Mission Buzz: Baja food coming to Mission, new sushi on Valencia

Nearly two years after Little Spot Cafe closed its doors, another cafe is taking over the space at 1199 South Van Ness Ave. at 23rd Street.

Lili Cafe could be opening as soon as mid-June if it passes a final city inspection scheduled for May 22. 

Owner Liliana Valle, who also owns Kiara’s Beauty Salon just up the block, said that opening a cafe has always been a dream in the making.

“I’ve always told my customers, ‘I already have what I’ve wanted. Now, we’re missing the coffee,” said Valle, who grew up in the Nicaraguan highlands of Estelí, a region known for coffee and tobacco. “I’ve been a coffee lover all my life and my mom had a bakery, so it’s always been a dream.”

Valle said she’s planning to bring some beans from her native Estelí. The cafe will also offer some Nicaraguan pastries as well as other baked goods, bagels and sandwiches.

Kiku Sushi & Vegetarian is taking over We Be Sushi’s former home of 30 years at 538 Valencia St., near 16th Street. 

The Valencia Street outpost is the restaurant’s third location, which already has locations in Berkeley and Lafayette. 

Kiku Sushi & Vegetarian opened last weekend, but its grand opening is scheduled for Thursday May 14.

Chicano Nuevo, the pop-up-turned-restaurant serving Baja California-style cuisine, Wu-Tang-shaped flans and squid-ink tamales, received an interim permit from the Health Department last week that finally allows it to serve food. 

Up until now, the brick-and-mortar at 3355 Mission St. at Virginia Avenue had only been able to operate the bar. 

An inspector with the Health Department informed the owners, Abraham Nuñez and Courtney Fujita, in December, shortly after its opening, that the restaurant’s newly installed ventilation hood was too loud under the city’s new regulation.

The duo had to raise money to build a sound barrier around the whole circumference of the fan.

Chicano Nuevo will start serving food within the next two weeks as the owners are currently hiring and training staff. The restaurant will have a soft opening in a week and a half and a grand opening in about two and a half weeks, said Nuñez.

“We’ve been a pop-up for 10 years, so it’s nothing really new, but right now we’re settling into our final brick and mortar, so it’s exciting,” said Nuñez.

Mission Yoga turns 25 years old this week, and the studio is celebrating big.

“I’m so excited to be in a position here to help steer and guide the community and offer this for so many years,” said Mission Yoga’s owner, Steve23 Sanchez. “I’m honored. It is really what it comes down to.”

Mission Yoga first opened at 2390 Mission St., at 20th Street in 2001. It was also the year Sanchez attended his first yoga class at the studio; he was invited after coming back from Burning Man.

Sanchez fell in love with yoga and he started teaching in 2006, also the year he took over the studio. In 2021, Mission Yoga moved from the northwestern corner of 20th and Mission streets, across the street to its current location at the southeastern corner, when the first landlord refused to negotiate a rent reduction during the pandemic.

To celebrate the quarter of a century, Mayor Daniel Lurie will be doing a proclamation making May 14 Mission Yoga Day in San Francisco. The studio will be offering free yoga classes on Saturday and Sunday, and it will host a party Saturday night with a DJ, potluck and a bar.

“The people here are very dedicated and very connected. Also the things that we offer are very effective at achieving your goals,” said Sanchez when asked what he thought has kept the studio open this long. “We’re traditional in our methods, but we’re also innovative.”

The 19th edition of the Dancing Feathers Youth Powwow is taking place on Saturday, May 16, at Mission High School.

For years, the event took place at Thomas Edison Charter Academy in Noe Valley, until last year, when it was moved outdoors to Julian Avenue. It will be the first time Mission High hosts the event, which has attracted as many as 300 people from the greater Bay Area region in years past. Dancers vary in age from toddlers to teens. 

There will be an open dance after the event, as well as a jingle and potato dance contest.   

This year’s celebration will honor the memory of Tom Phillips, an elder and former executive director of the American Indian Cultural Center and a respected Powwow MC, who died in March.

The event will also have American Indian arts and crafts, food vendors and it will run from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.

The 16th and 24th Street BART plazas will be activated with local vendors, family activities and live performances on Saturday May 16.

The activations are spearheaded by Mission Lotería in collaboration with the city’s Office of Economic and Workforce Development and other local organizations such as CLECHA, Mission Economic Development Agency and Calle 24 and American Indian Cultural Districts.

It will be the first of a series of activations called Sabado Gigante at the BART plazas set to take place every third Saturday of the month throughout the remainder of the year. 

“We’re looking to bring a little joy to the Mission at the BART plaza activations,” said Luis Quiroz, the founder of Mission Lotería.

 “We want people to come out and support vendors, enjoy the music and some fresh air.”

Saturday’s activation will have a Carnaval theme. Attendees will have the opportunity to take salsa and cumbia lessons and enjoy performances from groups set to participate in Carnaval.

Months after replacing sushi restaurant Handroll Project at the corner of 18th and Guerrero streets, Hamburger Project shut its doors earlier this month.

Co-owner Tan Truong told Eater they “simply weren’t getting the traction needed at the location.”

The original Hamburger Project opened at 808 Divisadero St. in December 2024 and sold more than 1,000 burgers in its first two days. After rapid success, a social-media scandal broke when one of the chefs messaged a food influencer after she described the burgers as “not great.”

The chef, Greoffrey Lee, stepped back from the restaurant as a result.

Most recently, the Mission location was involved in a different controversy after photos of raw meat left in the sun outside of the establishment circulated online. In an Instagram post, the restaurant owners wrote it had been the driver, without their consent, who left the meat outside because there were no employees at the time of the delivery.

“Obviously, we disposed of the product as soon as we found it,” read the post.