The former original Philz Coffee space at 24th and Folsom streets has been vacant for more than two years. Now, a new tenant is moving in.
La Rancho, a grocery store, submitted an application to the San Francisco Planning Department on Feb. 3 to open a market at 3101 24th St. The storefront has been empty since the Philz’s flagship cafe closed in October 2023 after 20 years serving coffee to the Mission District.
Little is known about the future grocery store. Cornelia Roppel, the project’s representative, said on Friday afternoon that its opening could come within two weeks. Both Roppel and her client declined to provide further details.
The store will have a selection of organic, Mexican, Western and Arab groceries, according to a construction worker on site.
Susana Rojas, the executive director of Calle 24, said that her group was “working together to welcome” the owner to the Mission District and taking him on a tour of the corridor.
“We’re working to create an amazing opening,” she said.
Philz Coffee closed its original site after the company said it “made the difficult decision” not to renew its lease. Mission Local then revealed that the building was owned by an LLC controlled by Jacob Jaber, the chain’s co-founder and the son of its progenitor, Phil. There are no recorded ownership changes since that time.
Philz Coffee was sold to a private equity firm last summer for $145 million.
Gee,
I never heard Susana Rojas and her Calle 24 staff offering such a warm and hearty welcome to the owners of Cinderella Bakery that is about to open on 24th and Alabama.
Why is that???
Perhaps a better question is why they’re giving the neighborhood bullies any press coverage in the first place.
“According to a construction worker on the site.” NEWS!
What’s wrong with quoting a construction worker on the site, do you only want to hear from big shot CEOs?
La ??? Rancho
They/Them Ranche
This is a step backwards for the neighborhood. Do we really need another Casa Guadalupe or El Chavo selling Goya at twice the price of Foods Co? In the case of the later they never seem busy but continue to open more locations which brings up a whole host of questions.
La Raza deserve better and we drink coffee too!
Frank, what you are missing is that this place always had a liquor license, even when it was a coffee place. Convenience stores typically make half their profit from booze. And the rest from people who cannot be bothered to walk ten blocks to Foods Co to save a buck on a can of beans.
Good luck getting we hardcore drinkers to abandon WK across the street
Hardcore drinkers buy cheap and in bulk at Total Wines, which of course is right next to Foods Co.
Convenience stores are for late night impulse booze purchases and are relatively price-insensitive.
Anyway, there is nothing wrong with more choice.
“this place always had a liquor license”
So will this really a grocery store or one of the many liquor stores that label themselves as “markets”?
I’m delighted that something is going in there. That shop was the last Philz that had any charm. The corporate masters bit the hand that fed them when they closed the original location. A small grocery will go back to the roots of Golden Gate Market, the shop Phil ran before he started the coffee shop.
“That shop was the last Philz that had any charm”
Actually, the one across the street of the CCSF Ocean campus in Ingleside has plenty of charm.