The Best of the Night 2008

The season may be over, but we’ve already marked our calendar for February 6, 2009. The reason? SF Ballet’s Fridays at the Ballet are tailor made for the young-professional, balletomane set, and feature reasonably priced tickets plus complimentary pre­performance hors d’oeuvres and cocktails at a mix-and-mingle staged a few blocks from War Memorial Opera House at Sugar Café. If the first round leaves you wanting more, there’s always cocktails and wine during intermission—you know, to carry you into the second act. $50 (including ticket price and mingler).

301 Van Ness Ave., 415-865-2000

For those looking to fill that gaping “skinny-jeans-crowd” hole in your calendar, get ready to Rumble. A collaboration between Jason Jurgens, founder of local online music publication The Owl Mag, and Larry Little, founder of L.A. music-industry forecaster Future Sounds (whose trendspotting knack has a proven track record, given his past occupation as co-manager of the Killers), the monthly indie-rock dance party the Rumble is staged at Harlot every first Wednesday. Count on drink specials and resident DJ Ted Leibowitz of BAGeL Radio (a 7x7 Best of the City alum) spinning tunes that lure even the most apathetic of hipsters out to the dance floor, plus local bands and touring acts joining in as guest DJs. You’re guaranteed to hear something the cool kids will be swearing they heard first.

RSVP for free entry: sonicliving.com/theowlmag/therumble

There’s something to be said for getting your movies the old-fashioned way (just ask Michel Gondry). Since Four Star Video’s new owners, Bernal Heights residents Ken and Amy Shelf, bought the shop last year, it’s become more than just a place to find your Oscar hits and hard-to-find flicks. Don’t get us wrong; it’s that too—available now: Dae Jang Geum, the Korean soap opera set in the 16th century. As of April, though, the little store began opening up its back patio twice a month for movie nights, complete with heat lamps, folding chairs and such favorites as Old School and Walk Hard projected onto a wall. Admission is by donation, and popcorn’s on the house.

402 Cortland Ave., 415-651-5380

Photo Credits: Alcia Rodriguez

For those who haven’t yet experienced the excitement that is Literary Death Match, be warned that the competitive lit series’ name isn’t quite as ironic as one might think (see Stephen Elliott’s legendary beer-in-face response to a judge’s scathing critique). Just over a year after its inception, the series, sponsored by the humor mag Opium, is a bona fide success in a city littered with writerly competition. We knew they were onto something when we first heard the high-meets-low formula: Drinks plus quick hits of lit genius (from writers hailing from near and far) plus an American Idol–style panel of judges, minus any pretension, was sure to equal a devoted following. With monthly events held in the Bay Area, the series has also expanded to quarterly events in New York City, suggesting world domination isn’t far behind.

When artist Ray Beldner and his wife, Catharine Clark, bought Bernal Bubbles two years back, Beldner noticed that a lot of their local customers were artists. (Coincidence? Clark does happen to own one of the finest galleries in town.) Last year, Beldner launched the Soap Box Lecture series in a bid to bring art and politics to interested parties with dirty clothes. At 10 p.m. on the first Saturday of every month, notables come to speak their mind among the washers. Big draws have included Mayor Gavin Newsom and sex authority Annie Sprinkle. This fall, poet Robert Haas is rumored to appear.

397 Cortland Ave., 415-821-9530

Fire up the Aqua Net, order your corsage, squeeze back into your pink taffeta dress and dust off your powder-blue tux: It’s time to take another shot at the crown. Now celebrating its fifth year, the 540 Club’s annual Prom hits all the right high-school notes: from this year’s “Under the Sea” theme to the photo booth primed and ready for couples pix. Find yourself a date double-quick for this year’s installment, set for June 28.

540 Clement St., 415-752-7276

Photo Credits: Misha Vladamirsky

Is it just us, or for a while there did it seem as though the only reason to go to 330 Ritch was for the Thursday-night live-music event Popscene? (In fact, raise your hand if you thought the venue’s name was Popscene.) Well, crack your weekend wide open, because thanks to the venue’s new owners— events, marketing and promotion company City Visions—the recently renovated space (think gentleman’s-club-style tartan ceilings) is poised to become your newest destination for dance-party possibilities. On the calendar: a can’t-miss performance by UK sensations the Ting Tings on June 12, plus a slew of celeb-DJ events.

330 Ritch St.

Those in search of a venue where the grass is always bluer can find relief of the gratis variety every Monday night at Amnesia, where, for the past five years, owner Shawn Magee has welcomed top local bluegrass acts to this Mission bar’s red-lit stage. Belle Monroe and her Brewglass Boys, the all-female honky-tonk Barefoot Nellies and Homespun Rowdy have made Bluegrass Mondays a staple in SF. An inclusion of the “Japanese Jimmie Rodgers” (scruffy local crooner Toshio Hirano) on the bill guarantees the room will hit capacity. Don’t call it a night without joining Magee and his resident brew pourers in an after-midnight Doyle Lawson sing-along.

853 Valencia St., 415-970-0012

Where to go when you’re simultaneously thirsty for some solid-gold funk and hungry for some fried chicken? Shine up your platforms and get down to Mighty for Funkonnection, where a few of SF’s most renowned vinyl fiends—resident DJs Motion Potion (the music guru behind SF Funk Fest), Malarkey and Tal M. Klein—supply attendees with free fried chicken and classic funk under the glow of disco balls. Among those internationally renowned names who have already blessed the decks of this old-school party: Kraak and Smaak of Holland’s Quango label and the UK’s Mr. Scruff, as well as DJ tag team the All Good Funk Alliance and the legendary break-beat pioneer known to many as the Father of the Electro Funk Sound, Afrika Bambaataa himself.

119 Utah St., 415-626-7001

What better part of town to yell at the top of your lungs and divulge that secret show-tune fetish than tourist hotbed Union Square? Just when you thought the city was filled to its brim with live entertainment, downtown Irish bar and restaurant Johnny Foley’s introduces a little vintage New Orleans to the mix with SF’s first and only dueling-pianos show, Micx. Having made its debut in March, the sing-along show demands audience participation—depending on song requests and chiming in for high-speed medleys as two pianists use baby-grand piano keys to compete for the spotlight every night, starting at 9 p.m. Be sure to have singles in your wallet—you’ll want to fill up the tip basket on the hotter piano.

243 O’Farrell St., 415-954-0777

There is a reason Polk Street bar patrons tend to miss the 1-California bus after a night of debauchery. That reason: Bob’s Donuts, a San Francisco landmark since the ’50s, located in all its deep-fried, sugary glory right in front of said stop. Aya Ahn (a self-proclaimed frozen-yogurt type of girl) works the 9 p.m. to 6 a.m. shift seven days a week, single-handedly serving up the highly desired apple fritter with fresh apples, old-fashioned rainbow-sprinkle variety and hand-twisted glazed doughnuts with a steady smile. Know before you go: To beat the Blur/Red Devil/Hemlock Tavern/Lush Lounge closing-time rush, duck out of whatever bar you happen to be in at 11 p.m., when, like clockwork, a round of fresh doughnuts pops out of the oven warm, pillowy and competition-free for the taking.

1621 Polk St., 415-776-3141

Really, who doesn’t love a good dive bar? But turn to the topic of said dive bar’s ladies room and, more often that not, you’ve lost that loving feeling. The exception to the rule: Whiskey Thieves, where the girls’ restroom screens Telemundo on a loop on a two-inch screen tiled into the wall, and is meticulously scrubbed and mopped daily before the bar opens. We don’t want to jinx it, but it’s worth noting that no matter how many specials (a Pabst plus a shot of premium whiskey for $7—amazing!) are poured each night, the bathroom always stays inexplicably clean. We’d also like to award bonus points out of consideration for its location in this smoking-encouraged Tenderloin haunt.

839 Geary St., 415-409-2063

Longing for a local music-centric equivalent to James Lipton’s Inside the Actor’s Studio? Get your backstory fill for around $20 courtesy of NoisePop and City Arts & Lectures. The new partners’ new series, Talking Music, invites such established and emerging artists as Ben Gibbard, Bob Mould, Linda Ronstadt and Stephen Sondheim to the Herbst for discussions about the importance of music and art in our lives.

Russian Hill’s Royal Grounds coffeehouse offers AA-approved after-hours in the form of Games Night, a liver-friendly affair that was started six years ago by self-proclaimed “badass Scrabble players” as a means of socializing without contributing to the demise of a vital organ. Chess, Scrabble and backgammon aficionados fill up the 10 tables in the cozy cafe around 7 p.m. every Monday.

1605 Polk St., 415-749-1731

Photo Credits:
Graham Leggat

You’re just as likely to see a preschool percussionist as a baby-boomer bassist emerge from the Blue Bear School of Music’s bustling Fort Mason Center headquarters, where jamming is key and age ain’t nothin’ but a number. The nonprofit community school has been rocking out since 1971, attracting thousands of kids and would-be professional musicians for an array of affordable private and group classes. We’re huge fans of the quarterly nighttime gigs around town, where you’ll find gathered the unlikeliest of onstage bandmates (think: middle-aged engineer-mandolin-player alongside 20-something blues-crooning barista.) A bonus? The concerts double as fundraisers for Blue Bear’s Schools That Aspire to Rock program, which provides free classes to SF’s public-school students.

Fort Mason Center, Building D, 415-673-3600

The section of Jessie Street between Mint and Fifth streets used to be one of those hold-your-breath-while-you-run-through locales. Those nights are history as of last November, when a nonprofit coalition of developers and urban activists, Friends of Mint Plaza, unveiled Mint Plaza, an eco-sensitive pedestrian zone with a burgeoning social scene. Housing the first-ever Blue Bottle Cafe and an offshoot of Potrero’s Provençal-style favorite Chez Papa, the former alley has become a veritable piazza: offering heat lamps and outdoor seating for an after-work bite or glass of wine before taking in a show at Mezzanine. It has our vote for best new date spot.

For those craving a less-crowded downtown alternative to happy-hour mainstay Americano, the garden oasis of the Westin’s Ducca is just the ticket. The outdoor seating at this Venetian-style bar, lounge and restaurant features a fire pit perfect for warming up before your Italian mojito (made with limoncello as a sweetener) kicks in. And if the temps drop too far, head inside to the cozy red Rotunda Lounge.

50 Third St., 415-977-0271