“Sunset Buzz” is a recurring column on changes, tidbits and other news from the Sunset. Got news? Send us tips at junyao@missionlocal.com.
Abanico Coffee Roasters, a Mission-born coffee roaster since 2021, is coming west to the Inner Sunset. Abanico’s owner, Ana Valle, said that as the deadline to renew the lease on her Mission location approached, she wasn’t sure “if we’d stay or go.” So she began looking at other spaces around the city.
She managed to renew the lease for the Mission location in May, but by then this “little spot” in the Inner Sunset caught her eye.
“I liked it so much that I was like, ‘Yeah we can do both,’” she said.
The former laundromat at 424 Irving St. had most recently served as the office for paid canvassers who knocked on doors for Supervisor Alan Wong in the June primary election. The neighborhood — slower, more walkable and family-oriented than the Mission — will be perfect for “a quaint little place to offer a coffee and make people feel at home,” she said.
Though blocks from the hustle and bustle of Ninth Avenue and Irving Street, the space near Fifth Avenue is still close to transit stops and the foot traffic from UCSF. Valle plans to offer one or two special drinks unique to the Inner Sunset location, while keeping Abanico’s Latin American inspired menu.
It took two years for Valle to open Abanico on Mission Street, said Valle. This time, the wait will be much shorter — Valle plans to open in late September.
A new restaurant Bare Bones is planning to serve rotisserie chicken and wine at the former space of the seafood joint Bearing West on Taraval Street.
“It will be a family-friendly spot and all are welcome,” said the owner Daniel John Tasker, adding that he hopes to open in October.
Tasker has worked in the restaurant industry in the city for the past 30 years, most recently as a bartender at Sunset Cantina, where he still works.
Bare Bones owes its existence to the Sunset Co-op Nursery School, where the owner of Bearing West, John Giuffre, approached Tasker and jokingly asked if he’d be interested in buying the restaurant.
“At first I thought there was no chance,” Tasker said. But he’d always wanted to run his own business, and soon changed his mind. Another parent from the preschool is now his business partner, he said, and a longtime friend will be the chef. “We are a bunch of preschool dads.”
Good news for the N-Judah riders who are often packed like sardines during workday rush hours.
Starting Aug. 29, more frequent service is coming to N-Judah and 1 California lines, according to the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency. During peak hours, N-Judah will arrive every nine minutes instead of 10, same for 1 California. The 5R Fulton line will use longer buses, which provide more room for passengers on board.
Hong’s Kitchen, an old-school Chinese restaurant, closed its doors in July after 16 years on Noriega Street and 46th Avenue. It was a mom-and-pop spot where the owner worked in the kitchen and his wife waited tables in the front. The owner, Hong Kit Meng, could not be reached for comment.
Lady Falcon Coffee Club, a small-batch coffee roaster born in the Sunset, announced that “a homecoming is on the horizon” on social media in August.
A little detective work found that a business named “Lady Falcon Coffee Club” is registered at 3620 Wawona St., just half a block from Ocean Beach and the zoo.
Is it going to be a new cafe? Something else? Lady Falcon’s owner, Buffy Maguire, was hesitant to share more details, but it’s safe to say that something is brewing.
Maguire owns two other cafes with her husband in the Outer Sunset that have been open since the 1990s — both named Java Beach Cafe. Their locations on Sloat Boulevard and La Playa Street have become beloved spots where locals hang out.
The Lady Falcon Coffee Club is well-known for its vintage coffee truck — a 1946 GMC van — which is stationed at Alamo Square Park from Thursday to Sunday. From the beginning, Maguire told Eater in 2017, the coffee van was meant to bring beach vibes to the rest of the city. “Lady Falcon” is an homage to the “Falcon Ladies Bicycling Club,” an 1860s-era women’s cycling group whose headquarters was a decommissioned streetcar in Carville-by-the-Sea.
