Beyond the Golden Gate: Discover San Francisco's coolest new neighbourhood

In 2022, Time Out magazine ranked Dogpatch among the hippest neighbourhoods in the world. Spend five minutes on Google and you'll note Dogpatch may be San Francisco's coolest new neighbourhood. But when I ask the receptionist of my hotel - which is located just a few minutes' walk north in Mission Bay - what I should see there, he tells me not to bother. "There's not much there," he tells me. "It's just industrial." And therein lies the Dogpatch dilemma ... or is it a dilemma at all? For here's San Francisco's best new place to be, and yet few - especially travellers - know they're meant to be here.

Dogpatch is on the eastern side of San Francisco, right on the bay. It was once a ship-building hub with roots going back to the 1850s, but gentrification has seen the neighbourhood become a beacon for 30-something-year-old joggers in Vuori sweatpants and cordless headphones who probably work for Uber (their corporate headquarters are located just up from my hotel). The neighbourhood retains a distinctly industrial vibe, it's just that now residential lofts and art galleries and coffee shops and trendy lounge bars are where the industry used to be.

There are not many inner-city neighbourhoods in big American cities like this where locals carry stand-up paddleboards through the streets. They launch them from sandy beaches in tiny green parks along the foreshore. There are bars right beside them that remind me of Sausalito: the trendiest of all San Francisco's bay neighbourhoods (on the northern side of the Golden Gate Bridge). I order a beer at an outdoor table by the water, shaded by a big, bright yellow umbrella and study the yachts on the water. You can't see Alcatraz or the Golden Gate Bridge from here, but there are still a million things out there on the bay (the pelicans here, incidentally, are brown). This was all once part of the biggest - and oldest - civilian shipyards in the US, now there's just a smattering of marinas where a motley crew of sailors keep their vessels. I walk past the local sailing club (Mariposa Hunters Point Yacht Club, established 1932) and watch a group of rum-fuelled sailors in their 60s and 70s dancing to a Jimmy Buffett tribute band.

I ride along the San Francisco Bay Trail, part of an 800-kilometre walking and cycling trail that will eventually provide a path around the entire San Francisco Bay. The Golden State Warriors play NBA basketball at the Chase Centre just up from Dogpatch in Mission Bay, while the San Francisco Giants play baseball in a huge stadium right beside the water, a kilometre north. Should the teams play simultaneously, Dogpatch and Mission Bay become party-central. Dogpatch is also one of the best places to see San Franciscan-made art anywhere in the city, at galleries like the Minnesota Street Project, where there are 15 independently owned art galleries on two sites across the road from each other. Arty hang-outs such the Museum of Craft and Design are sprinkled across the neighbourhood, among the piccino bars, the microbreweries and the murals sprayed across old-brick buildings.

Inner-city neighbourhoods in San Francisco aren't always the safest place to be after dark, but I'm told I can wander around by myself here. I venture up streets just back from the bay where music seeps out of historic three-storey Victorian-style terraces covered in vines and flower boxes. This was one of the only neighbourhoods in San Francisco to escape the 1906 earthquake and subsequent fires almost entirely unscathed; there are buildings here that date back to the first years of the city (1850s). There's plenty of action; at bars like the Sea Star, which dates back to 1899, and at the neighbourhood's most beloved local, the Dogpatch Saloon, built in 1912. I like the mix of people here: artist types, the IT variety, locals mostly, from 20-somethings to 60-odds and beyond; the only fight likely to break out here is between customers jostling to pick up the cheque.

Walking between bars I don't avoid dark alleys. Even the city's large homeless population oddly don't seem to know about this little nook of San Francisco. I stop at new establishments like Gather Wine Lounge - intended by its creators as a community gathering spot - where locals sit around an open-plan bar: Dogpatch is the place for solo bar-hopping. I seek out bars tucked away in little laneways, like Third Rail, which feel like they belong in small American towns. In Dogpatch's neighbouring suburb, Mission Bay, the surroundings on its main street can look more curated - shiny glass, bright, neon signage that flashes at me - but around here there's always an industrial nook to disappear into.

Some of San Francisco's best new restaurants have opened here - and in Mission Bay - like Miller & Lux, the brain-child of celebrity chef, Tyler Florence. It's one of the best steakhouses in the city. I climb a marble staircase to a darkened room with wooden columns and leather booths looking out across the bay that could be Manhattan. I'm staying in Mission Bay at San Francisco's best new hotel, Luma. Its rooftop restaurant and bar, Cavana, features a Latin American layout and menu, with a Cuban band playing while salsa dancers hijack the dance floor. I stand outside under the stars and party lights in the brisk night air and watch the light of the boats on the harbour.

I spend three days here: the right amount of time. Dogpatch isn't the only part of San Francisco you need to experience: think of it instead as a value add-on (especially if you're a regular San Francisco visitor). But as social and economic issues mean some other inner-city neighbourhoods - like Union Square - can look like ghost-town versions of their former selves, Dogpatch feels like the San Francisco I want to see.

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Getting there: Air New Zealand flies daily from Auckland to San Francisco, with flights to Auckland from Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane.

Staying there: Luma Hotel features installations by leading local artists and one of the best rooftop bar/restaurants in San Francisco. Rooms are from $US195 ($310) a night. lumahotels.com/san-francisco

Eating there: Try some of the best steaks on the West Coast at Miller & Lux; enjoy the share plates and wines from around the world at Gather Wine Lounge; and don't miss the Latin American menu and matching cocktails on the roof at Cavana. millerandluxrestaurant.com; gatherdogpatch.com; cavanasf.com

Explore more: sftravel.com

The writer travelled courtesy of Travel San Francisco and Air New Zealand.