Pacific Café Had a Line Out the Door and No One to Hand It To

"We've been so busy and swamped you hardly have time to get your bearings," Frank Gundry told the San Francisco Chronicle in late August. "We didn't realize how popular we were."

At the time, the line at the corner of Geary and 34th Avenue was running longer than usual. People waited hours for one more crab-stuffed petrale sole and one more free pour of house white. Some customers waited two hours in line. Pacific Café served its last dinner on Sunday, August 30, after 52 years at 7000 Geary Blvd.

Customers didn't stop coming. The restaurant closed because nobody was ready to take over. That explains the hole it leaves, and it also explains how the rest of the Outer Richmond keeps adding new businesses. On Balboa Street, the shops that open tend to come from people who already shop, live, or run a business on the same block.

A Full Dining Room and No Successor

The numbers in the Chronicle's closing story describe a business still doing well. According to its sale listing, the restaurant brought in about $1 million a year. This spring, the owners listed it for $195,000. That price is roughly a fifth of one year's sales, for a 50-seat room where a Chronicle critic described the queue forming within minutes of opening back in 1992.

The people running it were the reason it closed. Gundry started as a waiter soon after Tom Hawker and Jim Thomson opened the place in July 1974, and he became co-owner in 2014. He is 78. His partner, Ross Warren, is 80 and handled the daytime ordering, bookkeeping, and prep. The host, Roy Manabat, is also 80 and has worked there more than 40 years. The cooks, Jian Huang and Roger Li, are both in their late 60s. Gundry said all of them were ready to retire, "especially after the marathons" of dinner service in the final months.

Before the last service, Gundry said at least one buyer was interested in keeping the business going as Pacific Café. The owners weren't willing to put off retirement while negotiations played out, though, and the paper said the restaurant's future was unclear. We haven't found any news report since then of a sale, a reopening, or a new tenant. The only update we found comes from the local blog Lee's Perspective. It posted a photo of the storefront boarded up on September 8. As of early October, the corner's future is still open.

The coral walls and amber lighting were "exactly the same as when we opened in '74," Gundry said. Wooden partitions in the waiting area still kept the crowd from spilling into the dining room. A restaurant that stays the same for half a century usually depends on the same few people for half a century. When they all reach retirement around the same time, the business has nobody to pass to.

How One Block of Balboa Filled Itself

About 15 blocks east, a single block of Balboa shows how a business can arrive in the Outer Richmond and attract more. Shannon Atlas wrote about it for the Richmond Review this spring. Balboa between 19th and 20th Avenues didn't fill up through a single big lease. It filled up one storefront at a time:

1. December 2020. Graciela Ronconi moved Love Street Vintage from Haight Street to 1801 Balboa. She had lived in the Richmond a long time and said the "neighborhood was starving for a fun business." The block was quiet at first.
2. 2021. Wood Goods and Hot Sauce opened.
3. 2022. Coffee Movement, the Nob Hill coffee shop, opened a location on the block.
4. Summer 2024. Uncommon SF opened at 1815 Balboa.
5. 2025. Ashley Von Edge opened Tight Knit Vintage & Modern at 1850 Balboa.
6. April 2026. Tight Knit was set to reopen later that month after rain at the end of 2025 damaged the floors.

Each step made the next one easier. Atlas wrote that the early businesses brought foot traffic and "paved the way for additional stores to open nearby." Tight Knit's story shows how directly that worked. Von Edge was shopping at Love Street, met Ronconi, and spotted a "for rent" sign across the street. She contacted the landlord from there.

"Having a connection to the neighborhood – and living seven blocks from the store – made it an easy decision," Von Edge said.

Before opening, she introduced herself to the other two vintage owners and made sure her shop would offer something different. Love Street leans Boho California, with '60s and '70s leather and denim, '49ers jackets, and Native American jewelry. Uncommon SF is spare and curated. Tight Knit mixes older pieces with modern ones and children's clothes, and it gives a 15% store discount to customers who donate items. Three vintage shops that could have competed have instead split the market among themselves.

For a Saturday visit, check the hours. Love Street and Tight Knit are open Friday through Monday, 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Uncommon SF is open Friday through Sunday, 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.

The Same Pattern at Both Ends of Balboa

This year's food and drink openings along the corridor follow the same pattern.

At 407 Balboa, Ghien Banh Mi & Cafe began its soft opening in May. It sits next door to Luxury Spa, which the same owners, Tuan Luu and Uyen Vu, already run. They didn't need a new block or a new landlord to start a second business. The menu centers on bánh mì, with a house-special sandwich, Vietnamese drip coffee, and iced teas. When the Richmond Review interviewed them in July, they hadn't set a date for a formal grand opening.

Near the ocean end, cousins Bill and Ryan Tiet opened Constance Tea & Matcha at 3512 Balboa at the end of May. They grind matcha on-site with traditional Japanese stone mills, and the shop also serves black matcha. The San Francisco Standard reported that it pulls Taiwanese teas to order on a custom-built machine. It's a couple of blocks from the Balboa Theatre at 3630 Balboa.

On Geary, a Clement Street pop-up found a permanent home. Hi NRG's owners took over the lease at 5801 Geary Blvd., at 22nd Avenue, in the corner space that used to be the AyDea cafe. According to the Chronicle's September report, Nathan Kruse, Luis Gonzalez, and Clara Liang opened the café and wine bar after more than three years as a pop-up. All three have lived and worked in the Richmond for at least five years. The new space keeps the specialty coffee and DJ sets and adds wine, beer, pastries, and snacks.

None of these is a 50-seat dinner spot with a line down 34th Avenue. Each one is run by owners who also do the daily work, and each grew out of something the owners already had. Luu and Vu already ran the spa next door. The Tiets went into business as cousins, and Hi NRG's owners spent years as a pop-up in the neighborhood before signing a lease. In every case the business depends on who is behind the counter. That's what has helped Balboa fill up, and it's also what Pacific Café ran short of.

Where People Gather in October

The merchants also bring people together through street events. On September 12, Art Walk SF and Far Out Fest held a free block party on Balboa between 35th and 38th Avenues with local artists, makers, food, and a set by the surf-rock band The Mermen. More is coming up this month:

The Balboa Village Merchants Association puts on the Fright Fest. It includes trick-or-treating at participating businesses, a scavenger hunt, pumpkin painting, and other activities for families. Completed scavenger hunts can be turned in at Terra School at Balboa and 39th or at Full Life Christian Center at Balboa and 37th. Event details are posted in the Funcheap listing, which links to the association's announcement.

This is the 12th year of Fright Fest. Like the vintage block, it has lasted because the people on the street keep showing up and organizing it again, year after year.

Back at 7000 Geary, the boarded-up storefront is still waiting on a buyer. Its next tenant will take over a corner where diners waited two hours for a table this August.

At Meagan Levitan, we follow the Outer Richmond one storefront at a time, because a block's businesses and the homes around it tend to change together. If you're thinking about what the coming year could mean for your home near Balboa or Geary, we'd be glad to give you a careful, discreet read. Request a Confidential Home Valuation.