Heart of the City: SoMa | San Francisco Travel
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Heart of the City
SoMa

No neighborhood embodies San Francisco’s ethos of innovation better than SoMa. Take it from the people who live and work there.

A first-time visitor to San Francisco’s SoMa could be forgiven for being overwhelmed. Skyscrapers tower overhead. Narrow alleys seemingly appear at random and beckon to be explored. Wide streets echo with the honks and clangs of cars, buses, and light rail.

Take a deep breath and take it all in. You’ve arrived in “the work room of San Francisco.” If you want to understand where this city has been and where it’s going, then this is the neighborhood for you—a heart of the city whose rhythm has changed, but never stopped beating.

Heart of the City

SoMa

Outside of Red's Java House

SoMa, Then and Now

Janet Delaney is a photographer, visual artist, and documentarian who has chronicled SoMa in her work for the past 40 years. When she first moved into the neighborhood in 1978, she was taken by what she found.

Photographer Janet Delaney

“I realized there were lots of different communities established here,” says Janet. “Particularly a large Filipino community, an African-American community, as well as a pretty well-established gay community and a burgeoning art community.”

Her work captured her neighbors in their community spaces, some of which were on the verge of disappearing. “I was fascinated with…the impact of gentrification, which I could feel was coming,” says Janet. She acknowledges the “complicated history of why and how that happened,” and that some people, businesses, and cultures were not included in the new SoMa.

“I think it’s really important for all cities to maintain any kind of viability to have lots of people from different ways of being.”

As she continues to chronicle the neighborhood, Janet never fails to find inspiration in “the people who are devoted to staying here…and making it a colorful, diverse, lively, exciting place.”

Janet’s work can be seen in the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, which sits at the corner of Third and Howard streets in SoMa. It is the largest institution of its kind west of the Mississippi. For Erin O’Toole, Curator and Head of Photography at the museum, Janet’s work is part of a proud and unique San Francisco tradition.

SFMOMA curator Erin O'Toole

“The city and photography are roughly the same age,” she says. “There’s been this openness to new technologies here in the Bay Area since very early on.” That eagerness to experiment, particularly with photography, is something that Erin believes is “inherent to San Francisco.” For proof, you need not look any further than your pocket.

“The fact that San Francisco is also the place that brought us the iPhone camera is not that surprising,” says Erin.

SFMOMA wasn’t always part of the neighborhood. In 1995, the museum relocated from Civic Center. “At that time,” Erin recalls, “The area was still in the process of redevelopment; and since that time, [SFMOMA] has served as kind of an anchor in this neighborhood, drawing more arts organization and more attention to this area.”

“One thing you can depend on...is that things will change.”

Olafur Eliasson's One-Way Color Tunnel at SFMOMA

Explore the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art

Seven stories of stunning contemporary art—some of them free to visitors—await you at SFMOMA. Follow our guide for exploring its incredible collections.

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A Home on the Waterfront

But what about the neighborhood will stay the same, and why?

For one thing, there will always be Red’s Java House. This tiny restaurant, perched on a pier beneath the shadow of the Bay Bridge, will soon be celebrating its 70th year in business. Current owner Tiffany Pisoni took the reins in 2009. An experienced restauranteur, she was nevertheless given a swift education.

“I found out real quick that I’m not the owner; that [the] people that come here every single day are the people that really own the shop, you know?” she says.

Tiffany Pisoni, owner of Red's Java House, stands outside her restaurant

Tiffany admits that she initially wanted to “change the place up a little bit, [but] I realized very fast that Red’s was here to stay the way that it was.”

The menu, the location, and the hours remain untouched. Just about the only thing Tiffany has changed is the decor—and even that was done with the input of her regulars.

“[All] I’ve really added to Red’s was…more pictures on the walls,” Tiffany says. “And we’re fortunate to have such amazing customers that actually bring me items of old Red’s memorabilia.”

Scanning the walls of Red’s while enjoying one of their signature burgers is a crash course in San Francisco history. “We have seen the city develop and a neighborhood grow up around Red’s,” Tiffany says. “You can see the forward-looking nature of the neighborhood and how San Francisco is constantly growing and evolving.”

In her eyes, that change—however dramatic—has been for the better. “The Embarcadero wasn’t something that was beautiful,” Tiffany recalls. “It was an eyesore. San Francisco would not have its attractive waterfront if we hadn’t gotten rid of the Embarcadero Freeway. We opened up all this public space for people.”

And people come, whether it’s in the morning after a night shift, at lunch time between conference calls, or at happy hour before first pitch at nearby Oracle Park.

“We’re going to continue to thrive…because we’re going to continue to welcome everybody.”

People eating in a crowded dining area in SoMa. San Francisco, California.

Where to Eat and Drink in SoMa

The neighborhood’s bars and restaurants run the gamut of cuisine, vibe, and price point. There’s a place for everyone here.

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Diners enjoy a meal along the San Francisco waterfront.

Waterfront Dining in San Francisco

Red’s isn’t the only place to eat in San Francisco with a million-dollar view. Check out some other excellent eateries that overlook the bay.

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Getting Stronger All the Time

If a business can weather the winds of change by welcoming everyone, how does an entire community do it? Much the same way, it turns out.

Deanna Sison is the owner of Mestiza and a prominent member of SoMa’s Filipino community. Born in America to her half-Filipino, half-Spanish father and her half-Filipino, half-American mother, Deanna has been working in SoMa since she first arrived in San Francisco, nearly 30 years ago. Her restaurant is all about “taking [a] fresh approach to flavors that are familiar to my palate and flavors that I crave; things that evoke memories of my upbringing.”

The word mestiza refers to people of mixed heritage, so “it’s very personal to me,” Deanna says. “It was honoring mixed heritages and different cultural backgrounds, centered around food.”

“Food really just brings people together.”

A shared feast at Mestiza in SoMa

That attitude is most evident in Mestiza’s Kamayan Feasts, incredible spreads of fish, meat, fruits, and vegetables that stimulate all senses and demand to be shared with a group.

Such a communal experience is just part of the culture; and that culture has never been more prominent in the neighborhood.

Since the city officially designated a Filipino cultural district within SoMa, “the past five years have been really dense with just so many things happening and people really just getting behind the idea of…having a home,” Deanna says.

The creation of SoMa Pilipinas has led to programs that support neighborhood artists, legacy businesses, local families, and young students.

“That was such a popular and important designation,” says Deanna, “because Filipinos have played such an important role—not just in this neighborhood, but the Bay Area, in general.”

“It was just such an important time that really connected me with the rest of the community.”

Deanna Sison, owner of Mestiza

The Heart of the City

For the people who are shaping SoMa, there’s no question that it’s the heart of the city.

“You get to see so many different things,” Tiffany says, “by just going into this one neighborhood. It’s become its own city in itself.”

“Everybody feels welcome, and everybody feels that this is their place.”

In SoMa, the future is not something to be feared. It may raise legitimate questions—”How’s it going to change?” asks Janet. “Who’s going to be in the seat of power?”—but for the community leaders of the neighborhood like Deanna, “it’s been fun to be part of that growth.”

“SoMa is everything,” she says. Between its restaurants, nightclubs, parks, museums, and more, it’s hard to disagree.

A crowd enjoys food and drink along San Francisco's Valencia Street
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Tyler Cohn

Tyler is the Sr. Manager of Global Content & Communications at San Francisco Travel. He has lived in San Francisco since 2015 and has been part of the San Francisco Travel team for just as long. He enjoys splashy production numbers and outdoor sporting events equally, which means you can usually find him at one of San Francisco’s many great theaters or at Oracle Park, cheering on the Giants.