Baja Noe - San Francisco, CA Area Guide

Baja Noe materialized as a result of the dot-com boom that began 20-plus years ago. Young and wealthy professionals relocated into the city, which drove up rent costs in the area and transformed it into the uber hipster, pricey and gentrified area defining it today.

Prior to its transformation, though, Baja Noe was characterized by its large population of Mexican immigrants and, later on, its punk life.

There are no museums or cultural venues in Baja Noe, nor are there any annual festivals. However, the larger, Mission District does feature yearly events such as the Cesar Chavez Holiday Parade.

Although home to a wide array of cuisine types, including a large number of American Traditional and fusion restaurants, Baja Noe houses some top-notch pizzerias, in particular. Many of these restaurants are located on or near Valencia Street, also referred to as restaurant row.

A good number of locals cite Beretta, located at 23rd and Valencia, as their favorite restaurant in the city. Beretta serves classic margarita pizzas, as well as those geared towards folks with a fancier palate. Menu specialties include a mushroom, tomato, fontina and thyme pizza and a chorizo, rosemary, radicchio and gorgonzola pizza. Aside from pizza, the squid ink risotto is a house specialty at Beretta, and locals can't get enough of it.

James Beard award winning Pizzeria Delfina, a few blocks down, often keeps customers waiting on the sidewalk for one of their famous Neopolitan-style pizzas. These same patient customers also swoon over Pizzeria Delfina's panna cotta, described as perfect, in every sense of the word.

If the wait is too long at Pizzeria Delfina, walk down a block to Farina and order the customer favorite: the Bufalina pizza.

At night, locals enjoy meeting up with friends over drinks at any number of wine bars in the area. Favorites include Paprika, which also serves authentic, rustic Eastern European food. Etcetera Wine Bar, at 22nd and Valencia, features live music every Sunday so if you're in the area, stop by, order a glass of vino, and enjoy.

Got energy to burn? Yoga Tree, at 24th and Valencia, offers evening and night time yoga classes, which can be the perfect way to round out a night.

To navigate the Baja Noe area, most locals either walk or bicycle. Its flatness, coupled with its bike lanes, entices cyclists, but walkers also have an easy time of it.

You can arrive in Baja Noe easily by taking either of San Francisco's two main public transportation options: BART or Muni. BART, or Bay Area Rapid Transit, has two Mission Street stations mere blocks away from the neighborhood. Muni's extensive bus lines serves much of the Mission/Noe Valley District as well, although it is less reliable than BART as the buses are subject to traffic.

The easy cab availability means you can find a ride quickly, or you can use Lyft or Uber. Bear in mind, though, that these options will cost more than a bus or train ride, so plan accordingly.

The amount of parking makes this neighborhood a little more car friendly than in many other neighborhoods in the city, although it's still not easy. You can usually find free parking on the streets. If that fails, you can park your car at Mission Bartlett Garage, located at 21st Street and Valencia, and put your mind at ease. The cost runs from $2.00 for the first hour or $24.00 for the day.

Highway 101 and I-80 lead directly into the city just a few blocks away from Baja Noe, making them very easily accessible.

Because of the large population of young professionals and its ever-climbing status as a hipster hangout, people populate the streets and sidewalks nearly all hours of the day, but the area can be a little rough at times.

The grassy, hilly Dolores Park occupies the area between 18th and 20th and Church and Dolores Street in Baja Noe. Locals and non-locals seek out this park for sunbathing, people-watching, dog walking or ice cream eating. Order a scoop of salted caramel ice cream from nearby Bi-Rite Creamery, and watch your day disappear before your very eyes as you relax at the park.

Dolores Park is free and open to the public and attracts everyone from drifters to musicians, families to dogs. There is always something happening at Dolores Park, be it scheduled or not. On Saturdays, yogis and yoginis unroll their mats for a free weekly outdoor yoga class. You are just as likely to find free spirits rocking their downward-facing dog on other days of the week as well, yoga class or not.

During the prime weather months of the year, Dolores Park regularly screens outdoor films in the park and maintains a calendar of the screenings.

Though Dolores Park is by no means huge, you can still get in a sweet little run around its 3/4 mile perimeter. To truly get your heart rate pumping, though, run south on Dolores Street, towards 24th, which has more than a 100-foot elevation climb.

The cost of living in Baja Noe is slightly lower, if not just about the same, as the city average, at around $2,600 to $2,900 for a one-bedroom apartment.

Residents will want to opt out of owning a car and go for a monthly Clipper Card instead. For only $80 per month, you get unlimited access on all BART and Muni lines anywhere throughout the city. Gas prices in the area rest about 12 percent higher than the national average.

Additionally, you can pay just a few bucks, around $5 to $7, to get a decent pint of beer in Baja Noe.

Valencia Street has just as many boutiques as it does restaurants. While there are shops that speckle side streets, the bulk of them are located on Valencia.

The hipster magnet reputation of Baja Noe ensures that many of the specialty shops in this neighborhood cater to that population. Wonderland SF Gallery Boutique at 24th and Valencia is a unique space that features artwork by local artists as well as an eccentric collection of clothing and accessories.

Paxton Gate caters to hipsters and science nerds alike. A few blocks east of Wonderland SF Gallery and Boutique, it sells succulents, taxidermy, carnivorous plants, animal bones, cricket-filled suckers, rare gems and more. Even if you're not looking to buy an oddity, check out this shop just the same.

Bi-Rite Market feeds much of this area. Though technically outside the land area of Baja Noe, at 18th and Dolores, Bi-Rite Market sources many of its products from local farms. Bi-Rite's items are often made in house, including its line of ice creams, which you can purchase at its creamery as well, just across the street. Expect to wait, though, as queues are often long.

Thursday evenings, from 4 to 8 pm, at Bartlett Street and 22nd, the Mission Community Farmers Market pops up. This market features prepared food as well as produce. Food trucks congregate near the entrance of the market, hoping to entice attendees with the fragrances emanating from their trucks, either when they enter or before they leave.

The Hella Vegan Eats food truck is incredibly popular among market-goers, tempting them with items like a potsticker burrito, smoked tempeh salad with pomegranate arils and mac and cheese with a butternut squash-based sauce. Choose to pick up one or two of Hella Vegan Eats' affordable menu items upon either your entrance or exit from the market.