San Francisco Neighborhoods · Cow Hollow / Union Street
Cow Hollow / Union Street
Sun zoneBoutique-lined Union Street between the Marina and Pac Heights — brunch, blowouts, and bars on a flat, walkable stretch that was once a literal dairy pasture.
- Union St shopping & brunch
- Flat & walkable
- Between Marina & Pac Heights
- Lively bar scene
On the map
Open Cow Hollow / Union Street on the map →The story
Cow Hollow was a marshy valley of dairy farms in the mid-1800s — dozens of dairies grazed cows here, which is exactly how it got its name. The city shut the dairies in 1891 over pollution of Washerwoman's Lagoon, filled the pond, and the area built out with Victorian and Edwardian homes. Union Street reinvented itself as a chic boutique-and-dining strip in the 1950s–60s.
Things most people don’t know
Once an actual cow hollow
In the 1860s this green valley held dozens of dairy farms grazing the cows that supplied the growing city's milk — hence the name.
The lagoon that vanished
The dairies and tanneries fouled Washerwoman's Lagoon, a freshwater pond once used for laundry. The city closed them in 1891 and filled the lagoon, clearing the way for homes.
A dairy farmhouse still stands
The 1854 farmhouse that gave Cow Hollow its name survives on Union St — today it houses the Palm House bar and restaurant, behind one of the city's oldest palm trees.
An early boutique row
In the 1950s–60s, shopkeepers converted Union Street's old Victorians into one of San Francisco's first boutique shopping strips — a template the city's commercial streets still follow.
A 1913 power saloon
The Balboa Cafe (1913) is one of the city's oldest continuously operating saloons and a longtime see-and-be-seen hangout for San Francisco's political set.
Eating and drinking
Restaurants
- Atelier Crenn · 3127 Fillmore St
- Flores · 2030 Union St
- Roaming Goat · 1830 Union St
- Rooster & Rice · 2211 Filbert St
Bars
- Balboa Cafe · 3199 Fillmore St
- Palm House · 2032 Union St
- Bar Crenn · 3131 Fillmore St
Getting around and getting care
Transit. The 41 Union and 45 Union–Stockton buses run the length of Union Street toward downtown, with the 22 Fillmore and 43 Masonic crossing toward the rest of the city. There's no rail nearby — it's a bus-and-walk neighborhood.
Nearest hospital. CPMC Van Ness Campus, 1101 Van Ness Ave (about 1.4 mi)
Thinking about Cow Hollow?
Send me an address and I will come back with its sun, wind and fog, what is under it, and what has closed on the block.