We’re sure you’ve faced them too: late night hunger pangs, sugar cravings when you only have $5 in your wallet, a crazy hankering for a cheap bottle of Pinot.
The Lower Haight has some great options for dine-in, but sometimes it’s the more low-brow eats that hit the spot. In that vein, we’re hooking you up with a guide to the liquor stores, snack shops and cheap eateries of the Lower Haight.
We’ve scoured the neighborhood for the best, cheapest, most delicious (or just plain interesting) grub. It’s broken down by category – for when you feel like something sweet or something salty; when you want a drink or you really need a fuller meal. Read on, and happy eating!
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- Several markets in the neighborhood stock pints of Three Twins ice cream, including New Santa Clara, Abe’s, O’Looney’s, and Haight Fillmore Whole Foods — plenty of places to satisfy your Lemon Cookie fix.
- Sunrise Market carries a snack called “Nutella To Go,” which we’d never seen before. Think a more unique, hazelnut-y version of Pocky sticks – definitely worth a try.
- If you’re at Sunrise Market for the Nutella, you should reach into the freezer bin and pick up a few Choco Tacos – as far as we know, they’re the only store on Haight that stocks them!
- If cookies are more your game, we have a few places to suggest. Haight Fillmore Whole Foods has the largest selection of Newman O’s we’ve seen, including the rare variety of Ginger ‘N Crème.
Meanwhile, New Santa Clara Market has an impressive variety of Pepperidge Farm cookies, if you’re in the mood for a Milano or a Gingerman.
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- Want a more salty, maybe even spicy snack? O’Looney’s Market stocks some great options – including pickled jalapenos and carrots that are great stacked on some tortilla chips.
- Speaking of tortilla chips, Haight Fillmore Whole Foods has a healthy selection of ‘em, as well as fresh guacamole!
- Finally — and tentatively included in the “salty” category — is a snack too strange to pass up at New Santa Clara Market: marshmallow popcorn. We’re thinking this could either be an awesome addition to movie night or a total miss, but too interesting not to try.
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- When you need to quench your thirst, a great place to start is at Haight Fillmore Whole Foods, which stocks cases of 21st Amendment’s brews, including the Pale Ale and Hell or High Watermelon (at least when we stopped in).
- If a cheap bottle of wine is what you’re after, you can do worse than Yellowtail. All the markets we went to carried it (including, amazingly, bottles of the Riesling at Sunrise Market!) However, O’Looney’s has the best price – $7.99 for a bottle compared to $8.99 anywhere else.
- Heading to Duboce and need a little something to stash in your bag for refreshment? O’Looney’s also has a decent selection of mini-bottles of wine in their cash register display cabinet – and even mini bottles of Jaegermeister if you need a drink that’s a little stiffer.
- Finally, we would feel remiss if we didn’t let you know that O’Looney’s also stocks cans of Four Loko. Enjoy, carefully. That is all.
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- A great deal for a quick late-night meal in the neighborhood is a grilled cheese sandwich from Love ‘N Haight. They’re open til 2am, you can customize your sandwich any way you please, and it’s only $2.79 – how can you lose?
- Craving a greasy dose of pizza to cap off your night? There are plenty of places to grab a slice in the neighborhood, including Mythic, Volare’s and Bus Stop, and thankfully all three are open until 2am on weekends.
- Hungry for a square meal and don’t want to bother with a restaurant? Haight Fillmore has some great choices for frozen pizzas and other offerings. Plus: they’re organic, which means you can feel less guilty about scarfing down a whole pepperoni pie on your own.
- Finally, hopefully all you Lower Haighters have gotten a chance to try Wing Wings, one of the newer additions to the ‘hood. There are a lot of great options for late-night dining here, but one that’s both delicious and unexpected is the chicken salad on a biscuit – at $3 per, you can grab two or three and have an inexpensive, delicious meal that’s usually ready in just a few minutes!
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We hope you enjoy mowing down on some of the items we’ve suggested here. For more information on the details and addresses of these markets, be sure to check our Eat, Drink, Shop page. And leave us any of your go-to snack tips in the comments!