Meeting Architects has moved into an industrial-style building in the working-class Mission District, which adjoins South of Market and creates a real estate corridor sometimes known as Multimedia Gulch.

In fact, so many are now situated in these neighborhoods that some in the business have taken to calling the area "Multimedia Gulch" and Business Week magazine dubbed it "Silicon Alley."

Bacar, a new "wine salon" in a handsomely renovated warehouse deep in Multimedia Gulch, epitomizes the zeitgeist.

Today, more than 400 Internet firms are based there and in the adjacent South of Market district, an area which, along with nearby Potrero Hill, has come to be known as Multimedia Gulch.

CompuMentor now employs about 65 people in roomy offices in the southern end of San Francisco once known as Multimedia Gulch.

Although computers can be programmed anywhere, the emergence of Multimedia Gulch is proof of the undying appeal of old-fashioned, face-to-face contact.

Such soaring confidence is as strong as the double espressos in Multimedia Gulch, but some computer-industry analysts suggest that the hype sometimes outweighs the quality of some of the products.

But now this neighborhood, called Multimedia Gulch, has cooled considerably, and the clairvoyant's home office looks out onto vacant office buildings, abandoned by retreating start-ups.

Welcome to the cultural hub of San Francisco's trendy interactive media district, otherwise known as Multimedia Gulch.

One part of the district has earned the nickname Multimedia Gulch.