We are reviving our Developments in Development series with regular updates on development news in the Mission. Also check out our Places We Have Lost series, in which we map and record the businesses that have closed over the course of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Adieu, Myriad
After six years near the corner of Mission and 21st streets, Myriad Gastropub is closing its doors.
“After a great deal of soul searching and thoughtful deliberation, I have chosen to hand over the reins of this amazing space and let someone new give it a go here,” wrote owner and chef Trish Tracey in a goodbye note that was posted both on the company’s website and storefront window.
Tracey told Mission Local she had been considering closing for a few months, and finally made the decision when she found somebody to buy her business assets and take over the location. Tracey did not say what the new business would be but said, “I’m sure they’ll make an announcement soon.”
During its six years, patrons generally enjoyed the gastropub, a term for a pub with higher-quality food than one might expect in a typical bar, though it may have failed to build a following that could carry it through a tumultuous 2020.
In a Mission Local review from 2016, Maria C. Ascarrunz called their burger, “a grass-fed patty, with loads of flavor … served on a delightfully squishy seeded brioche bun,” and said of their wedge salad, “A great salad, and from now on I’ll never not order it again.”
After the pandemic forced Tracey to close last March, Myriad reopened for takeout, delivery and outdoor dining in July, according to a GoFundMe page the company created. The donation campaign raised more than $14,000, and Myriad eventually built a parklet, but the dozen or so seats were a fraction of the roughly 75 seats that sat empty inside.
“I had sure hoped that my staff would be in better shape by now and that at least the restaurant would be able to support their basic needs. Unfortunately, that is just not the case,” Tracey wrote in a September update on the GoFundMe page.
In late November, Tracey announced that the business was going into hibernation because of the surge in Covid-19 cases, as well as the downturn in the weather, which made outdoor dining less appealing to customers. Less than a week later, Mayor London Breed announced that San Francisco was entering into a stay-at-home order that curtailed all outdoor dining.
Ultimately, that hibernation became permanent, as Myriad did not reopen.
“I feel immense gratitude for the opportunity to have served my guests, my staff, my vendors, my investors and my community and to feel like I was part of the greater good,” Tracey wrote in her farewell message. “Bless you all. That’s a wrap.”
Although the gastropub is closing, Tracey said she planning on restarting Myriad as a catering business.
I want to do something more mobile,” Tracey said.
Hello, Flowers
Romy Deselover-Sallie, 28, plans on hosting a grand opening for her new shop, Flowers by Romy, during the last week of April.
It is the second flower shop to open this year in the Mission. Wallflower, at Guerrero and 18th streets, opened in January..
Deselover-Sallie hopes her flower shop, at 714 Valencia St., will strike a balance between the two types of shops she often sees — the “mom and pop with the cellophane wrap that you walk into to get your basic stuff, or the super high-end, bougie shop, which I think a lot of people are intimidated to walk into,” she said.
After leaving the military in 2013, Deselover-Sallie knew she wanted to pursue some form of art, and enrolled at San Francisco Art Institute, but dropped out after three years. She then began an apprenticeship with Pacifica-based ceramicist Linda Fahey for three years.
After leaving her apprenticeship in 2016, Deselover-Sallie found a job at Blossoms, a flower shop in the Hillsdale Shopping Center in San Mateo.
“I think it was in the second year that I really thought, ‘I could see myself doing this,’” Deselover-Sallie said.
The budding florist’s bosses taught her a lot about the craft and the business side, she said. Before long, she was promoted to training new employees and taking botany classes at Community College of San Francisco to learn even more.
Blossoms also brought Deselover-Sallie a boyfriend, the brother of one of her trainees.
When the pandemic struck, Blossoms let go of its entire staff.
Deselover-Sallie credits her boyfriend, 24-year-old Jeremiah Salvador Ruvalcaba, with pushing her to pursue her own business.
When Deselover-Sallie spotted the real-estate sign on the 714 Valencia St. storefront — the earlier home of Self Edge, which moved further north on Valencia Street — she immediately pulled over to call, and received an offer that was too good to pass up, she said.
Deselover-Sallie and Ruvalcaba plan to run the business together. Star, Ruvalcaba’s younger sister who introduced the pair, will also work at Romy.
Mission Yoga takes a stroll
On the other end of the street, a longtime business is relocating, and trying to reinvent itself.
Mission Yoga, which first opened at 2390 Mission St. in 2001, moved a few hundred feet to 2415 Mission St., from the northwest corner of the intersection to the southeast, and will reopen in a few months.
Steve23 Sanchez, who took over the business in 2006, said the move was necessary because his old landlord was unwilling to negotiate any rent forgiveness or reduction, despite the fact that Sanchez had not held a class in the studio since last March.
His new landlord, however, was willing to offer seven rent-free months to give the business time to get back on its feet, Sanchez said. The new location also has roof access, allowing Sanchez to host classes outdoors.
While the new space is slightly smaller — 3,500 square feet, as opposed to 3,900 before — Sanchez hopes to expand the services he offers.
“I’m transforming it from a simple yoga studio to a shamanic wellness center,” Sanchez said.
May 14 will mark the company’s 20th anniversary, so Sanchez hopes to be open by then. But he said lots of work remains to be done, and is currently raising money for the work.
He envisions new walls, paint, a new floor, and a heater. “There’s quite a bit left to do but my community is very motivated to get this thing done. I’ve had a lot of help.”
AB854 cometh
In another attempt to curtail the use of the Ellis Act, assemblymember Alex Lee (D-San Jose) introduced a bill last month that will limit an owner to using the act once every 10 years, and only if the owner has held the apartment building for at least five years.
An eviction moratorium currently bans evictions for failure to pay, but Ellis Act evictions are one of the presently allowed causes for eviction.
The Ellis Act allows landlords to evict all of their tenants, to retire from renting properties.
But many housing experts argue that the law has been misused by people to flip buildings.
“Property speculators have been abusing Ellis Act loopholes by buying property & evicting tenants that have lived in those properties for YEARS to quickly turn profits,” Lee tweeted on March 22. “In order to curb these types of evictions, AB 854 would require a five-year holding period before selling.”
Aside from obligating property owners to keep a property for five years before filing for Ellis Act evictions, the bill would also limit owners to using the law for one building per decade.
The Ellis Act was first passed in 1985, and was sparingly used until the 2000s. With special focus on the Mission, the number of Ellis Act evictions undertaken every year rose from the dozens to the hundreds by the 2010s.
Twenty-one Ellis Act eviction notices from the Mission were filed with the San Francisco Rent Board during 2020 across four different properties, down from 37 in 2019.
Earlier attempts to curtail the Ellis Act have failed. On April 15, the bill will appear before the Committee on Housing and Community Development for the third reading and a vote.
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