The California Academy of Sciences, a natural history museum in San Francisco re-opened last fall in a $488 million eco-friendly building. Beyond the new digs, they also apparently have a new attitude as well. They now stay open late Thursday nights and transform the museum into one of the city’s hottest night spots. More than 3,000 people drink and dance while touring the hands-on tide pool, aquarium, planetarium and four-story tropical rainforest. But book your $10 ticket now because they often sell out in advance.

Who the heck wouldn’t want to hang out in a cool aquarium for happy hour, rather than sitting in bar? We’re glad to see that the lawyers haven’t killed off this idea (can you imagine the wrangling that took?) and see this as a great example of service design. Museums are, after all, in the service business, delivering memorable learning experiences. Massive sums of money are put into bricks, mortar, collections and all the people needed to support it. So why not leverage those sunk costs into new and innovative revenue streams?

It makes perfect, brilliant sense to open the museum after-hours in this way. It provides an uber cool backdrop for socializing, and who knows – you just might accidentally learn something while sipping your mojito.