Cole Valley Asked for Food on Cole Street, and the Block Is Changing

"Please, we don't need any more coffee. We need food." That's how Dan Serot, owner of Finnegans Wake, summed up the letter neighbors sent to the owner of 919 Cole St. after Peet's Coffee closed in January, as he told The San Francisco Standard. The landlord had first planned to bring in another coffee shop. The Cole Valley Merchants Association and the Cole Valley Improvement Association, the residents' group, wrote to the building owner together. The lease went to Pasta Supply Co.

That letter explains a lot about how Cole Street is changing this year. The commercial corridor is one and a half blocks long, between Parnassus and Carl. On a strip that small, a single storefront changes what the whole street offers. Most of the 2026 changes came from people who live in the neighborhood or organize in it.

The letter behind 919 Cole

Peet's was at 919 Cole for 12 years. Its replacement comes from chef Anthony Strong, a longtime resident who already runs Pasta Supply Co. in the Richmond and the Mission. When the space became available, Strong told The Standard he "got a chill."

The plan, as the San Francisco Chronicle laid it out in August, called for lunch and dinner every day, about 24 seats for dining in, and a retail counter selling 30 fresh pastas plus sauces and cooking staples. The Standard mentioned two menu items in particular: fusilli in spicy tomato vodka sauce and a hot meatball parmesan sandwich.

The neighborhood also helped pay for it. Pasta Supply Co. ran a "Pasta for Life" crowdfunder for the Cole Valley location, and Eater SF reported it was halfway to its goal after one week.

Who's on the block between Simple and Double Black

Pasta Supply Co.'s space sits between two other businesses started by people with Cole Valley ties. Simple SF moved onto Cole last year, Double Black opened this summer, and 919 Cole changed hands in between, so three storefronts in a row have turned over in less than two years.

Double Black opened over the summer. By early September it had lines almost every day for drinks like an iced hojicha latte topped with black-sesame cold foam. According to The Standard, the owners added free refills on drip coffee to welcome two groups at once: people who find the shop on TikTok, and longtime locals who might assume a hojicha place isn't for them.

Hoenscheid told the same paper that moving from Carl to Cole made "such a big difference." She said Simple SF's sales keep growing 40% to 50% a year, partly because it's the only zero-waste refill store in the city, so customers come from all over San Francisco. Her description of the block was simple: "It's so mom-and-pop."

Two more storefronts changing hands

The same pattern of local hands shows up in two spaces just off that block.

Kamekyo ran on Cole for 28 years and closed this year. Its space is the planned home of a new concept from Jiro Lin, the chef-owner of Noe Valley's Hamano Sushi. So a long-running sushi room is going to a sushi chef from one neighborhood over.

On Parnassus, around the corner from Luke's Local, a florist left a storefront in July. That space went to Katie Humphries for Schatzgarten, her antique store. Humphries doesn't live in Cole Valley. After her first Merchants Association meeting she told The Standard, "Everyone's so supportive, they're so organized. This is a special neighborhood."

What organizing already changed on the street

The Cole Valley Merchants Association started in 2023. The Peet's letter wasn't its first win. Over the past few years it worked with the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency to move loading zones off the main stretch of Cole and shorten commercial loading hours, which freed up parking for customers. "We've raised money for the streetlights and night markets, and we fixed the parking," Serot told The Standard. "I'm really proud."

The newer arrivals join a corridor whose anchors go back a long way:

• Cole Hardware, open since 1920
• Val de Cole, a Legacy Business operating since the 1930s
• Say Cheese, a deli and specialty food store that neighbors have kept open for 50 years
• Finnegans Wake, which celebrated its 50th anniversary in September
• Cole Valley Tavern at Cole and Carl, known as Kezar Bar & Restaurant until 2022 and owned since 2018 by Jim Angelus, a neighbor since 2009

The current wave started around early 2024. Woods Beer and Wine Co. opened in the former Reverie space, a few months after Blue Barn arrived, and clothing boutique Rising Star Laundry came next. On Friday nights, Woods has a line for its back patio.

In September, Angelus told The Standard that Cole Valley Tavern might take a hit from Pasta Supply Co. and Lin's restaurant. He isn't worried. "It's a long game," he said. "I think this is going to be great for all of us."

Holiday Nights on December 10

The night markets Serot mentioned come back one more time this year. Cole Valley Nights: Holiday Nights is on Thursday, December 10, from 4 to 9 p.m., on Cole Street between Carl and Parnassus Avenue, according to organizer Sunset Mercantile. It's the last Cole Valley Nights of 2026. The Cole Valley Merchants Association presents it with Sunset Mercantile, Civic Joy Fund and Avenue Greenlight, per ProjectSF's event listing.

What's planned:

• Cost: free, and organizers describe it as kid- and family-friendly and accessible
• Music: Slow Coast and Dan Dectis, with the full lineup to be announced closer to the date
• For kids: Sunset Mercantile's Fun Zone, with games and activities in the middle of the fair
• Drinks: the evening is part of the Cole Valley Entertainment Zone, so to-go drinks from local bars and restaurants are welcome
• Vendors: dozens of local vendors, picked by jury from applications that closed November 2, with no food trucks
• Gifts: shops and restaurants stay open through the afternoon, and many sell gift cards and certificates

The no-food-trucks rule fits the rest of this story. With street food left to the restaurants already on Cole, the food that night comes from the corridor itself. The nearest Muni stop is Carl St & Cole St on the N Judah.

Luke Spray, executive director of Civic Joy Fund, told The Standard that Cole Valley "might be the most quintessential" of the city's neighborhood villages. He compared its recent upswing to West Portal's, where local merchants asked, "Why aren't we doing something in our own backyard?"

Whether you're curious who's going into a Cole Street storefront or thinking about what your own place near the corridor is worth, I'm happy to talk it through over a coffee or a plate of fusilli. Reach out to Greg Mundia any time. Let's Connect.