If you do miss the last train: I recommend just staying up all night. You really only need to make it to 5 or 6 AM or so when transit starts running again, right? The bars close at two, some clubs run a little later, maybe you stop in at an all night diner for a few hours then pick a good hill to watch the sun come up... when I used to do this kind of thing, I'd wind up skipping the first few trains because I'd gotten busy with other things and didn't feel like leaving. By ten or eleven it's sometimes warm enough to take a nap in the park.

24 hour restaurants

San Francisco isn't exactly a "city that never sleeps" (maybe none are, not even New York). (Well, maybe Vegas is, but let's not think about that, please). But there are some 24 hour places scattered around. You'd think that there'd be some in Soma, but I don't know of any except for the (most excellent) Happy Donut (3rd and King).

I'll give you a few recommendations (you may be able to find more below: Reference):

• Bagdad Cafe, Market and 16th. Decent diner food. More trendy these days than Sparky's.
• Sparky's, Church St, just south of Market street (and yet not in "Soma"... this is on the edge of the Castro district). Basic diner stuff (skip the pizza, though). A traditional post-club destination. Lots of mirrors to spy on your fellow freaks.
• Pinecrest Diner, at the corner of Geary & Mason, essentially in the theater district. A classic American place of the type that I call a "misunderstood diner". Evidentally not terribly friendly to freak clientele.
• Naan & Curry, the flag ship edition of this excellent series of inexpensive Indian places is now 24 hours, and it's moved to a location on the edge of the theater district, not far off of Union Square: O'farrell St, between Mason and Taylor.
• Cafe Ya-Bon, a new addition to the list at Polk & Sutter on the western edge of the Tenderloin. A nice looking place with just a touch of funkiness (it has a chalk board menu, which is usually a good sign) with food as well as coffee/deserts (a half sandwich & soup costs $5.95, as of this writing) Free wifi.

Don't forget DONUTS:

• Happy Donut, on 3rd Street near King (out east in Soma). Serious donuts and so on, which don't stint on the fillings and icings. Some sandwiches.
• Happy Donut, on 24th Street & Church (in Noe Valley) Respectable donuts, albeit a little light on calories (comparatively). Some sandwiches, croissants, etc.
• Happy Donut, on Columbus at Kearney & Pacific (downtown North Beach, right near Chinatown)
• Please note: The Happy Donut on Haight Street is *not* a 24 hour place.
• All Stars Donuts, on 5th St near Harrison St. Near The Endup.
• All Stars Donuts, on Mission at 9th St. Right at a 14 bus stop.
• Silvercrest Diner, on Bayshore Blvd, just south of Chavez. Not convenient if you're not motorized, and even I think twice before eating here, but you have to give them points for longevity. And a cool sign.

And on the late night list (open until 3AM or so):

• On the border between Chinatown and North beach, at 620 Broadway (right near Columbus) is a hole in the wall place called "The Vietnam Restaurant", a place with decent food, that's open to 3am. You can't lose with the five-spice chicken. I often have the seafood soups. Try the Vietnamese Ice Coffee.
• "Sam Wo" at 813 Washington (near Grant). Chinese noodles until 3am. A multilevel hole-in-the-wall. An old Beat hang-out.
• "It's Tops" on Market (near Octavia, etc). An old time place, decent American diner food. Open late on weekends only.
• "El Zocala" way down at 3230 Mission St, a few blocks south of Chavez, near where Mission Street veers over and Valencia crashes into it. Decent Salvadorean food. The soup and pupusas combo is a good deal.

Some other 24 hour stuff:

• Lusty Lady, on Kearney near Broadway. This is a 24 hour peep show place with live nude women on display. This is evidentally one of the better places to work from the woman's point of view (it was a union shop, now it's a worker-owned co-op). Reference.
• Kinko's. This 24 hour copy shop chain used to be where all the best people hang at 3am, though the scene seems to have slowed down a bit of late. They have computers and netaccess, but it's kind of expensive these days. There's one at 1967 Market Street (at the intersection of Duboce) just a few blocks north east of Church Street (i.e. the Sparky's zone).
• Also note that on weekends (and some weeknights) there are usually raves and rave-afterparties that will run to dawn, if you're so inclined. You can go see what's happening at "The Endup" at 401 6th Street (at Harrison) in Soma... if you're up for the music, this could be a good place to hang late. (Reference.) Anyway, see Reference for more Rave info.
• There is also the 24 hours Safeway supermarket chain where you could do worse than to scrounge some supplies from there and hang out outdoors someplace -- provided you don't mind patronizing a Utah-owned, union-hostile outfit that kicked money to the Republicans during the takeover of the Bush Junior regime. There's an obvious Safeway on Market Street, near Church. There's also one down in the "Marina" district (15 Marina Blvd), not so far from the Wave Organ mentioned above.
• Some Cala Foods supermarkets are open late as well, not to mention some notable editions of the Walgren's chain.

Hills

What are some good hills to watch the Sunrise from? My personal favorite is Corona Heights (where one can sit in the Devil's Chair, as described in the Fritz Leiber novel, "Our Lady of Darkness"). Corona Heights is near the Castro (not too far from the Bagdad Cafe mentioned above), but getting up top is a little tricky. You've got to snake around the back (north-west) side somehow... Here's a good way to do it: follow 16th St across Market (going passed the Bagdad Cafe). Go Right on Flint. On your left, follow the path that goes up through a fenced gate. There should be tennis courts on your left, and a small rocky cliff straight ahead. Bear right on the asphalt trail, then go right on to a dirt & railroad tie stair case (if you stay on the asphalt you end up in the parking lot of the Randall children's museum). Keep going up to the top... any descent means you've missed a turn.

An obvious one that's also a good one is Telegraph hill (where "Coit Tower" resides) up in North Beach, not too far from the Vietnamese place on Broadway near Columbia. Has a view of both the Golden Gate and the Bay Bridge.

On the west side of the Mission, there's Dolores park (its boundaries are Church & Dolores and 18th & 20th). It's not a major climb or anything, but the high end of Dolores park has a really nice view off to the West. And after the Sun comes up, you can get right on the J Church line there.

The energetic &/or the motorized might consider Twin Peaks. Look on a map, to the west of Market street... 23rd street points at it, but the streets get crazy near by it, and off the top of my head I can't say anything more about how to get there, except just keep going uphill. This is the tallest point in the city (the Mt. Sutro Tower is up around there, that red and white triceratop devil you can see from all over). It has some public overlook parking, though this stuff will probably get crowded on weekends.

(Incidentally, Twin Peaks can be accessed by bus, using the 37, starting from Market street near Castro. This is a great bus line, well worth the $1.50 just for sightseeing purposes, but it's not a 24 hour bus: the last run is around midnight.)

I would skip Buena Vista park for these purposes: too many trees to have a good view... and maybe too many people sleeping in the park.

Going for long walks over the residential hills (say Russian or Nob) can be fun.

Another possibility is Bernal Heights park (this is down south of the Mission, it's peak festooned with some sort of weather station/radar dish equipment). You can take the 24 from the lower Haight or the Castro through Noe Valley and across the bottom of the Mission, and then up the hill on Cortland. Get off somewhere on the strip where Cortland levels out, and make a left, follow your nose uphill into the park. Afterwards, you might want to back track to Cortland to see if Progressive Grounds is open.