Salsa and Meatballs

If you continue up Mission, when you cross Cezar Chavez you enter the Bernal Heights area. There, you will find a restaurant specializing in "urban Italian 4-star ghetto dining" called Emmy's Spaghetti Shack (no website). It is a small, intimate setting with a DJ spinning records from the 70's and 80's. Think comfort food like bbq ribs, risotto, spaghetti with meatballs, and the best brussels sprouts you've ever had. There's no reservations, so you'll have to wait. What you should do is head towards the restrooms and then go through the unmarked door which takes you into the local Latino dive bar next door. Play a game of pool, have a corona, and listen to some reggaeton. After that little appetizer of Latino music and after you've had your fill, walk down Mission a few blocks for a stroll into what-could-be-another-country: Roccapulco. With a live 10-piece band churning out salsa, meringue, mambo, and everything in between, you'll be dancing all night long even if (like me) you have no idea what the right steps are. When you get tired, kick back in the many booths and tables arrayed around and watch the floor show of people dancing.