🌁 Exploring the Cole Valley Night Market

Good morning readers! Welcome to The Fogline, a newsletter created to share our love for the city we live in and to promote community connection. We aim to give you the scoop on neighborhood events, tasty new pop-ups and restaurants, and spots to gather, play, shop, and enjoy this beautiful city we share.

In today’s news:

On Thursday The Fogline editors visited the Cole Valley Night Market, a neighborhood celebration featuring food and craft vendors, local businesses, and musical acts. Cole Valley holds a special place in our hearts because it was the first neighborhood we lived in when we moved to San Francisco in 2017.

The market is sponsored by the Cole Valley Merchants Association, with partnerships from the Civic Joy Fund, Sunset Mercantile, and Avenue Greenlight.

Vendors offered jewelry, unique clothing items, art prints, quirky crafts and beautiful ceramic pieces. On the food and drink side, we spotted Nepalese momos, rose-flavored drinks at Naya’s Delights, French pastries, and a stall serving Irish coffee. Thanks to the recent designation of the area as an entertainment zone, attendees could walk and explore the market with a drink in hand.

We made our way past the market stands on Cole Street, stretching from Carl to Parnassus, and wrapped up with a stop at Lovely’s at Woods Cole Valley for two OG burgers with cheese fries. Cole Valley sticks with you. Sometimes I really miss living in that charming little neighborhood.

Pineapple King offers pineapple buns with a variety of generous slabs (yes, slabs) of butter. Options include guava, chocolate marshmallow, salted egg, pandan coconut, and “gold” butter made with Kerrygold, complete with the packaging displayed on the menu.

Pineapple King isn’t a new bakery, but it is easily one of the best and most distinctive bakeries in The Sunset. I went with the pandan coconut butter bun. The butter was warm, the pandan lightly sweet.

Beyond the buttered pineapple buns, you can find many other types of puffs, buns, breads, tarts, and drinks. One day I might branch out and try a different menu item, but for now, I can’t seem to stop by without getting that warm pandan coconut butter bun.

On November 29, the Randall Museum will host a Saturday drop-in science workshop for families from 10:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m., featuring fun and engaging topics such as:

At 11:30 a.m., the museum will offer an Animal Ambassador experience with an opportunity to see a California wildlife rescue animal. This is a chance to learn about local wildlife, their habitats, and the conservation efforts behind the program.

Find more information at https://randallmuseum.org/randall-museum-events/

Enjoy a dazzling mile-long trail of lights at the Botanical Garden in Golden Gate Park now through January 6, 2026. The experience is described on the official website as “a mile-long trail of dazzling lights, dramatic colors, otherworldly lighted sculptures, and water features right in the heart of San Francisco Botanical Garden.”

There are eleven works of art making up Lightscape that form intriguing objects such as trees, flowers, and insects. Over a million lights will fill the garden!

Good news! The display will be open on Christmas Eve, New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day!

Food and drink vendors will be on site. Menus can be found here: