San Francisco buzzing with last minute shopping, dining on Thanksgiving Eve

SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) — Walking around the streets of San Francisco’s North Beach neighborhood Wednesday night, the pre-Thanksgiving energy is palpable.

“It’s a fantastic vibe. It’s a nice place to be. It’s just fun. Everywhere we’ve been has been fun and positive and enjoyable,” said Florence Thisquen.

At Tony’s Pizza Napoletana, dozens of people kicked off their long weekend with good food and a few drinks.

“We’ve been to a local bar, a couple of local bars actually, Chinatown and then we ended up here,” said Dina South.

MORE: Why you ‘regress’ when you go home for the holidays – and how to avoid it

All around the city, the atmosphere is very much alive. And many local businesses tell us they’re expecting booming turnout this holiday weekend.

At Tony’s, the staff says they’re expecting to serve as many as 1,500 people a night between Friday and Sunday.

“Because everyone is out of school and taking vacation, usually we get a lot of people here in the city to come visit the downtown, see the decorations,” said Tony’s general manager, Rebecca Scaramuzzino.

And it’s not just the food that people are preparing for.

MORE: Black Friday store hours for Walmart, Target, Macy’s and more

At the Sports Basement near the Presidio, several people were buying winter gear.

That included Richard Fullerton who says his family might head to the mountains this weekend.

“Usually just before Thanksgiving I would say we sort of round out, see what we need, you know did we lose some gloves last year, one of the kids outgrew his or her boots,” he said.

Before hitting the slopes though, some people were busy buying last minute Thanksgiving essentials at Safeway.

MORE: How long do leftovers last? Your guide to post-holiday food safety

Steve Carroll tells us he and his wife are getting ready to host a feast for 22 people.

“Mostly family, mostly family. We have friends in town from Chicago, and a cousin from Marin, a brother from the East Bay and a sister from the Peninsula,” Carroll said.

And while not every gathering will be that large, if you still have items to buy, some shoppers recommend doing it sooner rather than later.

“It was definitely crazy in there. You could definitely feel the energy of the holidays in there,” said Victoria Mooradian.

If you’re on the ABC7 News app, click here to watch live