Reliably divey, with an ample back patio, ill-advertised punk shows and the occasional appearance of dollar oysters.

I fell in love with San Francisco at first site, the buildings and the light, so much grooviness to dig. The signature building style I call "Wonkatecture" -a kaleidoscopic hodgepodge of giddy pioneer freedom and gilded age excess. It's a modernists nightmare! A prime example is The Vedanta Society HQ, built in 1903 to house a religious sect which fostered a multifold path to God and reflected its openness architecturally. More more more.

Many galleries and events and a restaurant

If you can get past the bourgie factor and/or you work down the street like I do, you will come to love this place. It has some of the best food in the city, a Blue Bottle coffee, and an observation deck from which you can watch the ferries come and go, emitting their weird beeps and disgorging tourists. The people who work here are great too (whether or not I dated a baker from the Acme Bread kiosk because of a Craigslist missed connection will be left to history).

Worker-owned, hole in the wall bakery worth waiting in line for.