Thrive City at Chase Center has been designated a full-time entertainment zone, where adults over 21 can carry open containers of alcohol outdoors seven days a week, following Valencia Street’s lead.
The new designation allows bars and restaurants at Thrive City, the 11-acre mini-neighborhood surrounding Chase Center, to serve drinks to go every day from 11 am to 10 pm, as the Chronicle reports. Previously, the district had a part-time designation where the open-container rules changed depending on the event, making it confusing for both businesses and customers.
Thrive City, which opened alongside Chase Center in 2019, now hosts more than 200 free community events a year, ranging from pickleball tournaments and farmers markets to music classes and sports watch parties. Some upcoming events include Valkyries playoff watch parties and Lucha Libre Wrestling Night this Thursday.
The plaza’s bars and restaurants include Splash sports bar, Harmonic Brewing, Burma Love, Che Fico Pizzeria, and Dumpling Time. Splash co-owner Andy Chun told the Chronicle that the year-round entertainment zone could help businesses draw customers more consistently, while creating an atmosphere more like outdoor drinking and dining areas in European cities.
“It’s about creating more of a European hospitality experience, like the London pub scene or the café culture in Italy,” Chun said, speaking to the Chronicle.
Anne Taupier, executive director of the San Francisco Office of Economic and Workforce Development, said the permanent designation would give restaurants, bars, and other small businesses more opportunities to benefit from the crowds already coming to Thrive City.
“Great public spaces are also engines for local economic growth,” she told the Chronicle.
San Francisco now has more than 30 entertainment zones after former Mayor London Breed signed legislation in 2024, allowing bars to sell to-go cocktails and permitting open-container drinking during events when streets are closed to cars. Businesses across the city have reported significant boosts in sales when entertainment zones are activated.
Valencia Street became the city’s first full-time entertainment zone, initially operating five days a week before expanding to seven days a week, including when no street festival is taking place.
Other entertainment zones have been used for neighborhood night markets, Pride block parties, World Cup watch parties, and cultural festivals, often with live music, DJs, drag shows, local vendors, food trucks, and outdoor seating.
Related: SF Now Has 30 Boozy ‘Entertainment Zones,’ Which Are Boosting Local Businesses
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