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The Midnight Diners is a regular collaboration between KQED food editor Luke Tsai and graphic novelist Thien Pham. Follow them each week as they explore the hot pot restaurants, taco carts and 24-hour casino buffets that make up the Bay Area’s after-hours dining scene.
We’d made the mistake of coming to the Marina District at 10 o’clock on a Friday night, and on Super Bowl weekend, no less. The intersection of Fillmore and Greenwich was even more chaotic than usual — both sides of the street swarming with half-drunk twentysomething frat-boy and sorority-girl types traveling in packs of six or eight. Everyone was decked out in their tightest skirts and bro-iest muscle shirts to stand in line outside Balboa Cafe or any of the half-dozen other bars that flank the block.
That’s the Marina in a nutshell. Depending on your point of view, it’s either the best or most obnoxious neighborhood in San Francisco…