The Mission: Tartine at nine, Balmy Alley with a muralist, and settling the burrito argument
14 playbooks shared · added to 45 trips
- 8:45 am1Morning bun at Tartine, before the line existsSan Francisco
At 08:45 the queue at 18th and Guerrero is five minutes; by 09:30 it is twenty and by 11:00 it is forty-five. Order the morning bun and a hot croissant and skip the bread — the country loaf comes out of the oven around 16:30 and you are not carrying it around all day. Tartine Manufactory on Alabama has tables and no line and is not the same thing.
4 min walk · 350 m - 10 am2Mission Dolores — the adobe, not the basilicaSan Francisco
$10 suggested donation. The small adobe chapel on the left is 1776 and the oldest intact building in San Francisco; the enormous basilica beside it is 1918 and you can walk past it. Look up in the chapel — the ceiling is original Ohlone painted work, not a restoration. Twenty minutes is enough, and the cemetery behind it is the one from Vertigo. CORRECTED 2026-09-06: this stop started at 09:45 and the Mission does not open until 10:00 — moved. Visiting hours are 10:00-16:00 Tuesday to Sunday and it is CLOSED MONDAYS, so this whole day has to be a Tuesday-to-Sunday day (and the mural tour below pins it to a weekend). Suggested donation confirmed at $10 adult, $5 student. Guided tours are suspended until further notice; self-guided entry needs no reservation.
7 min walk · 500 m - 10:45 am3Dolores Park, north-west slopeSan Francisco
The slope facing downtown catches sun an hour before the rest of the park and is the corner locals sit on. More usefully: if the Sunset and the Richmond are socked in, the Mission is often clear — it sits in the city's rain and fog shadow and is reliably its warmest neighbourhood. That, not the murals, is the reason to schedule a walking day here rather than in Golden Gate Park.
17 min walk · 1.3 km - 11:45 am4The burrito argument: La Taqueria versus El FarolitoSan Francisco
They are two blocks apart on Mission Street and the argument is genuine. La Taqueria at 2889 makes it with no rice — dorado, griddled until the tortilla crisps — and the absence of rice is the position, not an oversight. El Farolito at 2779 is the super burrito: cash only, foil the length of a forearm, open until 02:00, and the one the after-hours crowd votes for. If there are two of you, buy one of each and split them. Do not walk in and ask for a Mission burrito; it is a category, not a menu item, and nobody behind the counter will know what you mean. MOVED 2026-09-06 from 13:45 to before the mural walk, because the walk actually leaves at 13:30 — eat first, and you are also eating La Taqueria before its afternoon line rather than in it.
8 min walk · 600 m - 1:30 pm5Precita Eyes classic mural walkSan Francisco
$25 general, $15 seniors 65+, $10 under 18 — all three confirmed 2026-09-06. This is the rare guided walk worth paying for: a working muralist covers 60 to 70 murals inside six blocks and tells you which walls are being repainted, by whom, and over what. TWO CORRECTIONS. The Classic Mural Tour runs Saturday and Sunday at 13:30 and takes about ninety minutes — this stop was scheduled at 11:30, which is a different tour entirely (11:00 Saturday is the Mission Trail Mural Walk, 11:00 Sunday is the Precita Park Tour), so the window has moved and the rest of the day moved with it. And it is not a booked stop: Precita Eyes sells tickets at the door on the day, reservations are not necessary and they say no one is turned away, so this is now marked planned rather than booked. Only private and group tours need an appointment, and those can run any day of the week. Meets at 2981 24th Street near Harrison. Weekend-only, which together with the Mission's Monday closure fixes this day to a Saturday or Sunday.
3 min walk · 100 m - 3 pm6Balmy Alley again, slowly, with nobody talkingSan Francisco
Walk it a second time on your own after the tour. It is the oldest continuous mural site in the city — the first panels went up in 1971 and the dense 1980s Central America wall is the heart of it. Several of those are being restored by the original artists on a 2026 grant, so what is on the wall now is not what is in the guidebook photograph. It is a working alley with garages and residents; go quietly and do not shoot into windows.
8 min by train or taxi · 5.1 km - 3:50 pm7Dandelion Chocolate on ValenciaSan Francisco
A bean-to-bar factory with a cafe bolted to the front of it; the hot chocolate flight is three small cups from three origins and is far more interesting than buying a bar. If you would rather read than eat, Adobe Books and Alley Cat Books are both within three blocks and both host readings most weeknights.
8 min by train or taxi · 4.9 km - 6:30 pm8Dinner in the courtyard at Foreign CinemaSan Francisco
Ask for the courtyard when you book, not the dining room — a film runs on the back wall through service and the heaters make April work. Two weeks out for a Friday or Saturday. The brunch here is more famous and much harder to get; dinner is the easier and better meal.