For thinkers and drinkers
Fort Mason was a military base, first administered by the Spanish in 1776. When California became a state in 1850, the U.S. Army claimed it, and, during the Civil War, heavily fortified the place to resist Confederate attacks that never came. The fort was a major hub during World War II, but was eventually decommissioned in the 1970s, when it became part of the nation’s first urban national park.
Since then, the center has evolved into a cultural enclave of dozens of small, mostly nonprofit organizations, museums, and theater companies, including the Magic Theater, where Sam Shepard began his career as the playwright-in-residence in 1975, and the Museo ItaloAmericano, which features a permanent collection of the work of well-known international painters such as Francesco Clemente.
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Address 2 Marina Boulevard, Fort Mason Center, Building A, San Francisco, CA, 94123, www.theinterval.org, +1 415.561.6582 | Public Transport Bus: 28, 28L (Marina Blvd & Laguna St stop) | Hours Daily 10am–5pm (cafe), 5pm–midnight (bar)| Tip Every Sunday morning year-round, you can shop for fresh fruits, vegetables, and delicious pastries at the small farmers market in the Fort Mason front parking lot.
Among this interesting group of establishments is the Long Now Foundation, which opened in 1996 and is guided by Stewart Brand, the original editor of the Whole Earth Catalogue. The foundation’s charter is to “creatively foster long-term thinking and responsibility in the framework of the next 10,000 years.” Projects include the building of a 10,000-year clock, a digital library of human languages, a seminar series on subjects that range from climate change to world conflict, and a collection of more than 3,000 books that are considered most critical to maintaining and/or rebuilding our society (should the need ever arise!), called the Manual for Civilization.
Nowadays these curious books are lining the two-story interior of the Interval, a techno utopian bar for thinkers and drinkers, opened by the Long Now Foundation in 2014. The constantly revolving soundtrack and “light painting” behind the bar was created by Brian Eno, one of the foundation’s board members. The Interval is a simultaneous ode to the past, the present, and the future—a place where imagination, creativity, and cocktails happily coalesce.
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