Hello South of Market (SoMa)
The warehouses of SoMa might once have serviced factories, but today they're home to start-ups and dot-com techies. This once-industrial area to the south of Market Street – hence the name – is cool, laid-back, and unhurried. Annual highlights include the Folsom Street Fair in September, a celebration of all things leather and fetish. You'll find some of the city's most popular gay bars outside of Castro on this same street, and check out Market and Third Street for some of San Fran's best nightclubs. Keep an eye out for the trendy 111 Minna in particular – art gallery by day, club by night.
Prefer the former? SoMa has plenty more museums and art galleries to keep that curious mind of yours ticking. The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Cartoon Art Museum, and the California Historical Society represent just a few of the neighborhood's eclectic selection of important cultural institutions. You might notice that SoMa gets a lot busier on certain afternoons and evenings, as eager baseball fans don their jerseys and descend on AT&T Park. They're all off to cheer on the San Francisco Giants, who won no fewer than three World Series titles between 2010 and 2014. Grab yourself a ticket, a beer and a bag of nuts, and you'll be all set to enjoy the spectacle of the 'national pastime.'
