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
85 recorded shoots across 14 places here.
- Coit TowerVenom: Let There Be Carnage 2021/The Rock 1996/The Presidio 1988/The House on Telegraph Hill 1951/The Enforcer 1976
- St. Peter & Paul's ChurchWhat’s Up Doc? 1972/The Ten Commandments 1956/The Other Sister 1999/The Bachelor 1999/Sister Act 2: Back in the Habit 1993
- Pier 7The Wedding Planner 2001/The OA Part II 2019/Goliath- Season 4 2021/Godzilla 2014/DEVS 2020
- Pier 39Twisted 2004/This Is Us 2022/The Competition 1980/Homeward Bound II: Lost in San Francisco 1996/Dream with the Fishes 1997
- Ferry BuildingThe Presidio 1988/The Maltese Falcon 1941/Serial 1980/Just One Night 2000/Interview With The Vampire 1994
- Financial DistrictVenom 2018/The Right Stuff 1983/The Conversation 1974/Pacific Heights 1990/Ant-Man and the Wasp 2018
- Bank of America BuildingThe Towering Inferno 1974/The Game 1997/High Crimes 2002/Fearless 1993/Dirty Harry 1971
- Sheraton Palace HotelThe Game 1997/Patch Adams 1998/Jade 1995/Herbie Rides Again 1974/Experiment in Terror 1962
- Washington Square ParkThe Dead Pool 1988/The Bachelor 1999/Chance – Season 1 Pilot 2016/Chance- Season 1 ep106 2016/Bedazzled 2000
- Union SquareThe Conversation 1974/Terminator – Genisys 2015/Looking 2014/High Crimes 2002/D.O.A 1950
- Tosca Cafu00e9Until the End of the World 1991/The Assassination of Richard Nixon 2004/Big Sur 2013/Basic Instinct 1992
- Hyatt Regency HotelTime After Time 1979/The Towering Inferno 1974/High Anxiety 1977/Freebie and the Bean 1974
- Fisherman's WharfThe Princess Diaries 2001/The Phone/Jexi 2019/Looking “Special” 2016/Boys and Girls 2000
- Transbay TerminalThe Other Sister 1999/Getting Even with Dad 1994/Chu Chu and the Philly Flash 1981/Basic Instinct 1992
From the San Francisco Film Commission permit record. Every 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.
