(Note: This is part of my San Francisco neighborhood guide to be published individually, then in its entirety at completion. As a result of the ongoing business restrictions during the pandemic, some of the restaurants and retail businesses mentioned may close with no warning.)

The Mission Just south of downtown, the culturally rich Mission is the epicenter of all that’s hip and happening in San Francisco these days. Not surprisingly, its demographic skews young, or young at heart – a youthful presence that began growing sometime in the 1980s (especially on Valencia) alongside what was, and still is, the city’s Mexican and Central American community.