Flying rainbow flags from renovated Victorian mansions, the Castro is inhabited primarily by gay and lesbian population proud of the undeniable joie de vivre of the gay life in San Francisco. The shopping district on Castro Street between 17th and Market is the capital of kitsch, from quirky housewares, fashion-forward apparel and erotic dolls to X-rated greeting cards. A Castro institution, Cliff’s Variety sells plumbing supplies, hammers and nails, feather boas and false eyelashes.
The entire neighborhood turns out for the Castro Street Fair for swing dancing and Latin rhythms, food and beverages, with profits going to local charities; and, the Castro is ground zero for the biggest annual event in the city, the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender Pride Parade in June. Nearly half a million spectators watch marchers, and motorcycle and float riders in wild, weird, sometimes scanty regalia from leathers to ball gowns.
Castroites
are movie fans, flocking to vintage films at the Art Deco-style Castro
Theater, where the Silent Film Festival, the Jewish Film Festival
and the International Lesbian and Gay Film Festival take place. Restaurants
and confectioners’ shops are among the best in the city, notably
the noisy, trendy supper club, Mecca; Hot 'N’ Hunky, for hamburgers;
and Joseph Schmidt Confections for chocolate truffles.
An island of quaint and calm, the urban village of Noe Valley seems disengaged from the rest of the busy city. Inhabited by young families and professionals on the move, the neighborhood’s bistros, coffee shops, and bookstores are frequented by satisfied locals who sit on the porches of their Victorians and watch battalions of moms and strollers pass by.
More than 200 vivid, whimsical, wall-sized murals are dramatic slashes of the Latin American spirit in the Mission, a suncatching valley below Twin Peaks, which has always been home to immigrants. On 16th Street past Mission Street, and on Mission between 15th and Cesar Chavez Street are salsa dance clubs, little groceries, sidewalk fruit stands, and inexpensive restaurants, with a sprinkling of avant-garde art galleries on side streets.
The food is legendary––pane at Domingues Bakery, fresh tortillas at Casa Sanchez, frozen fruit bars at Latin Freeze, and the tacos and carne asada at La Taqueria, for nearly three decades on Mission Street, a standout in a community where taqueries are omnipresent.
Thousands turn out in ethnic garb for big annual events: Cinco de Mayo and Carnival, the city’s Mardi Gras celebration on Memorial Day weekend. The nightlife is fun and friendly in dance clubs and cantinas lively with Latin, Brazilian, Cuban and Caribbean bands––beginners come early for free dance lessons. In an Indian village five days before the signing of the Declaration of Independence, the first mass was celebrated within the four-foot-thick adobe walls of Mission Dolores, now the oldest structure in the city. Built in 1918, the Spanish colonial basilica next door stands by a lovely little cemetery where lie the Mexican, Spanish , Indian and Irish builders of the city.
| The article on this page is adapted from guidebooks written by Karen Misuraca, the author of Our San Francisco, Fun With the Family in Northern California, and other travel books. Available for purchase on Amazon. |  |