Adobe Books & Backroom Gallery

Top choice in The Mission, Dogpatch & Potrero Hill


Wall-to-wall inspiration – just-released fiction, limited-edition art books, rare cookbooks, well-thumbed poetry – plus zine-launch parties, comedy nights and art openings. Mingle with Mission characters debating all-time-greatest pulp-fiction covers and SF history (founder Andrew is a whiz) and see SF artists at the Backroom Gallery (well worth the walk to the back of the store) before they hit Whitney Biennials.

Adobe is a member-supported cooperative, and bargain book buys underwrite community events. The store also supports a books for prisoners program.


Lonely Planet's must-see attractions

Nearby The Mission, Dogpatch & Potrero Hill attractions

1. Balmy Alley

0.15 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…

2. Ratio 3

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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…

3. 24th & York Mini Park

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

4. Southern Exposure

0.5 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…

5. 826 Valencia

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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…

6. Bernal Heights Park

0.66 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…

7. Aesthetic Union

0.68 MILES

Upgrade from kitten posters to frame-worthy original SF artworks hand-printed in this working printmakers' studio. Watch prints pulled from a vintage…

8. Incline Gallery

0.69 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…