If you have lived in San Rafael for more than a couple of summers, you already know the shape of July and August here. The fair fireworks over the Civic Center. Shakespeare under the oaks at Forest Meadows. A Pacifics home game when the weather turns. What you may not have absorbed yet is how much of that familiar rhythm has quietly reorganized itself around Fourth Street this year, and specifically around a run of Friday nights that did not exist in this form a year ago.
That is the thing worth noticing. The center of gravity for a downtown summer used to sit on Saturday mornings at the farmers market. This year it has moved to the second Friday of the month, and the new openings on Fourth Street are timing themselves to catch it.
The Fourth Street arrivals that reset the block
Three additions changed the west-to-east walk this year, and each one arrived with a specific reason it belongs on your short list rather than just your awareness list.
- Giorgio's Pizzeria. The San Francisco institution is
