Keeping it local
SOMA is roughly defined as the area south of Market Street and north of the Mission District. But when people talk about going down to the clubs or a dotcom party in SOMA, or to the SFMOMA or South Park, they’re usually talking about a smaller rectangle bordered by Market, Townsend, 11th Street, and Rincon Hill, which is where you see those tall glass towers as you approach the entrance to the Bay Bridge.
SOMA was originally residential, but after the Gold Rush it became increasingly industrial as factories sprouted up along the waterfront. The area was completely destroyed by the 1906 Earthquake; it grew back during World War II, declined into a “skid row” in the 1950s, and became a gay district in the 1960s through the 1980s, particularly for the so-called leather community, whose members gravitated to the many bars and bathhouses. But the AIDS epidemic closed those down, and SOMA turned into a West Coast SoHo, thick with alternative musicians and all kinds of artisans and designers. That lasted through the end of the 1990s, until the first dotcom boom—and bust. After that, the musicians moved out and the geeks moved in, starting up such companies as Wired, Twitter, Dropbox, Airbnb, IGN, Sony Entertainment Network, and dozens more.
Info
Address 355 11th Street, San Francisco, CA, 94103, www.baragricole.com, +1 415.355.9400 | Public Transport Bus: 9, 47 (11th St & Folsom St stop) | Hours Daily 6pm–10pm, weekend brunch 11am–2pm| Tip Just next door at 333 11th Street is Slim’s, a small, intimate concert venue established in the eighties that hosts a variety of music acts from cover bands and jazz musicians to alternative, rock, and punk groups.
SOMA’s latest persona is uncharacteristically mainstream and ever more upscale. Nevertheless, you can still see the creative strata of the neighborhood’s history at a place like Bar Agricole, which is a restaurant and bar but also a dramatic and kinetic expression of its surroundings. It’s a showcase for local architects, wood and steel workers, glass blowers, textile designers, and even urban farmers. The interior is classically minimalist, and almost everything you see is made nearby, including the concrete bars and booths, the white oak tables and chairs, the staff uniforms, the skylight fixtures, and the photographic images over the bar.
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