North Beach
About North Beach
North Beach is named for a beach that no longer exists. In the 1850s the bay reached inland to around Taylor and Francisco Streets, with a cove between Telegraph and Russian Hills. The city filled it in over the following decades, and the name stuck even though the water is now blocks away.
Italian immigrants settled here from the 1870s on, many from Genoa, the Ligurian coast, and later Sicily. By the 1920s the neighborhood was predominantly Italian and known as Little Italy, with Italian-language newspapers and businesses along the streets. Some of those businesses are still open, including Liguria Bakery, which has made focaccia at Washington Square since 1911.
In the 1950s North Beach became the center of the Beat movement. Lawrence Ferlinghetti and Peter D. Martin opened City Lights in 1953, and City Lights Publishers released Allen Ginsberg’s “Howl” in 1956. Bars and cafes the Beats used, including Vesuvio next to City Lights and Caffè Trieste a few blocks up, are still in business.
Filmed in North Beach
All San Francisco films →63 productions filmed around North Beach, oldest first.
1936After the Thin Man
1947Dark Passage
1951The House on Telegraph Hill
1956The Ten Commandments
1957Pal Joey
1962Birdman of Alcatraz
1968Petulia
1971Dirty Harry
1972What’s Up Doc?
1976The Enforcer
1978Invasion of the Body Snatchers
1979Time After Time
1980The Competition
1984The Woman In Red
1986Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home
1987Innerspace
1988The Presidio
1988The Dead Pool
1991Until the End of the World
1992Basic Instinct+43more on recordEvery film shot in San Francisco →Where to Eat
All restaurants →Molinari Delicatessen
Go before 1pm or after 2pm to miss the queue, know your sandwich before you reach the counter, and carry it two blocks up to Washington Square, where there are benches and lawn.
Sam’s Burgers
Anthony Bourdain ate here on The Layover and called it "top three in the world." plus It's great for late night food after the bar.
Capo’s
The pies take time, so order ahead or settle in with a cocktail.
Butter & Crumble
The Tuesday 9am pastry-box preorder window is how regulars skip the line.
Sotto Mare
Great Italian seafood in North Beach. Known for their Cioppino.
Golden Boy Pizza
Get the clam and garlic slice and eat it walking.
Where to Drink
All bars →Mr. Bing’s
Go after dark so the original neon is lit, take a parklet seat if the weather allows, and order the Old Fashioned.
15 Romolo
Industry-veteran bartenders. Order bartender's choice.
Comstock Saloon
Order the Pisco Punch. Live jazz and a sawdust floor.
Specs’ Twelve Adler Museum Cafe
A Legacy Business down an alley off Columbus. The menu is cheese and saltines.
Vesuvio Cafe
Kerouac's bar. Order The Jack Kerouac and take a window upstairs.
The Saloon
The city's oldest bar. Come for the live blues.
Things to Do
All activities →Greenwich Steps
Walk these down rather than up, and look carefully for the lower entrance, because it is easy to miss from Sansome Street.
Filbert Steps
Start at Coit Tower and walk down rather than up, and keep your voice down, because this stairway is the front path for the houses on Napier Lane.
WORK Vintage
Small North Beach vintage shop on Grant Avenue with a notable menswear selection for its size. Within a few blocks of Vacation and other Grant Avenue vintage stores for a North Beach vintage walk.
Vacation
North Beach vintage shop on Grant Avenue with larger-than-usual vintage t-shirt and shoe sections, plus designer vintage and jewelry.
Missing Audrey Vintage
Small vintage shop on Stockton, on the seam between North Beach and Chinatown, with rotating one-of-a-kind stock that changes with whatever the owner has brought in.
Dear San Francisco
Created by Shana Carroll and Gypsy Snider, two co-founders of Montreal's The 7 Fingers (Les 7 Doigts), as a tribute to their hometown. A 90-minute circus show that opened October 12, 2021 at Club Fugazi, the North Beach theater that hosted Beach Blanket Babylon from 1975 to 2019. On Green Street; tickets from around $59.
