DANCE CLUBS

Six 60 Sixth Street 
(415) 863-1221 
Cover: free to $7

Voted by locals as the Best Club in the Worst Neighborhood, Six is on a particularly unsavory block of Sixth St., between Market and Mission (SoMa). The two-level club, though, is getting a reputation as one of the city's best new dance clubs. There's a spacious lounge on top, with plenty of couches; a comfortable bar; and downstairs you'll find an underground dance floor manned by local name deejays. The dance floor here is spacious and populated by serious clubbers unfazed -- or intrigued, perhaps? -- by the club's iffy location.

Backflip 
601 Eddy Street (in the Phoenix Hotel) 
(415) 771-FLIP (3547) 
Cover: $2-$5

In an earlier incarnation, the Phoenix was a down-at-the-heels 1950s motor hotel on the border of the Tenderloin district. Today, it's an icy blue shrine to the Jetsons-age aesthetic, and a pit stop for artists and traveling rock stars. In its restaurant/bar, Backflip, young professional types crowd the place for "expertly mixed deep soulful house," "international downtempo & ambient drum and bass" or "latin boogaloo," depending on the deejay (call to check) - or relax poolside, bundled up in the deck chairs in the chill night air (check out the pool's colorful mosaic by Francis Forlenza). Hungry? Backflip serves the type of food the grownups used to eat when you were a kid (highball salmon croquettes, oysters on the half shell) as well as Cuban-spiced vegetable kabobs, fried chicken and "two-bite" hamburgers. Now get back there on the dance floor.

Cafe du Nord 
2170 Market Street 
(415) 861-7374 
Cover: varies

Eighteen steps below Market Street, this one-time speakeasy, built in 1907, reopened in 1991 with a mission to lead the jazz renaissance in San Francisco -- the club was also at the forefront of the mid-nineties swing revival. The red pool table, bordello-red walls and carved mahogany bar add to the club's sense of history. Although the Cafe du Nord still features jazz, it's expanded its repertoire to include alternative rock, spoken word, hip-hop and electronica. Regular events include Salsa Tuesdays, a gothic/neo-romantic Wednesday theme night, and Josh Jones and his Latin jazz on Thursdays. Headlining most Friday nights is San Francisco's own sweetheart of vintage jazz and blues, Lavay Smith and Her Red Hot Skillet Lickers. The Cafe du Nord was named San Francisco's best bar by Rolling Stone in its 1999 Rock & Roll Summer issue. There's a full bistro-inspired menu, and a generous happy hour, too.

Cat Club 
1190 Folsom Street 
(415) 431-3332 
Cover: varies

This new remodel of a once-famous club attracts yuppies, gays and straights -- even the occasional goth -- to an alley south of Market Street. With two rooms and two dance floors, the new Cat Club is anything but the dank alley club it used to be. Now, it's open till 4 a.m. and has two dance floors kept jumping by high-volume deejays, and two rooms for maximum schmoozing.

End Up 
401 Sixth Street at Harrison
(415) 357-0287 
Cover: varies

This SoMa bar/club attracts everyone from club kids to drag queens, leather folks, and suburban types, depending on the night. Friday nights, Other Whirled parties til 4 p.m. the next day; Saturday nights the club becomes The Girl Spot, and Sunday mornings hard-core clubbers greet the dawn at T-Dance at 5:30 a.m. Get your reggae on Mondays and Wednesdays at the spot's Club Dread.

Beauty Bar 
2229 Mission Street 
(415) 285-0323 
Cover: varies

Kitschy, yes, but that's the point. Painted in a shade of Pepto-Bismol pink and adorned with chairs and dryers imported all the way from Long Island, New York, the Beauty Bar is a shrine to loveliness -- and they fix a mean Pompadour cocktail, too. Inspired by the success of their first Manhattan-sited Beauty Bar, owner Paul Devit and partner filled a U-haul with vintage beauty salon equipment and set up "shop" in the diverse and Bohemian Mission district, stopping along the way to comb Midwestern thrift stores for more treasures. The ladies' room is papered in 1950s magazine ads for Lux, Avon, and Newports, and yes, you can even get a manicure with your martini (phone ahead). Beauty Bar's happy hour runs Mondays-Fridays 6-10, and there's always a theme party on the calendar: Prom Night, Geisha Night and Warhol Factory Night were some recent events. Regular deejays spin everything from French go-go to "lipstick lounge." The ladies come for the ambience, and the men, well, they come to check out the ladies.

Polly Esther's & The Culture Club 
181 Eddy Street @ Taylor
(415) 885-1977 
Cover: varies

Looking back, it's hard to decide which decade enjoyed a tackier aesthetic: the '70s or the '80s. Now, the creative geniuses at the national Polly Esther's chain of nightclubs have solved your conundrum, by putting both eras together in one fabulously cheesy space. Whether you're in the mood for some Pretty in Pink or Saturday Night Fever, there's something for everyone here, and one price gets you into both clubs. With three lit dance floors and loads of retro-themed, garish gifts for sale, you can have both a great time and an odd new assortment of souvenirs. Although the club is in a particularly gritty section of the Tenderloin, it's plenty of fun once you get inside -- between songs, fortify yourself on bar snacks (burgers and fries, etc.) or try one of their famous cocktails. The "Tang" contains Midori melon liqueur, vodka and orange Tang (!); there's a concoction of vodka, blue Caracao, pineapple juice and grenadine called "Jaws"; and various other drinks are dedicated to Sonny & Cher, the Brady Bunch and other cultural icons. As they say at the club, "Peace, Love and Polyester."

Asia SF 
201 Ninth Street 
(415) 255-2742 
Cover: varies

One of the best gender-bending shows in the city, Asia SF has skyrocketed to the top of the list of "must-see" San Francisco destinations. A stylishly dim room, smallish and dominated by a bar, is consistently filled with partying locals and savvy S.F. visitors. Atop the bar, Asian damsels both real and faux gyrate and lip-synch to the music. The food is pricey (if you eat and drink and tip properly, it's easy to drop $40 per person) and the attitude is priceless. Look closely at the performers in their skin-tight dresses -- Some are men portraying women and some are ... well, that's part of the fun -- figuring out who's what.

1015 Folsom 
1015 Folsom Street 
(415) 431-1200 
Cover: varies

Best known as ground zero for techno music lovers, 1015 Folsom also features top international deejays and off-the-wall live acts. There are three levels -- big name acts on the main stage on the center level; experimental deejays in the basement, spinning for an alternative crowd; and "easy listening" upstairs in black-lit ambience. With six bars and parties that often go until dawn, 1015 remains an important spot on San Francisco's dance scene map. Though admission is a steal (most events and club nights are under $15), drink prices can burn a hole in your wallet. Enjoy 1015 while you can, since the "lofties" (see above) have targeted the club as one of SoMa's trouble spots and are trying to close the place down, over the protests of music and entertainment lovers.

Holy Cow 
1535 Folsom Street btw 11th/12th 
(415) 621-6087 
Cover: free

A straight-ahead blend of top 40, modern rock, disco, funk and 80's classics makes Holy Cow a comfortable and unpretentious -- if occasionally rowdy -- evening destination. Plus, there's never a cover.

Butter Bar 
354 11th Street (at Folsom)
(415) 863-5964 
Cover: varies

As-yet largely undiscovered by the mainstream, Butter Bar is a high-concept, whimsical experience designed to please the most jaded club-hopper. Pass through the margarine-yellow façade and enter a space that's half bar, half garage, and half trailer park. Wednesdays through Sundays, a deejay spins an eclectic mix of house and electronica starting at around 9:30. Butter's accompanying café serves "white trash cuisine" piping hot out of the microwave -- out of an actual, refurbished 1950s Airstream trailer appear such delights as White Castle burgers, SpaghettiOs and Tater Tots. Wednesdays at Butter, a club called Cream purports to "enrich that boring cup of coffee called life."

The Elbo Room 
647 Valencia Street 
(415) 552-7788 
Cover: varies

Great local music, minimum prices, and lots of ordinary folk there for the rhythms and the crowded, noisy dance floor upstairs. Downstairs are two pool tables and a great juke box. They claim to have the longest happy hour in town -- from 5-9 p.m., they just might be right. Dub and roots music holds forth Sundays at the popular Dub Mission.

Make-Out Room 
3225 22nd Street 
(415) 647-2888 
Cover: free

Decorated in 1950s kitsch, the Make-out Room mostly attracts couples and groups -- it's not much of a pick-up bar -- and a few red booths that invite tawdry romance. The occasional theme night brings activity to the dance floor, and bands play upon a stage dressed all in red. The look of the place, done up in cheesy oil paintings and other thrift-store objects adds to its appeal.