With a Harvey Milk mural and rainbow light-up dance floor, The Cafe is the obvious place to throw your own coming-out party. Most nights the crowd seems recently graduated, and parties range from Latinx Picante Thursdays to lesbian Sugar Saturdays; check the calendar. Kick-ass sound and trippy light shows pack the dance floor; cruise the open-air patio between sets. Cash only.
The Cafe
San Francisco
Lonely Planet's must-see attractions
2.56 MILES
When Frederick Law Olmsted, architect of New York's Central Park, gazed in 1865 upon the plot of land San Francisco Mayor Frank McCoppin wanted to turn…
0.87 MILES
Was it the fall of 1966 or the winter of ’67? As the Haight saying goes, if you can remember the Summer of Love, you probably weren’t here. The fog was…
2.7 MILES
If you look close today at the clinker-brick buildings lining these narrow backstreets, past the temple balconies jutting out over bakeries, acupuncture…
2.87 MILES
No one could have predicted the cultural force City Lights would become when it first opened in 1953. Sure, it had a proletarian ethos suggested by its…
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
2.44 MILES
When the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art expanded in 2016, it was a mind-boggling feat that nearly tripled the institution's size to accommodate a…
3.18 MILES
If you want to really see San Francisco, head to Coit Tower, a 1933 art deco beaut designed by Arthur Brown, Jr. and Henry Howard that sits high up on…
4.14 MILES
Few cities boast a structure so iconic as the Golden Gate Bridge, commemorated in everything from films like The Maltese Falcon to not one but two emojis…
0.47 MILES
Welcome to San Francisco's sunny side, the land of street ball and Mayan-pyramid playgrounds, semiprofessional tanning and taco picnics. Although the…
Nearby San Francisco attractions
1. Harvey Milk & Jane Warner Plazas
0.02 MILES
Somewhere over the rainbow is Harvey Milk Plaza, where a huge rainbow flag flaps. Rainbow-lit escalators lead toward Castro Muni station and a display…
0.12 MILES
You're always in excellent company in the Castro, where sidewalk plaques honor LGBT+ heroes. The walk runs along Market St from Noe St to Casto St and…
0.14 MILES
America's first gay-history museum showcases a century of San Francisco LGBTQ+ ephemera – Harvey Milk's campaign literature, matchbooks from long-gone…
0.18 MILES
See what the Castro's creative community has been dreaming up lately at this art space showcasing local neighborhood talent. Gallery shows here are the…
5. Human Rights Campaign Action Center
0.19 MILES
Harvey Milk’s former camera storefront was featured in the Academy Award–winning movie Milk, and now it's home to the civil rights advocacy group…
0.23 MILES
No first-time loop through the Castro would be complete without a peek at this window display featuring trans Barbies and Billy Doll, a gay alternative to…
0.26 MILES
While adults are asleep downhill, eight-year-olds are making scientific discoveries atop Corona Heights Park. After Josephine Randall became a pioneering…
0.27 MILES
Scramble up the red rocks of 520ft-high Corona Heights for jaw-dropping, 180-degree views at the summit. Face east as the sun sets, and watch the city…