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.
Where to Eat
All restaurants →
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
Tony Gemignani's Chicago style pizzeria North Beach near his Napoletana flagship.
Butter & Crumble
Great bakery in North Beach but very long lines.
Sotto Mare
Great Italian seafood in North Beach. Known for their Cioppino.
Golden Boy Pizza
Thick focaccia-based crust pizza in North Beach
Liguria Bakery
Liguria Bakery makes one thing: focaccia bread since 1911.
Where to Drink
All bars →
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.
Tosca Cafe
Order the house cappuccino: brandy, chocolate, steamed milk, no coffee.
Things to Do
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WORK Vintage
Small North Beach vintage shop at 1445 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 at 1499 Grant Avenue with larger-than-usual vintage t-shirt and shoe sections, plus designer vintage and jewelry. Open daily until 8pm.
Missing Audrey Vintage
Small vintage shop at 1767 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. Thursday through Sunday.
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. 678 Green Street; tickets from around $59.
Beat Museum
Two floors of original Beat manuscripts, letters, and ephemera tracing the movement from Columbia University through the 1955 Six Gallery reading where Ginsberg debuted "Howl." Half a block from City Lights. 540 Broadway in North Beach, $8 adults, daily 10am to 7pm.
Parrots of Telegraph Hill
Naturalized flock of cherry-headed conures (Aratinga erythrogenys) living on Telegraph Hill since at least the early 1990s, made famous by the 2003 documentary and book "The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill" by Mark Bittner. Easy to hear, harder to spot. Try late afternoon near Coit Tower and the Filbert Steps; March through July is nesting season. Free.
