The Mission is a traditional Latino neighborhood, colonized by hipsters in recent years, with the yuppie troops slowly bringing up the rear. It's current existence looks like a delicate balance, so catch it while you can...

The older, Latino businesses are clustered on Mission Street and on 24th Street. Much of the newer, hipster stuff coexists one-block away on the parallel street Valencia, though there's a densely packed strip of interesting stuff on 16th street, mostly between Mission and Guerrero.

First, some scumzoid warnings: the 16th and 24th street BART stations (in fact, perhaps all BART stations) get pretty sleazy late at night, and a block away from the 16th Street hipster strip is the 15th street housing project, so when you're down around there, expect to be panhandled a lot. If the scumzoids start to bother you, take comfort in the fact that the people they're scaring away are the people who would like to see a Starbucks on 16th street.

Starting from the 24 Street BART you have a lot of options. You could look around on Mission at the Latino stores: lots of cheap places with stuff like Jesus candles and ceramic angels.

There are also some excellent things off to the east on 24th Street, which a more advanced guide to the Mission would have to include (Philz coffee, the St. Francis Creamery, Pops bar, La Palma Mexicatessen...).

Most likely you'll want to head west on 24th Street, and go over to Valencia Street.

You could keep going up the hill on 24th street (perhaps hopping on the 48 bus), but that will take you into a yuppie limbo known as Noe Valley (though it does have some redeeming features: Reference).

Probably your best option is to head north on Valencia... it's a bit of a walk, between 24th St and 16th St, but it takes you passed some of the best places in SF in my opinon.

But before we get into that, let's look quickly at a few things you can find on the Mission street strip near the 24th Street Station:

• Diandi's Bakery - down south near 25th Street, an excellent italian bakery: slices of cake and cookies, unfortunately all to go, it has no seating area.
• El Faralito's - on Mission just north of 24th street. Taqueria known for it's use of chunks of fresh avocado rather than that green guacamole goop. Too bad it's otherwise pretty greasy (some would say "authentic"). A pretty good place for super-nachos. The juke-box has it's appeal.
• Lee & Peng - 2689 Mission, near 23rd. Impressive array of ceramic knick-knacks.
• Mora's Boots, Inc. - 2675 Mission, by 23rd. Pointy boots, slightly different from the goth approach.

Now, some highlights of Valencia Street, between 24th and 16th:

• Muddys, near 24th - solid San Francisco coffee house, where the coffee is strong, the cake is rich, and the music is often better than listenable. Of late, a goth dude has been working there on weekend nights who has good taste (and ask him about computer games, if you dare).
• The Art Wall - between 24th and 23rd Street, on the west side of Valencia is a wall of mysterious status that's attracted multiple layers of ever-changine art in various media (posters, stencil, spray paint...).
• There's a small used clothing place (it's not an "Out of the Closet", is it?, on the west side of Valencia near 23rd... always worth a look.
• An excellent funky little cuban cafe named "Radio Habana" on Valencia near 22nd St. Highly recommended. Only open at night (after 7pm), but it stays open latish. Coffee/Espresso, wine/beer, respectable inexpensive food, astoundingly cool decor.
• Boogaloo's - at the corner of 22nd. The weekend brunch crowd waiting on the street outside this place can be a real fashion show. The "temple of spuds" is an inspiration.
• A side trip off of Valencia:
  • The place next to Boogaloo's with the neon horseshoe sign is technically called "The Latin American Club", though really it's a (predominantly) white hipster bar. Vibe meter reading: "good+".
  • A short block east on 22nd Street, halfway to Mission St, you'll find the Revolution Cafe, an excellent european-style coffee house, with good free music more nights than not (typically jazz, occasionally some post-Tom Waits blues). Lots of outdoor seating. Mostly coffee drinks, with some light food on the menu. I get breakfest bagels here sometimes (egg and cheese, etc). Wifi.
  • Across 22nd street from the Revolution, there's a bar called the Make-out Room, which is larger than it looks, and a decent place to see live bands: (Reference).
  • At 2645 Mission Street, between 23rd and 22nd, there's the Foxy Lady Boutique, one of the very few places I would expect to find high-heel pumps that would fit my size elevens: Reference.
  • The aforementioned "Mora's Boots" is essentially across the from the "Foxy Lady".
  • At 2565 Mission Street, between 22nd street and 21st street, there's another excellent little bar with a performance stage, named "12 Galaxies" (Reference) in honor of the immortal Frank Chu (Reference).
  • Across from "12 Galaxies" is the "Foreign Cinema" bar and the "Medjool" restaurant, which strike me as so slick they're evil, but if you're more tolerant of such things, there they is.
• The Marsh - off-off-Geary Theater at 1062 Valencia near 22nd St: Reference.
• The Marsh Cafe - 1070 Valencia St Side-project of the Marsh. Stand-up/spoken word/political rants.
• Aquarius Records, near 22nd (across from KFC) - Smallish place, but an amazingly high quality selection. Hard to find anything bad here (though I must admit I find the extensive "metal" section problematic).
• Valencia Cyclery, next door to Aquarius - why am I telling you about this? Because you can get an excellent map here called the "San Francisco Biking/Walking Guide".
• We Be Sushi - near 22nd (sandwiched between the two halves of the Valencia Cyclery). Inexpensive, good sushi (despite the name. Legend has it they wanted to call it McSushi, but got slapped down.). Open to around 10pm
• Rasoi -(between 21st and 22nd) moderately priced Indian Food, with a nouveau/California touch to it.
• Botanica Yoruba - corner of 21st street. There are a bunch of stories floating around about how this place is bad-news black magic. You know, like strange coincidences, dogs refuse to cross the threshold, that sort of thing. Of course I don't believe in any of this nonsense, do you?
• ATA ("Artists Television Access") - near 21st Street. A great place. Even if you don't care about video, they do a great job with their window displays. Showings at 8pm most Saturday nights, and occasional events scheduled at other times: Reference.
• Herbivore - near 21st. Vegetarian food. Foods only okay, and not cheap.
• Cafe Americana - between 21st and 20th. Another newish cafe that doesn't suck! Funky, but not in the same style as the Muddy's-type places. Has a couple of net terminals.
• Dog Eared Books - corner of 20th. Yes, yet another excellent little San Francisco bookstore. Mostly used books, with some CDs, graphic novels, etc. Interesting magazine rack.
• Modern Times Bookstore - between 20th and 19th streets. Really good, new books focusing on contemporary urban concerns (as opposed to the more backward-looking "City Lights" bookstore?). Note: transit maps for sale on the counter.
• Borderlands Books - Just a few doors down from "Modern Times", a pretty solid Science Fiction and Fantasy book store, recently set up shop here. ("Dog Eared"; "Modern Times" and "Borderlands": I think that's the hat trick.)
• 826 Valencia, aka "The Pirate Store" (between 19th and 20th). The Dave (McSweenys) Eggers place. As I understand it, he wanted a place to do writing classes for kids, but the zoning regs required retail, so retail there be. Pay no attention to the writing classes behind the curtain.
• Amnesia - (between 19th and 20th) small punk bar with character (but we'll never forget it's days as the Chameleon, when it was a little more likely to have live music).
• Ali Baba's Cave - at the corner of 19th Street. Good, inexpensive middle eastern food. If a bit of dirt and grime bother you, go there at night, you'll notice them less.
  Another brief side-trip, going east on 19th Street:
  • On the corner of Mission and 19th: "The Beauty Bar" Have your nails done while swilling cocktails. The smells probably go together well.
  • A few doors down there's "The Bollyhood Cafe", indian food, drinks, etc, and even I will not object to the giant projection screen. Reference.
• Cha-Ya - 762 Valencia, between 18th and 19th Street. High quality, vegetarian japanese food. A little more expensive than "mid-priced", but not by much.
• Elbow Room - (between 17th and 18th, at Sycamore) a large bar (or small dance club?) with a second level that makes a good live music venue on the all too infrequent occasions when they book live music. Lots of DJ dance music (Afrolicious, Dub Mission, etc). Crowded on weekends.
• Good Vibrations - (near 17th street) Sex toys, bondage gear, books, videos, etc, in a very low-sleaze environment. Quintessentially San Francisco. (Reference.)
• Police Station - on the corner of 17th street, the big, bland building that eats up a huge chunk of the west side of the street is a police station. I call your attention to the strange imitation of a Japanese rock garden set into the linoleum floor in the lobby. I also call your attention to the public restroom on the ground floor.
• Community Thrift - Huge second-hand store. Everything in the place is essentially on consignment from different local non-profit organizations. Huge section full of misunderstood vinyl.
• Clarion Alley - Next door to Community Thrift, there's an alley covered with a fascinating collection of murals, all in an "outsider"/ graffiti-art style.
• Than Tam II - an eminently respectable Vietnamese place. A quiet little place that I favor a little more than the nearby "Sunflower".
• Bombay Bazaar - Between 17th and 16th. Bulk spices, traditional Indian clothing, and cheap cassette tapes of cheesy Bollywood soundtracks. And in the cafe next door, they they've expanded to do some exotic ice-cream flavors (Cardamon Rose!) and also sell good, cheap vegetarian Somosa's and so on.
• We Be Sushi - 538 Valenica (near 16th?), a spin off from the other one mentioned above. This one is open a little later, like elevenish.
• Abandoned Planet - Near 16th. Small, interesting used bookstore, with excellent cats.
• Muddy Water's, near 16th Street - Much like the place at 24th... just a bit sleazier.
• Five and Diamond - 510 Valencia Street, clothes and accessories for ghost cowgirls of all genders.
• Sunflower, right at 16th Street. Not my favorite Vietnamese restaurant, but nothing to complain about either.

Most likely you'll hang a left at 16th Street, but there also a few items up ahead on Valencia:

• Clothes Contact - at 473 Valencia St, not far from 16th Street. Hipster-oriented used clothing store.
• The Zeitgeist - at the corner of 15th Street. A really good bar with a large outdoor space. Heavy on the cycles, both motor and bi. Food (largely grilled) available, but you can hold out for Tamales from the Tamale Lady, if you like...
• Socialist Action Bookstore - 298 Valencia (between 14th St and Brosnan St).
• Soundworks - 228 Valencia at Clinton Park (between 14th and Duboce) Club music for DJs, heavy on rave-oriented stuff. Reference

And if you keep going on Valencia, you'll get to Market Street (right by Martinni's). If you make a left and you'll find an intersection with a vinyl record store ("Grooves"), a late-night diner ("It's Tops"), and the relocated Al's Comics.

Make a right on Octavia, and you'll find the beginning of Haight Street, a few blocks from the Lower Haight strip.

But let's back up to 16th Street and Valencia. It took a bit of walking to get here, but you could have made it here by getting off at the 16th and Mission Bart station. It's also walkable from the south end of Soma, but the distance between 11th and 16th is much greater than you'd think from the street numbers, and the intervening area is a bit of a wasteland.

Some highlights of the 16th Street strip (where you should expect to be panhandled a lot):

• Roxie - a really good, independent theater.
• Truly Mediterranean - a hole-in-the-wall place with an interesting take on felafel, gyros, and shwaerma. Good, inexpensive, substantial. Open to midnight on Fri/Sat, other nights to 11pm (but 10pm on Sun)
• Katz's Bagels - excellent New York style bagels (unlike Noah's). Proprietor is also an excellent photographer: check out the wall displays. He has a pretty amazing book out now ("16th Street: Faces in the Mission"), which I might recommend as the ultimate "insider's" San Francisco souvenir. Warning: their pumpernickles are lame.
• Idol (really "Idol Vintage") - (3162 16th St, at Albion) - good hipster clothes thrift store.
• Adobe Books - good place for used books. If you like funky, slightly musty, poorly organized hangouts with beat-up couches, Adobe is the place. Swan himself is frequently on hand (an urban Gandalf figure often travelling with pet pigeons)... I recommend buying one of his xeroxed sheets of art/rants.
• Kilowatt - bar with a music stage (now typically music-less, which is all too typical), formerly called the Firehouse, which was a much better name, because if you look closely you can tell it really is an old firehouse.

And further down Valenica, between Dolores and Guerro:

• Body Manipulations -- (3234 16th Street) a long-standing piercing/tattoo studio. Reference.
• Creativity Explored -- (3245 16th Street) really interesting art work from people who are supposed to be handicapped. Reference
• Needles and Pens -- (3254 16th St) "zines, DIY goods, gallery". Small but good place. Reference

And maybe I should mention that there's some stuff on 16th on the east side of Valencia as well. There's another decent used bookstore over there (Forrest Books), another good Taqueria (Pancho Villa) and Esta Noche, one of the few Latino transvestite bars I know of.

Where to from here? If it's before midnight you could head to the downtown area via the 16th St Bart. After midnight, you might need to take the 14 up Mission Street.

If you want a still longer expedition: The Castro area is out west of you (Church Street near Sparky's is only about three long blocks away), or you could charge north several blocks to make a left and travel up Haight Street (on foot or by bus).