One of Polk Street's many popular drinking establishments will be dark during this weekend's nightlife rush thanks to an unfortunate liquor license permit violation. Blur at Polk and Hemlock apparently forgot the ABC permit they acquired way back in 2004 required that the bar serve food — which they currently aren't doing. Since we all know what happens when you forget to have dinner, the bar will be blacked out until next Thursday at the earliest. more ›

We always assumed self-consciousness, not price, kept people from marking their bodies with tattoos. But here we see a gaggle of ink fans queued outside Let It Bleed tattoo parlor on Polk Street, waiting to take advantage of a Valentine's Day special. SFist contacted Let It Bleed for more details. They explained: "We had a sheet of Valentine themed tattoos for just $25." more ›

It’s the dead of San Francisco winter and 46 degrees — 46 degrees! — but that’s not stopping certain hardy residents of the sizable apartment structure at 1214 Polk from opening their windows and drying their laundry au naturale. We’re impressed. 46 degrees in San Francisco, particularly along this gusty urban corridor between Bush and Sutter, feels like autumn in the Yukon. This is the southern edge of Polk’s transitional zone, where it emerges from the sleazy chic of “nitespots” like Vertigo and Blur and slowly crawls toward more prim territory northward up into Russian Hill. The upstairs residences on this block are decidedly ordinary, but there’s a dichotomy at work between, for example, the stained glasswork at O’Reilly’s Holy Grail and the $5 haircuts and $20 facials across the road at the International College of Cosmetology II. Of course, Polk St. has always been known as one of San Francisco’s more diverse business thoroughfares. more ›