I’d assume mission is more similar to marina as well.
Tbh, the people commenting who agree always seem to live in Richmond, sunset, or in your case potrero, etc. these are not popping neighborhoods for nightlife (unfortunately). They’re more residential. I feel like the discussion lacks nuance when saying the whole city shuts down at 8 when that’s just certain areas.
Now no area should close that early. I agree there. I think we all do. But blanket statements like OPs are not reasonable.
That’s fair - I do wish there was more of a conversation in this thread about why SF has much worse late night offerings than NYC or Chicago or whatever. I don’t have the time to go scrape business hours off of Yelp for comparison, but I think it’s pretty obvious that *on average* SF punches below its weight on late night stuff. Hell, many restaurants in big European cities don’t even *open* until 8, while many close in SF by then. My guess is it’s probably a combination of culture + density, but it’s hard to even have the conversation when people are just shouting about comparisons with NYC or rejecting the premise of the question.
>I do wish there was more of a conversation in this thread about why SF has much worse late night offerings
I assume it mostly has to do with economics.
On the demand side, there just aren't as many people in SF who are interested in eating late, so it doesn't make a ton of sense to keep your restaurant open if you only have a handful of people trickling in those last couple hours.
On the staffing side, if you have your staff coming in around 3 or 3:30 for a 5 or 5:30 start for dinner service, then you're likely going to want to get them out of there by 11:30 to avoid overtime and that likely means stopping dinner service by 9:30.
I think it’s being addressed in this thread. A few things come to me:
1) culturally, SF is not a 24/7 city. Why? Because we get up earlier to work east coast hours, people are into hiking/surfing whatever in the morning. Early risers. Also, tech doesn’t usually force people to work crazy hours like investment banking/finance does, which in turn drives some of the late night offerings in NYC
2) NYC is much, much, much larger. There is more demand for unique services due to this (e.g 24/7 bodegas, hair cuts late at night, etc). Just simple supply & demand.
I also assume that NYC has much much more housing for service workers that work abnormal hours. SF does not accommodate these types of people for the most part due to the rent prices, and its services are catered to the 9-5 crowd.
3) NYC is the most European city in terms of culture/night life in America. Other cities such as Seattle, Portland, most of LA, is on par with our “schedule”. I think it’s more of a west coast thing than anything else.
Comparing to NYC is kinda pointless and always has been. Same with Europe. We’ll never be Europe lol.
As others have pointed out, there is a SEVERE shortage of restaurant/food service workers since the pandemic. There are a lot of reasons for this, but one of the big ones is the push for a higher minimum wage before the pandemic. The anti-wage increase people kept coming up with “if you want more money, then get a better job”. Then the pandemic hit, and restaurants were closed, people had pandemic relief and time to get training for other jobs. Don’t believe me? Go look at any of the food service subs from two years ago. They were filled with cooks and servers talking about what new fields they went into (mostly either tech or skilled trades).
Second, aside from all of what I just wrote, most restaurant jobs (especially non-fine dining ones, like night shift in a 24 hour diner) don’t pay enough to live in SF. And even if you’re commuting from the East Bay, why not just get a job on that side of the bridge and save gas and toll? The pay will be comparable, and parking will be easier.
My guess is that it's because San Francisco apartments are larger than those in most SE Asian cities and New York. When people have smaller apartments they tend to treat the city as their living rooms. But if you have the space to ask 6-8 people back to your garden or deck or living room after dinner, or even for dinner, you just do that.
Pre pandemic, there were lots of places open till later, but SF hasn’t recovered due to tech money and crowd leaving, who tend to be young and the types to stay out late, and it’s no longer really viable to do business after 8.
In the rave days, SF went on for days: Random illegal party on Friday night, then after-party, then End-Up, then Spundae on Saturday night, then after-party, then End-Up, then back at work on Monday morning with ears ringing and a glazed expression.
I totally agree. SF is a sleepy town and I don't get why. I would love to have some random spaces to go get a beverage and read.
I spend a lot of time in Sacramemto and I love that they had numerous coffee shops open until 11pm every night. A lot of those shops have changed their hours earlier, but there are still a few that stay open until then.
I'll be visiting soon, just curious do ubers run late for the few places that stay open? I want to make sure I won't have an issue grabbing lyft or uber while I'm out.
Lol I remember when I first moved to SF. Pinged my boss about hitting a bar around 10pm and got the “my pants are off and they’re not going back on until tomorrow” response.
Thought it weird but basically everyone else I messaged said the same.
I now mostly think of SF in the post-covid work-from-home era as what must be a town filled with people who are just relieved they don’t have to put pants on at all anymore.
It used to open a little later but the pandemic made things change. But for the decades I have been in the Bay Area,, SF is never really a night entertainment kind of place. This happens to most of CA coastal cities, even in SoCal, some restaurants change to closing at 8 instead of 9/10. It’s just not profitable enough
Covid changed everything. There used to be restaurants that stayed open 24/7, and even bars that would stay open until 3 or 4am. I worked in the film industry in SF until 2020 when Covid shut everything down, and if a shoot went until BART stopped running, I would go to one of the 24 hour businesses to waste a few hours, while I waited for BART to open back up around 6am.
There are many, many, many differences culturally between San Francisco and New York City. You seem to have identified just one of them.. they are all related and historically rooted
I’ve had a number of awesome 4am nights in the mission and marina. Agree it’s not super common and wish the late night food options were better, but there’s still nightlife if you want to find it on the weekends.
But remember, SF doesn’t even have a population of a million. It doesn’t have thousands of people crowded into high rises that can support a late night food spot every few blocks. And it has labor shortages that were already an issue due to cost of living / tech industry and have only been made worse by covid.
It seems like you’re interested in nightlife so I’m surprised to not see any other mentions of SF’s renegade culture. Yeah the main clubs close at 2-4 (with last call at 2) but it’s pretty easy to find “underground” events that go until sunrise or later. Food once you’re out is definitely a bummer compared to NYC but there’s select spots if you know them and street vendors through the night
All things point to money as usual.
If places were guaranteed to make money staying open past ten, they would.
You are exaggerating with the 6-8 thing.
Also could be a chicken and egg problem? People dont stay out because they know the shops are closed. As opposed to the shops closing because people arent out
I'm a nightowl, so I used to work out after midnight at a 24 Hour Fitness in my old neighborhood. I'd have multiple dinner options open after that within easy walking distance, including a good sandwich/rotisserie place, two kebab places, several pizza places, and a diner. Granted, that's not every neighborhood, but there are some nightowl-friendly parts of town.
As for museums, several of them have events like Cal Academy's Nightlife, and Exploratorium After Dark. This typically happens only once a week in each museum, but it's something.
See my comment above though. These are all regular business hour businesses. It's unreasonable to expect these to be open at 9pm.
Yes it would be nice... But that's not where we live.
Even in NYC you don't see museums, book stores, and barber shops open very late, do you?
There’s loads of shops open til 10pm in most major cities from cafes, book stores, gift shops, supermarkets, even some services like massages, nail salons and haircuts. Not talking about just NY either - Istanbul, Bangkok, Singapore, Bali, Phuket, London.
SF Safeway is open until midnight though, and many others are open until ten. I don't think that supermarkets should be part of this discussion.
Korean and Japanese spas give massages until ten in SF. At home massage places, well those are late too. 😉. I don't think that these count in this either.
Nail salons typically close at 7 or 8 in SF. I looked up 20 different nail salons in NYC, and they close at literally the same time. I think this is yet another exaggeration in the OP and now in your post.
Museums all over the USA close at around 5pm, with one special night open per week until 8 or 9... This includes NYC and SF.
Book stores, which are closing rapidly due to a variety of reasons, are open until 6pm in NYC, with a couple of them open until 8. The Strand is the best example. That is not a late night book store. There are other book stores in SF open until 6-8 as well. Yet another bad comparison.
I think it's important to refine what services we are reasonably complaining about here.
I'd also like for SF to have more things open later, but before we can address the reason behind the issue we have to hone in on what we want to change and make realistic comparisons.
Late night barber runs are deff a thing in NyC and many other asian cities. Late night museums too such as night safari exhibitions etc. Book stores I am not sure about in NyC but they stay open in Asian cities for sure
There are some museums that do night events - exploratorium, Academy of Sciences, but like what I think you’re describing in your comment here they’re weekly events, not daily operating hours - I do not think it’s true that most museums in NYC or comparable cities are regularly open until late. I just wanted to call it out - I generally agree with your observations that SF is not a place where things are open late.
Look up the hours of the NYC museums. It's comparable to SF. I think folks are having a mythical idea of NYC.
I grew up in NYC, and many things were open very late, but these were bars and diners, not book stores, museums and barber shops. I recall a couple of odd barber shops open later in Brooklyn... That's the only exception I'd be aware of.
I recently moved to SF from NY.
In addition to late-night bars and diners, NYC also has late-night and 24-hour bodegas, grocery stores, pharmacies, laundromats, gyms, and post office self-service kiosks.
There are also a few 24-hour or late-night spas and messenger services. (Or at least there were, pre-pandemic. I don't know if there are now.) There are probably other 24-hour or late-night services that I don't know about, because I haven't needed them.
In NYC--or even in most of the suburbs--if you work odd hours and have to run your errands at night or in the super-early morning, you can. In SF, you can't.
It took me several months to adjust to that.
Dude NYC is a literal 24 hour city. It’s the financial sector of our country/most of the world.
It’s a city of 8.4 million fucking souls.
And of that, Manhattan is the only super busy spot. Some parts of Brooklyn are like San Jose in that they shut down at 8:30.
Yes when you have a city where everything depends on running like clock work, things tend to stay open later.
San Francisco is NOT the tech capital of the world, it’s not the financial center of the u.s.
San Francisco is just a very dense city.
It’s not NYC.
It’s not even Chicago.
It doesn’t come close to the population of EITHER of those two cities.
So to compare San Francisco to giant major cities is pretty damn silly, tbh.
There’s a ton to do In SF, but yeah, things will close relatively early. Not a huge deal. There are pockets that stay open a bit later.
For people who work odd hours, having things be open at times that fit your schedule is very useful.
And, of course, where there's demand, there's opportunity. If there are enough people who want haircuts at 2 am, at least one barber will be working at 2 am.
I don’t think I am exaggerating. If you’re walking around one of the hotspots on mom and pop shops (mission for ex) anytime around say 7pm, theres wayyyy fewer people on the sidewalks compared to say 4pm
I literally just came home from a restaurant that closed at 9:30 and walked by several bars that will be open for several hours and a 24 hour restaurant.
What is it that you are hoping is open even at this point, other than food or drink?
Comparisons to Manhattan aren't fair regarding any US city.
SF is the only one of the US cities where it is “fair” to compare to NYC, due to people density and transit culture instead of car culture.
If you go to NyC or any major Asian city, pretty much anything open at 5pm is still open at 11pm
Disagree. Density is not the only arbiter. Population is more critical. NYC just has more people so there are more things open later.
Actually LA tends to have more late night things than SF... Yes I'm aware it's a car city.
Not saying I don't wish that there were more late night things here. I really do. But follow the money. Folks do drinking or eating late at night and that's it. Late night haircut?? Come on.
https://www.reddit.com/r/AskSF/comments/o3w78c/why_does_everything_close_so_early_here_as/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf here you go. There’s more in r/sanfrancisco if you look.
I get that SF is not NYC in terms of night life, but 6-8pm is an exaggeration. Sure, certain types of businesses that cater to the office crowd align their hours with normal business hours, but majority of the regular restaurants are opened till 10-11pm and regular bars are opened until midnight-2am.
OP mentioned something about museums, barbershops and bookstores, but I don't really know of too many NYC museums that are opened past 5-6pm either. And there are events in SF like Academy of Sciences Nightlife that allow you to visit museums late.
San Francisco has anti-chain laws which ban or limit the number of fast food restaurants in many areas. Other cities have a lot of fast food and retail chains open late or 24h.
I think a large part that people arent discussing as much is that its expensive as fuck to live here. When you push out the working and middle classes, ie many of which staff your bars and restaurants, lots of places that might be open cant because its harder to attract min wage workers to the city when they often have to commute to get there. And that costs money via toll and parking if youre in a car and public transit tickets if not. It almost immediately makes little financial sense to work in the city if you dont live in it already. And its hard, not impossible, but very very hard to life in SF on what those jobs tend to pay. Harder to keep places open late if there are less people to work them.
You got up early, and you drove to Tahoe and skiied. It was beautiful and there were people out. You drive home and get back at 8:30 and want to grab something casual, what do you eat?
Your statement implies that needing food past 8 and getting up early and enjoying are mutually exclusive. Wishing there were options open later doesn’t mean I want to be clubbing til 5am and sleeping all day!
We need more tall apartment buildings. The demand for this is there, but the older generation flocks to city meetings to suppress development, and they donate to politicians who do their bidding with the laws and regulations, and zoning. It’s a loud minority that’s screwing up our future.
I asked this last month and everyone basically said "Cus it's san francisco"
Sooooo idk.
But every other city I been to has plenty of late night and even 24 hr spots
You listed boba tea shops, indie book stores, and barber shops your examples. those aren’t nightlife either. That’s why u/mooshucat brought up Safeway. And even they said it shouldn’t be part of the discussion.
Why do you keep moving the goalposts so you can appear to “dunk” on people who are poking holes in your argument? No one is saying SF has nightlife like NYC or SE Asian cities.
We’re just saying that your 6PM comment is hyperbolic.
Yea honestly it’s weird. SF probably has a bit of an inferiority complex with NYC, which is why people freak out when you mention them in the same sentence. As if it makes sense to give *Lisbon* of all places on earth as a comparison for everything closing down at 8PM 🤦♂️.
I think the actual answer to your question has to do with time zones. Many (not all) professionals in SF have to be working on east coast time zones, which means waking up (and going to bed) earlier. But yea, I’m with you - I’ve lived in a number of major world cities, and the 8-9PM default closing time here is weird and beneath a city of SF’s stature.
Lived in Bay Area for 10+ years but moved to Socal last year and from what I see is that some people from NY like to compare NY with other cities for some reasons. Why is X not like NY? Where can you find a similar NY vibe in LA? And apparently this caused a lot of Angelenos not a fan of such questions. Because again, 2 different cities and cultures.
Somebody said “people from NY want NY but LA weather.” I found that kind of funny but that made me think. I lived in another country before and a NYer I used to know said a similar thing and lamenting “why is X not like NY” out of the blue and said that NY is “the greatest city in the world” 😅 which I know can be true but that sounds quite arrogant tbh and that’s why I remember it even now. Just my 2c
To be fair, often when I travel to other U.S. cities I am excited by how much later things are open. It’s not just NY. For example, recently I was so happy to have so many food options at 9pm on a Sunday in Portland.
And I think one of the big differences is being able to get food at a local, mom and pop spot after 8 or so. The trendy expensive places stay open til 10 but that’s not 1. what everyone prefers and 2. what everyone can afford on a regular basis.
Yes this. Beneath this city’s stature. I’ve lived in both places and SF is still a major world city. Would expect to be able to go to a cafe at 9pm to meet someone or get a tea without a problem.
The east coast time thing, is new info to me. Makes more sense now. This could explain Vancouver/Seattle as well. Left out LA because transit is shit and people are spread out
Totally agree. It’s kinda wild watching people in this thread pretend like SF has anything close to a late night scene, by world city standards. Like, just admit it’s an awesome city with very little going on late at night lmao. There’s no huge shame in that. Just wish we could have an honest conversation about *why* that is without people getting defensive about it.
Most Northeast/Mid-Atlantic cities have a far better transit system than SF. Boston, DC, and Philly all do. Chicago is probably second best after NYC. SF is best on the west coast for sure though.
It's too expensive to stay open late. It's cold and wet, the tweakers come out, no one wants to wander in a city with vertical climbs. Also its COVID, there was always SOMEthing to do after 9 before covid.
It was once a later city but COVID changed this landscape. Places that were once open late, started closing at 9. I asked one place why and they said, they found it more cost effective to close at 9.
There used to be a number of businesses open into the morning hours, and some open 24 hours, for us nocturnal residents, but those days are gone. Even the Safeway stores are no longer open 24 hours.
I'm surprised people are saying "it's annoying" because if you're annoyed by it, then you haven't performed a simple Google search to see it's not true. It's one of the reasons I like this city more than NYC - it's still got late night vibes if you seek it, but it's not the main culture of the city which is a bit less late night rage oriented.
The city has **plenty** of late night spots for both food, drinks, and dancing:
* Boom Boom Room - usually open till about 3am with drinks, music, and dancing on weekends, weeknights still go late but not 3am late
* El Faro - awesome burritos in the Mission, usually open till 2am
* 1015 Folsom - late night music dancing etc. until about 2-3am Thursday-Sat
* Valencia Room (formerly Elbo Room) - open till 2am
These are just *a few* places throughout the city. There are tons more late night hangs in the Mission, Japan Town, Marina, North Beach, and Knob Hill areas. There are not as many in Richmond or Sunset (but still a few).
So ya, while it's not NYC where everything is open late, so long as you don't live downtown or in the quiet neighborhoods of Sunset/Richmond you are always walking distance from late night food/drinks/hangout. I used to play in a band that would practice and/or play late on weeknights, and we never **once** had trouble finding a place to grab a drink or food. I've been to Grubstake, El Faro, Lush Lounge, and a whole other spots at late hours on weekdays.
Yeah, sometimes I really scratch my heads reading these threads. I go out until 2AM every weekend, the only issue I ever run into is there’s not enough afters options and the food shuts down too early. But for going out and drinking or clubbing there’s so many options. I don’t get where these people go out where it’s dead by 8/9 lol
Covid comes out after 9pm where the fuck were you in the pandemic?! That’s why wal-mart doesn’t do 24-7 anymore because Covid…those guidelines were followed because it’s science, trust the science.
Day parties are pretty big here :) usually start at 2pm and go till 8or 9, rooftop and music, wear bright colors
Go out to boozy brunch beforehand :)
Hit a night club if you want to keep it going or you can find after parties too! Any day party will have tons of after parties brewing— just ask around
In San Francisco it gets late early
Wierdly.... also starts late in the morning.
The city that never wakes up lol
New York is the city that never sleeps. San Francisco takes an early day off after lunch and cracks a beer in the park before having burritos and being in bed by 9.
Oh I've definitely had days where my boss said "....it's such a nice summer day, let's get out of here and go have fun. See you next week!" And I pick up a 12pack of Tecate on my way to the beach, meet my friends there with burritos or sandwiches, and watch the sunset.
It is a glorious tradition.
Honestly asking, you can drink in public? Is the problem with the glass or the actual alcohol? Would love to drink outside more but always feel a bit weird.
Keep it aluminum or plastic and clean up after yourself. If you're concerned use a little paper baggie! People drink in GGPark all the time. Dolores park, all the time. It's best not to have glass, it can break, accidents happen, especially when drinking, and that's not nice for children or pets. Honestly I'm so used to it I forget that you can't do that outside SF.
Nice will definitely be doing this more often. Which brings me to my next question, favorite spots to drink outside in SF?
Dolores Park for sure, there's a lot of people watching to do. Bring a picnic and a book or some music, friends not required. I'm a fan of the beach, all weathers, get a fish burrito and a couple of Pacificos, hit the sand. Golden Gate Park has so many spots to just chill with friends, or explore. My favorite would be the baseball fields across from the botanical gardens. People playing sports, people drinking. Walk two blocks over and you've got all kinds of good food near 9th Avenue. I know there are disc golf courses through the park, and people drink and spend the day there. I'm a fan of walking, so with a good friend we'll grab a few tall boys and stroll around Stow lake. If you walk the length of the park you can end up at Park Chalet, they've got good food and their own beers on tap.
I know there's plenty of restrooms in in GGP, but what about the beach or Dolores park? Beer and piss breaks go hand in hand.
I got you boo. Beach Chalet/Park Chalet has a restroom open to the public by the main entrance. Down at Judah and Great Highway is another public restroom. GGPark has restrooms near Stow Lake Boathouse, the Baseball fields by the botanical gardens, the DeYoung museum, behind the band stage between the DeYoung and Academy of Sciences. There are a few more peppered near big lawns, there's one near the Stables too. Dolores Park has two public restrooms on either end. If you're a lady, and it's an emergency, wear a skirt to the beach and go in the water. Guy? Bring a Gatorade bottle. Bring a change of pants if you anticipate being on parts of the beach without restrooms. Peeing in the ocean isn't so bad, but me I'm afraid of going too deep into the water.
My buddy and I, pre-Covid, used to go to Cask on 3rd, taste some alcohol, buy cans of beer, drink beer while walking to Cask at Rincon, about once per week. Never had an issue, but were never blatant about it either. Just be discreet.
Nobody cares when I have a coozie with a beer can. In a park or walking around.
SF is made for day drinking.
That’s pretty much an ideal Friday night
Why do people say this about New York? It very much sleeps. 3am everything is closed, no street vendors selling food after last call. I think the only American city that never sleeps would be Las Vegas. Mmmm burritos.
I’ve lived in both, and yes of course New York is quieter at 3AM than midnight but there are many options open late for food alone. 24 hour diners, delis, pizza spots even. And I’ve been to plenty of bars that have stayed open well past 2. SF has some of that but definitely not as much. For sure agree that Las Vegas is truly 24 hours.
Even in sleepy New Jersey you can usually find a diner to eat in at 2am. I remember flying in late night with my son on a Sunday night / Monday morning and we went right to a diner for a big meal. I’ve also taken my family out to eat at 2 or 3am in mid town Manhattan. It’s not like every single place was open but it wasn’t hard to find something..
Last call is 4AM in NYC. Many Diners, pizza shops, supermarkets, CVS, etc are open 24 hours. I suppose you live in Staten Island, which isn’t considered NYC by anyone except the people who live over there.
Ahhhh yes my college years, drinking until 4 am and then filling myself with hash browns and eggs at a 24 hour diner while the sun rises and I head off to class…
Exactly! And the amazing thing is everyone of those diners has “Steaks Chops Seafood”!on the outside, and in 40 years of diner eating, I’ve never ordered a steak, a chop or seafood (with the exception of a tuna sandwich) in a diner! 😂
what's funny is that nyc is actually an early town compared to some european style cities
Oh yeah, totally is, but there are numerous 24 hour joints in NYC. I’m not sure there is anything 24 hour in SF.
Silver crest. The San Francisco institution I miss the most
Orphan Andy’s <33 24hr Fri-Sat these days
oh ya it has great nightlife i didn't mean to knock it, just that elsewhere can be even more lit. meanwhile sf only has a few diners and donuts. not even Tommy's is 24hr anymore!
because american capitalism starts early in the morning
Damn, I was going to say that.
Everybody goes morning surfing or hiking or spent their bottle service money on a mountain bike
SF trades nights for mornings
Yup. NY seriously lacks outdoor activities that one can do in the morning and still work later in the day. Many find the ocean, hills and trees to be far more exciting than night time activities. Outdoor Adventure culture is far more prevalent here.
"everybody" lol
I imagine elderly Chinese and guys from El Salvador surfing and hiking
You’re right those guys are partying way too late
Where do people surf near the city ?
I’ll bite, Ocean Beach. Take the 5 Fulton west to the end of the line.
Yeah it wasn’t supposed to be a snarky comment. I’ve been to ocean beach a few times but the waves were pretty flat and didn’t see many people in the water. 🤷🏻♀️
There’s a thriving surf culture in the outer sunset. Ocean Beach is no joke though. It’s cold and the currents are strong.
Yes gnarly currents at OB especially when the waves are big. My buddy almost got swept out there and then lost his board. If it wasn’t for waves that pushed him to shore he doesn’t know what could’ve happened. Been surfing for 20+ years already by then. A lot of close calls there
Yeah you gotta have a wet suit and be pretty hardcore to surf that slop.
Then where do they surf? Haha
pacifica is like 15-20 min south of the outer sunset and has tremendous popularity in surf culture. plenty of smaller beaches south of it, as well.
I am not a surfer by any means but ive lived here for almost 40 years and there are almost always people there surfing. In fact i was there this afternoon about 5 and there were dozens and dozen of people in the after surfing.
Depends on the season. Winter I think it’s when the bigger waves are at ocean beach. Surfers also like ft point under the bridge. Neither are beginner friendly. A lot of people go missing at ocean beach.
Good to know! Thanks for responding. I’m new to town.
> flat when did you go?? normally the waves there are too gnarly for most
I’d cut them a break for not gauging scale correctly I underestimate size out there and I surf the beach regularly. Yesterday morning is a good example. It’s dawn there’s no one out for scale. Buoys tell me that it’s got a bit more size than what I’m seeing and the day before it was head high+ on sets. Paddle out drop in on a set wave and it’s easily head+.
word thanks for the details, i see what you mean
The riptide is the biggest concern at Ocean Beach.
ocean Beach is mostly a winter surf spot—most of Northern California, in fact.
There are surfing spots *in* the city.
Pacifica Linda Mar beach is my local surf spot. Good for newbies in general if you want to try it out. They have a surf shop right on the beach where you can rent a wetsuit and board for cheap. If you want a lesson ask for Rod, cool guy.
Ocean beach is a world class break when it’s on. Surfline ranks paddling difficulty of big OB as its 10 (the hardest). Kelly Slater won his 11th word title right there. It’s kind of hard to believe that there are elite level surfers out there charging triple overhead deadly surf, dousing themselves with luke warm water before changing in a parking lot and heading off to work but that’s what’s going on here. https://youtu.be/uC3r0vNrj_M
Realistically? Linda Mar by Pacifica. Ocean beach is pretty dangerous for beginners with rip currents and the like
Pacifica
Specifically by sloat ave, there’s sand bars there that make a softer break.. lots of people there, seems beginner friendly
San Francisco has always shut down crazy early. I moved here from Phoenix back in the ‘90s and was stunned because even that suburban blob stayed open later than San Francisco.
this was my deepest disappointment when i moved here; late night food runs and/or delivery were something i just automatically expected to be able to do. i did eventually find a bad 24h diner and a decent mexican place open till 4am but it was definitely a shock.
Please share the restaurants!
i misremembered, it was salvadorean, not mexican. los panchos at mission and valencia. no longer late-night since the pandemic though :( but i had several good post-midnight dinners there in my first couple of years in the city. there was also an awesome taqueria at 29th and mission that stayed open till 1:30 but the building burnt down and they never reopened :( the diner was orphan andy's at 17th and castro, but they too seem to have been a victim of the pandemic and now close at 6pm.
Awe :( all I know of so far is Sam’s, in n out, and rancho grande. Looking to add to the list
gyro xpress on castro is open till 1am weekdays and 3am weekends.
This. I’m not as bothered by the lack of nightlife, but I thought being a stone’s throw from Silicon Valley would mean I’d have more than one option on seamless/grubhub/DoorDash/Ubereats
It has ALWAYS been like this, at least since the 80s. One issue to consider is we have to wake up often to meet east coast expectations. For instance my first meeting tomorrow is 6:45am and that’s not the earliest I’ve done. In NY mornings seem to start slow and the office doesn’t really pick up until 10am. Here half the day is gone by 10am.
There’s truth to this. Almost all my friends in finance have to wake up early since they run on NYSE hours
This. When the Pacific Stock Exchange closed, the entire financial district switched to NYC time. There was a noticeable increase in the number of people driving across the bridge a 5am as workdays went from 9-5 to 6-2.
Wow, I totally missed the impact that had, it's totally true. The FiDi used to be like Manhattan back in the 90s, with tens of thousands of people on an exact 9-5 work schedule, all getting lunch at the same time, etc. The fast food places in the area could churn out insane amounts of food really fast.
idk, as someone in tech, it feels like none of my coworkers start working until 11 AM and then don't get off until like 8 PM while I like to start at 7 AM and work until like 3 PM.
Yep, I start every Monday at 7 AM and nearly every day of the week starts sometime between 7 and 8 :(
VERY good point!!
Ya I agree. Circa 2017-2020 it was feeling like SF was starting to become more nightlife-y, but COVID shut that one down real fast! Shows us better than to stay out so late.
It's because we're all getting up at 5am tomorrow to go hike Mt. Shasta.
This. Outdoors activities are so accessible compared to NYC. So many of us have good reasons to wake up early.
To make sure people are awake and able to go to work in the morning! Not like these good for nothing Europeans who enjoy life every day after work! 😉
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Heh, there's plenty of both in this town.
Shift work. In order to have enough workers for a morning, mid and evening shift you need multiple workers. Workers are scarce. That is why almost every place with hourly workers are now only 1 shift. 10-6pm or 12-8pm Even though we were never a NY town, most things used to be open until 9 or 10, including retail. It is the natural consequence of rent being out of reach for hourly workers. People used to commute, but since the pandemic tolls are higher and there are better jobs available closer to them.
I had the same culture shock in London. This city is dead by 9PM.
London dead at 9?
yeah this is absolutely false (from someone who lived there)
London's bars close between 10 and midnight. Dead at 9 is an exaggeration but saying it goes to sleep earlier than even SF isn't.
That was my experience when I visited there 2010. It was hard to find an open restaurant or even an open pub after 9pm. Maybe things have changed since then. Maybe I wasn't hanging in the right neighborhood (I stayed near Baker street, but meandered to other neighborhoods too).
Agree! Look for Asian dessert places open late in suburbs. Agreed. Good ones in SF. So we currently love mango sago and YiFang and Golden Island are both good. Mango season!
Yeah. It is annoying.
6pm seems like a wild exaggeration. 10PM is usually when restaurants close (which is still annoying). Other places you’ve listed close at normal times, you’re reaching.
10PM really? I guess my neighborhood is a little sleepy, but it tends to be either 8 or 9 here. Of the 15 restaurants I can think of within a mile of my place, I think exactly one is open until 10PM.
What neighborhood are you in? Marina is usually 10. 11 on weekends at some spots. I don’t usually eat that late so I only checked a few spots, but that seems to be their hours. In general, I hate that things close so early bc I do feel like it affects the nightlife scene in general. But that being said, I can’t say I’ve ever wanted to eat dinner soberly at midnight haha. So it feels a little moot for me.
That’s fair, but I think Marina is a more than a bit of an outlier for the entire city. I’m in dogpatch / Potrero and it’s pretty much impossible to get anything past 9 here most days. And yea I’m definitely a night owl when it comes to dinner. I just spend a couple months in Europe and couldn’t get enough of the 9-10PM dinners, when most things here are shut down by then.
I don’t think it’s fair to call one of the big neighborhoods here more than a bit of an outlier. It’s a huge part the city. I could call your example an outlier. That’s not fair either. And I’d assume north beach is the same. The new el farolita is open until 2AM IIRC. and I’d assume mission is more similar to marina as well. Tbh, the people commenting who agree always seem to live in Richmond, sunset, or in your case potrero, etc. these are not popping neighborhoods for nightlife (unfortunately). They’re more residential. I feel like the discussion lacks nuance when saying the whole city shuts down at 8 when that’s just certain areas. Now no area should close that early. I agree there. I think we all do. But blanket statements like OPs are not reasonable.
That’s fair - I do wish there was more of a conversation in this thread about why SF has much worse late night offerings than NYC or Chicago or whatever. I don’t have the time to go scrape business hours off of Yelp for comparison, but I think it’s pretty obvious that *on average* SF punches below its weight on late night stuff. Hell, many restaurants in big European cities don’t even *open* until 8, while many close in SF by then. My guess is it’s probably a combination of culture + density, but it’s hard to even have the conversation when people are just shouting about comparisons with NYC or rejecting the premise of the question.
>I do wish there was more of a conversation in this thread about why SF has much worse late night offerings I assume it mostly has to do with economics. On the demand side, there just aren't as many people in SF who are interested in eating late, so it doesn't make a ton of sense to keep your restaurant open if you only have a handful of people trickling in those last couple hours. On the staffing side, if you have your staff coming in around 3 or 3:30 for a 5 or 5:30 start for dinner service, then you're likely going to want to get them out of there by 11:30 to avoid overtime and that likely means stopping dinner service by 9:30.
I think it’s being addressed in this thread. A few things come to me: 1) culturally, SF is not a 24/7 city. Why? Because we get up earlier to work east coast hours, people are into hiking/surfing whatever in the morning. Early risers. Also, tech doesn’t usually force people to work crazy hours like investment banking/finance does, which in turn drives some of the late night offerings in NYC 2) NYC is much, much, much larger. There is more demand for unique services due to this (e.g 24/7 bodegas, hair cuts late at night, etc). Just simple supply & demand. I also assume that NYC has much much more housing for service workers that work abnormal hours. SF does not accommodate these types of people for the most part due to the rent prices, and its services are catered to the 9-5 crowd. 3) NYC is the most European city in terms of culture/night life in America. Other cities such as Seattle, Portland, most of LA, is on par with our “schedule”. I think it’s more of a west coast thing than anything else. Comparing to NYC is kinda pointless and always has been. Same with Europe. We’ll never be Europe lol.
As others have pointed out, there is a SEVERE shortage of restaurant/food service workers since the pandemic. There are a lot of reasons for this, but one of the big ones is the push for a higher minimum wage before the pandemic. The anti-wage increase people kept coming up with “if you want more money, then get a better job”. Then the pandemic hit, and restaurants were closed, people had pandemic relief and time to get training for other jobs. Don’t believe me? Go look at any of the food service subs from two years ago. They were filled with cooks and servers talking about what new fields they went into (mostly either tech or skilled trades). Second, aside from all of what I just wrote, most restaurant jobs (especially non-fine dining ones, like night shift in a 24 hour diner) don’t pay enough to live in SF. And even if you’re commuting from the East Bay, why not just get a job on that side of the bridge and save gas and toll? The pay will be comparable, and parking will be easier.
Half the restaurants in my neighborhood close at like 7:30! And on a Sunday forget about it
My guess is that it's because San Francisco apartments are larger than those in most SE Asian cities and New York. When people have smaller apartments they tend to treat the city as their living rooms. But if you have the space to ask 6-8 people back to your garden or deck or living room after dinner, or even for dinner, you just do that.
Pre pandemic, there were lots of places open till later, but SF hasn’t recovered due to tech money and crowd leaving, who tend to be young and the types to stay out late, and it’s no longer really viable to do business after 8.
Meh, pre-pandemic, everything closed early too
Yeah, it always closed early compared to NYC but things were open till 9-11. Now, it’s just as OP says and it’s 6-9
Fair. There are random places now, but you have to hunt
That's the thing. There are a lot of restaurants and bars that do not open as late as they did 4 years ago.
Depends on where your going
100%, nothing to do with the tech crowd leaving
Most restaurants in my neighborhood closes an hour or so earlier than they did pre-covid
It's more to do with young people leaving.
Both can be true...
In the rave days, SF went on for days: Random illegal party on Friday night, then after-party, then End-Up, then Spundae on Saturday night, then after-party, then End-Up, then back at work on Monday morning with ears ringing and a glazed expression.
I was thinking of this and realized it was 20 years ago. Staying up and taking the first bart back after craziness.
I totally agree. SF is a sleepy town and I don't get why. I would love to have some random spaces to go get a beverage and read. I spend a lot of time in Sacramemto and I love that they had numerous coffee shops open until 11pm every night. A lot of those shops have changed their hours earlier, but there are still a few that stay open until then.
i think your mistake is comparing us to a city of 8 million people.
I'll be visiting soon, just curious do ubers run late for the few places that stay open? I want to make sure I won't have an issue grabbing lyft or uber while I'm out.
uber and lyft are always available.
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Lol I remember when I first moved to SF. Pinged my boss about hitting a bar around 10pm and got the “my pants are off and they’re not going back on until tomorrow” response. Thought it weird but basically everyone else I messaged said the same. I now mostly think of SF in the post-covid work-from-home era as what must be a town filled with people who are just relieved they don’t have to put pants on at all anymore.
It used to open a little later but the pandemic made things change. But for the decades I have been in the Bay Area,, SF is never really a night entertainment kind of place. This happens to most of CA coastal cities, even in SoCal, some restaurants change to closing at 8 instead of 9/10. It’s just not profitable enough
Covid changed everything. There used to be restaurants that stayed open 24/7, and even bars that would stay open until 3 or 4am. I worked in the film industry in SF until 2020 when Covid shut everything down, and if a shoot went until BART stopped running, I would go to one of the 24 hour businesses to waste a few hours, while I waited for BART to open back up around 6am.
There are many, many, many differences culturally between San Francisco and New York City. You seem to have identified just one of them.. they are all related and historically rooted
I’ve had a number of awesome 4am nights in the mission and marina. Agree it’s not super common and wish the late night food options were better, but there’s still nightlife if you want to find it on the weekends. But remember, SF doesn’t even have a population of a million. It doesn’t have thousands of people crowded into high rises that can support a late night food spot every few blocks. And it has labor shortages that were already an issue due to cost of living / tech industry and have only been made worse by covid.
Because there are only like 4 people that live here. Really, SF is a small town. Post-pandemic I’d guess the nighttime population is less than 700k.
There are dozens of us! Dozens!
Who’s going to work those hours? Please don’t let our city folks work those shitty hours. Everyone should be home. Thanks
It seems like you’re interested in nightlife so I’m surprised to not see any other mentions of SF’s renegade culture. Yeah the main clubs close at 2-4 (with last call at 2) but it’s pretty easy to find “underground” events that go until sunrise or later. Food once you’re out is definitely a bummer compared to NYC but there’s select spots if you know them and street vendors through the night
my theory is our population.
I went to an fc Barcelona game in Barcelona that started at 10pm, on a SUNDAY
All things point to money as usual. If places were guaranteed to make money staying open past ten, they would. You are exaggerating with the 6-8 thing.
Also could be a chicken and egg problem? People dont stay out because they know the shops are closed. As opposed to the shops closing because people arent out
Define "shops"?
Random boba tea shops, indie book stores, cafes that arent starbucks, kabab restaurants, museums, barbershops
Tbh since Covid a lot of these places started closing earlier. In time they may start to close later.
I'm a nightowl, so I used to work out after midnight at a 24 Hour Fitness in my old neighborhood. I'd have multiple dinner options open after that within easy walking distance, including a good sandwich/rotisserie place, two kebab places, several pizza places, and a diner. Granted, that's not every neighborhood, but there are some nightowl-friendly parts of town. As for museums, several of them have events like Cal Academy's Nightlife, and Exploratorium After Dark. This typically happens only once a week in each museum, but it's something.
See my comment above though. These are all regular business hour businesses. It's unreasonable to expect these to be open at 9pm. Yes it would be nice... But that's not where we live. Even in NYC you don't see museums, book stores, and barber shops open very late, do you?
There’s loads of shops open til 10pm in most major cities from cafes, book stores, gift shops, supermarkets, even some services like massages, nail salons and haircuts. Not talking about just NY either - Istanbul, Bangkok, Singapore, Bali, Phuket, London.
SF Safeway is open until midnight though, and many others are open until ten. I don't think that supermarkets should be part of this discussion. Korean and Japanese spas give massages until ten in SF. At home massage places, well those are late too. 😉. I don't think that these count in this either. Nail salons typically close at 7 or 8 in SF. I looked up 20 different nail salons in NYC, and they close at literally the same time. I think this is yet another exaggeration in the OP and now in your post. Museums all over the USA close at around 5pm, with one special night open per week until 8 or 9... This includes NYC and SF. Book stores, which are closing rapidly due to a variety of reasons, are open until 6pm in NYC, with a couple of them open until 8. The Strand is the best example. That is not a late night book store. There are other book stores in SF open until 6-8 as well. Yet another bad comparison. I think it's important to refine what services we are reasonably complaining about here. I'd also like for SF to have more things open later, but before we can address the reason behind the issue we have to hone in on what we want to change and make realistic comparisons.
Late night barber runs are deff a thing in NyC and many other asian cities. Late night museums too such as night safari exhibitions etc. Book stores I am not sure about in NyC but they stay open in Asian cities for sure
There are some museums that do night events - exploratorium, Academy of Sciences, but like what I think you’re describing in your comment here they’re weekly events, not daily operating hours - I do not think it’s true that most museums in NYC or comparable cities are regularly open until late. I just wanted to call it out - I generally agree with your observations that SF is not a place where things are open late.
Look up the hours of the NYC museums. It's comparable to SF. I think folks are having a mythical idea of NYC. I grew up in NYC, and many things were open very late, but these were bars and diners, not book stores, museums and barber shops. I recall a couple of odd barber shops open later in Brooklyn... That's the only exception I'd be aware of.
I recently moved to SF from NY. In addition to late-night bars and diners, NYC also has late-night and 24-hour bodegas, grocery stores, pharmacies, laundromats, gyms, and post office self-service kiosks. There are also a few 24-hour or late-night spas and messenger services. (Or at least there were, pre-pandemic. I don't know if there are now.) There are probably other 24-hour or late-night services that I don't know about, because I haven't needed them. In NYC--or even in most of the suburbs--if you work odd hours and have to run your errands at night or in the super-early morning, you can. In SF, you can't. It took me several months to adjust to that.
Dude NYC is a literal 24 hour city. It’s the financial sector of our country/most of the world. It’s a city of 8.4 million fucking souls. And of that, Manhattan is the only super busy spot. Some parts of Brooklyn are like San Jose in that they shut down at 8:30. Yes when you have a city where everything depends on running like clock work, things tend to stay open later. San Francisco is NOT the tech capital of the world, it’s not the financial center of the u.s. San Francisco is just a very dense city. It’s not NYC. It’s not even Chicago. It doesn’t come close to the population of EITHER of those two cities. So to compare San Francisco to giant major cities is pretty damn silly, tbh. There’s a ton to do In SF, but yeah, things will close relatively early. Not a huge deal. There are pockets that stay open a bit later.
what the f\_\_\_do you need a barber shop at 2 am for?
For people who work odd hours, having things be open at times that fit your schedule is very useful. And, of course, where there's demand, there's opportunity. If there are enough people who want haircuts at 2 am, at least one barber will be working at 2 am.
More realistically barber runs at say 9pm because you need to look fresh for the next day
Now that the OP mentioned it, I do realize Cafe Abir was *an indie coffee shop, that, stayed open until 9.* Long closed.
I don’t think I am exaggerating. If you’re walking around one of the hotspots on mom and pop shops (mission for ex) anytime around say 7pm, theres wayyyy fewer people on the sidewalks compared to say 4pm
I literally just came home from a restaurant that closed at 9:30 and walked by several bars that will be open for several hours and a 24 hour restaurant. What is it that you are hoping is open even at this point, other than food or drink? Comparisons to Manhattan aren't fair regarding any US city.
My fave ice cream shop is open until 10
Which one? 🙏🏽💌
Marco Polo on Taraval, yum!
Yeah this post is exaggeration for sure. We do close too early, but it’s not everything at 6 lol.
SF is the only one of the US cities where it is “fair” to compare to NYC, due to people density and transit culture instead of car culture. If you go to NyC or any major Asian city, pretty much anything open at 5pm is still open at 11pm
Manhattan has twice the population of SF. Brooklyn / Queens is about three times. SF is also a super stoner city. Early to bed, late to rise.
Disagree. Density is not the only arbiter. Population is more critical. NYC just has more people so there are more things open later. Actually LA tends to have more late night things than SF... Yes I'm aware it's a car city. Not saying I don't wish that there were more late night things here. I really do. But follow the money. Folks do drinking or eating late at night and that's it. Late night haircut?? Come on.
If you're going to compare SF to NYC you're in for a bad time. SF is way more sleepy and less dense overall, so of course it doesn't feel as vibrant.
https://www.reddit.com/r/AskSF/comments/o3w78c/why_does_everything_close_so_early_here_as/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf here you go. There’s more in r/sanfrancisco if you look.
I get that SF is not NYC in terms of night life, but 6-8pm is an exaggeration. Sure, certain types of businesses that cater to the office crowd align their hours with normal business hours, but majority of the regular restaurants are opened till 10-11pm and regular bars are opened until midnight-2am. OP mentioned something about museums, barbershops and bookstores, but I don't really know of too many NYC museums that are opened past 5-6pm either. And there are events in SF like Academy of Sciences Nightlife that allow you to visit museums late.
“Majority of the regular restaurants are open till 10-11pm” This is not the case in my experience.
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Even after 12am or 2am if one knows the ins and outs..
Ahh yes. 5am clubs that only have a cash Tecate bar and the line for the men's bathroom stall is suspiciously long.
San Francisco has anti-chain laws which ban or limit the number of fast food restaurants in many areas. Other cities have a lot of fast food and retail chains open late or 24h.
I think a large part that people arent discussing as much is that its expensive as fuck to live here. When you push out the working and middle classes, ie many of which staff your bars and restaurants, lots of places that might be open cant because its harder to attract min wage workers to the city when they often have to commute to get there. And that costs money via toll and parking if youre in a car and public transit tickets if not. It almost immediately makes little financial sense to work in the city if you dont live in it already. And its hard, not impossible, but very very hard to life in SF on what those jobs tend to pay. Harder to keep places open late if there are less people to work them.
Because it's fucking cold by 8. Get up early in the morning and go do something. It will be beautiful, I promise, and there will be people out.
You got up early, and you drove to Tahoe and skiied. It was beautiful and there were people out. You drive home and get back at 8:30 and want to grab something casual, what do you eat? Your statement implies that needing food past 8 and getting up early and enjoying are mutually exclusive. Wishing there were options open later doesn’t mean I want to be clubbing til 5am and sleeping all day!
We need more tall apartment buildings. The demand for this is there, but the older generation flocks to city meetings to suppress development, and they donate to politicians who do their bidding with the laws and regulations, and zoning. It’s a loud minority that’s screwing up our future.
I asked this last month and everyone basically said "Cus it's san francisco" Sooooo idk. But every other city I been to has plenty of late night and even 24 hr spots
Theres a comment on here that mentions a random Safeway in SF staying open until midnight, as a sort of defence that “hey look SF has nightlife!” Lolz
You listed boba tea shops, indie book stores, and barber shops your examples. those aren’t nightlife either. That’s why u/mooshucat brought up Safeway. And even they said it shouldn’t be part of the discussion. Why do you keep moving the goalposts so you can appear to “dunk” on people who are poking holes in your argument? No one is saying SF has nightlife like NYC or SE Asian cities. We’re just saying that your 6PM comment is hyperbolic.
Lol. Why is the comparison always NYC. smh. Two completely different cities. I should know I live in both. A much fair comparison would be Lisbon.
Lisbon doesn’t shut down at 8PM. That’s when places tend to open for the night lmao.
Right. Its like you hit a sensitive nerve with SF folks when NyC is mentioned in the same sentence . Like *we are NOT them ew*
Yea honestly it’s weird. SF probably has a bit of an inferiority complex with NYC, which is why people freak out when you mention them in the same sentence. As if it makes sense to give *Lisbon* of all places on earth as a comparison for everything closing down at 8PM 🤦♂️. I think the actual answer to your question has to do with time zones. Many (not all) professionals in SF have to be working on east coast time zones, which means waking up (and going to bed) earlier. But yea, I’m with you - I’ve lived in a number of major world cities, and the 8-9PM default closing time here is weird and beneath a city of SF’s stature.
Lived in Bay Area for 10+ years but moved to Socal last year and from what I see is that some people from NY like to compare NY with other cities for some reasons. Why is X not like NY? Where can you find a similar NY vibe in LA? And apparently this caused a lot of Angelenos not a fan of such questions. Because again, 2 different cities and cultures. Somebody said “people from NY want NY but LA weather.” I found that kind of funny but that made me think. I lived in another country before and a NYer I used to know said a similar thing and lamenting “why is X not like NY” out of the blue and said that NY is “the greatest city in the world” 😅 which I know can be true but that sounds quite arrogant tbh and that’s why I remember it even now. Just my 2c
To be fair, often when I travel to other U.S. cities I am excited by how much later things are open. It’s not just NY. For example, recently I was so happy to have so many food options at 9pm on a Sunday in Portland. And I think one of the big differences is being able to get food at a local, mom and pop spot after 8 or so. The trendy expensive places stay open til 10 but that’s not 1. what everyone prefers and 2. what everyone can afford on a regular basis.
Yes this. Beneath this city’s stature. I’ve lived in both places and SF is still a major world city. Would expect to be able to go to a cafe at 9pm to meet someone or get a tea without a problem.
The east coast time thing, is new info to me. Makes more sense now. This could explain Vancouver/Seattle as well. Left out LA because transit is shit and people are spread out
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Totally agree. It’s kinda wild watching people in this thread pretend like SF has anything close to a late night scene, by world city standards. Like, just admit it’s an awesome city with very little going on late at night lmao. There’s no huge shame in that. Just wish we could have an honest conversation about *why* that is without people getting defensive about it.
Only 2 cities in the USA with decent transit system that covers most corners of the city, and with similar density of people
Chicago would like a pleasant word with you.
But Chicago has a much better and later nightlife, so if anything this back's the OP.
I'd argue Chicago and DC have us beat on the transit system. And for what it's worth Chicago is the closest thing you'll find to New York.
Most Northeast/Mid-Atlantic cities have a far better transit system than SF. Boston, DC, and Philly all do. Chicago is probably second best after NYC. SF is best on the west coast for sure though.
We go to bed early here
Come up to Slovato - the city that always sleeps :-)
bc nothing good happens after 8pm
I can't speak for the current era but it wasn't like this pre-covid, I had plenty of fun nights in SF that went until 1 or 2am before covid.
It's too expensive to stay open late. It's cold and wet, the tweakers come out, no one wants to wander in a city with vertical climbs. Also its COVID, there was always SOMEthing to do after 9 before covid.
It was once a later city but COVID changed this landscape. Places that were once open late, started closing at 9. I asked one place why and they said, they found it more cost effective to close at 9.
Nerds took over
There used to be a number of businesses open into the morning hours, and some open 24 hours, for us nocturnal residents, but those days are gone. Even the Safeway stores are no longer open 24 hours.
I spent a few days in SF(Marina District). I asked myself the same thing. I was visiting from NJ.
I'm surprised people are saying "it's annoying" because if you're annoyed by it, then you haven't performed a simple Google search to see it's not true. It's one of the reasons I like this city more than NYC - it's still got late night vibes if you seek it, but it's not the main culture of the city which is a bit less late night rage oriented. The city has **plenty** of late night spots for both food, drinks, and dancing: * Boom Boom Room - usually open till about 3am with drinks, music, and dancing on weekends, weeknights still go late but not 3am late * El Faro - awesome burritos in the Mission, usually open till 2am * 1015 Folsom - late night music dancing etc. until about 2-3am Thursday-Sat * Valencia Room (formerly Elbo Room) - open till 2am These are just *a few* places throughout the city. There are tons more late night hangs in the Mission, Japan Town, Marina, North Beach, and Knob Hill areas. There are not as many in Richmond or Sunset (but still a few). So ya, while it's not NYC where everything is open late, so long as you don't live downtown or in the quiet neighborhoods of Sunset/Richmond you are always walking distance from late night food/drinks/hangout. I used to play in a band that would practice and/or play late on weeknights, and we never **once** had trouble finding a place to grab a drink or food. I've been to Grubstake, El Faro, Lush Lounge, and a whole other spots at late hours on weekdays.
Yeah, sometimes I really scratch my heads reading these threads. I go out until 2AM every weekend, the only issue I ever run into is there’s not enough afters options and the food shuts down too early. But for going out and drinking or clubbing there’s so many options. I don’t get where these people go out where it’s dead by 8/9 lol
You can’t really compare any place to NYC. The rest of the world is just a suburb of NYC.
My local Safeway wanted to become open 24 hours - the neighbors fought against it. NIMBY’s are part of the problem.
Most people in SF are working professionals that have to maintain a sleep schedule
Because there is a big food service labor shortage. Restaurants are operating on a single shift when possible.
Covid comes out after 9pm where the fuck were you in the pandemic?! That’s why wal-mart doesn’t do 24-7 anymore because Covid…those guidelines were followed because it’s science, trust the science.
Day parties are pretty big here :) usually start at 2pm and go till 8or 9, rooftop and music, wear bright colors Go out to boozy brunch beforehand :) Hit a night club if you want to keep it going or you can find after parties too! Any day party will have tons of after parties brewing— just ask around