The largest exhibition space in the United States solely dedicated to photography. Alec Soth, Stephen Shore, Collier Schorr...

Mission Street art gallery displaying beautiful losers. Ryan Mcginley, Barry McGee...

One of the best bookstore i've been. Good selection of design / art book as well. The staff is super nice and knowledgeable. A must.

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).

This one’s easy to miss because it’s dwarfed by one of the many loud discount stores on Mission selling Day-Glo flowers and phone chargers. When you find it, the inside is tiny; there’s just enough room for you, an espresso machine, and a guy or two playing great music every time. And they have egg creams!