El Rio

Top choice in The Mission, Dogpatch & Potrero Hill


Work it all out on the dance floor with SF's most down and funky crowd – the full rainbow spectrum of colorful characters is here to party. Highlights include Salsa Sunday, free oysters from 5:30pm Friday, drag-star DJs, backyard bands and ping-pong. Expect knockout margaritas and shameless flirting on a patio that's seen it all since 1978. Cash only on weekends.


Lonely Planet's must-see attractions

Nearby The Mission, Dogpatch & Potrero Hill attractions

1. Ratio 3

0.35 MILES

Art-fair buzz begins at this trippy gallery that's all black outside and stark white inside for maximum impact. While some artists are recognizable from…

2. Bernal Heights Park

0.4 MILES

The breezy, grassland slopes of 475ft Bernal Hill are decidedly non-touristy, and hiking them on a clear day offers 360-degree city views, along with rare…

3. Balmy Alley

0.5 MILES

Since at least the 1980s, if you stroll through San Francisco's Mission District you've likely noticed the neighborhood's profusion of colorful murals and…

4. 24th & York Mini Park

0.72 MILES

Take a ride on dazzling mosaic serpent-god Quetzalcoatl, who raises his fierce head from the rubberized ground of this pioneering pocket park…

5. 22nd St Hill

0.73 MILES

The prize for SF's steepest street is shared by this street and Filbert St (between Hyde and Leavenworth). Both have 31.5% grades (17-degree slopes), but…

6. 826 Valencia

0.9 MILES

Avast, ye scurvy scallywags! If ye be shipwrecked without yer eye patch or McSweeney's literary anthology, lay down ye doubloons and claim yer booty at…

7. Southern Exposure

0.95 MILES

Art really ties the room together at nonprofit arts center Southern Exposure, where works are carefully crafted not just with paint and canvas, but a…

8. Incline Gallery

0.97 MILES

Ramp up your art collection at Incline, a sloping gallery at the rear of an ex-mortuary where bodies were once transported for embalming. Today this is…