What's New Along West Portal Avenue Before This Year's Halloween Stroll?

When the corner storefront at 1 West Portal Ave. came up this spring, it wasn't really on the open market. The San Francisco Standard reported that the agent was told the space was available only to the owners of Khao Tiew, the Thai restaurant around the corner, if they called. They called. Co-owner Arkaranit Dusitnitsakul told the Standard, "This is luck."

Tur's corner fits a wider pattern. Most of the changes you'll walk past at the Halloween Stroll on Saturday, October 31, came from people who were already running businesses here, or living here. The one big exception is a proposal at the Empire Theater, and it sits right in the middle of the route.

The corner that stayed in the neighborhood

Squat & Gobble held the blue-and-white, two-story corner at 1 West Portal Ave. for 32 years. On May 13, Dusitnitsakul and chef Wipada Rattanapun opened Tur there. It's their second restaurant. Khao Tiew serves dinner only, and Tur serves breakfast and lunch, with a menu built around what the two owners wanted to eat in the morning when they were kids in Thailand.

The menu is short. It has egg dishes, seven kinds of Thai-style jook, sweet plates like honeycomb French toast and pancakes, and a section called "tur tur" that runs from confit duck with eggs to a sizzling tonkatsu sandwich. The Standard named the squid-ink Caribbean pasta with dried chiles as an early hit. There's also a waffle with honey walnut shrimp, a nod to the now-closed M.Y. China. Inside, a canoe hangs over the register, antique photos of Thailand's former kings line the walls, and small ceramic turtles wrap around the salt and pepper shakers.

Tur is easy to read as a new arrival. It's closer to a neighbor moving one door over and adding the hours the Avenue was missing.

Mornings got longer this year

Hardware Coffee also opened in May 2026, a few doors up at 32 W Portal Ave. It's an all-day café with coffee, beer and wine, a full-service florist, some retail, and space for private events. It's open daily from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m.

Put the two May openings together and the station end of the Avenue looks different before noon. Tur covers breakfast and lunch at the corner. Hardware Coffee covers coffee and flowers from 7 a.m. until early evening. Neither one replaces a dinner spot, so both add to the street's daytime instead of competing with the restaurants that already fill it at night.

Saturday's route, in address order

The West Portal Merchants Association lists the West Portal Halloween Stroll for Saturday, October 31, 2026, from 4 to 7 p.m. along West Portal Avenue. It's free and open to everyone. Merchants hand out candy, and the annual costume contest starts at 5 p.m. at BookShop West Portal, 80 West Portal Ave. There are categories for kids, adults and pets, and West Portal merchants pick the winners.

Walking it by street number shows how close together the old and new parts of the Avenue sit:

1. 1 West Portal Ave. Tur, in the former Squat & Gobble corner.
2. 32 W Portal Ave. Hardware Coffee, open until 6 p.m., so it's an early stop.
3. 59 West Portal Ave. The building that houses Supercuts and Goodwill Boutique. It's now part of the redevelopment proposal next door.
4. 80 West Portal Ave. BookShop West Portal and the 5 p.m. costume contest.
5. 85 West Portal Ave. The vacant Empire Theater.
6. 385 West Portal Ave. The former Clay Oven space, next door to the first Little Original Joe's. It's set to become a new restaurant from that same team.

The first five stops sit within roughly one block of street numbers. The costume contest happens a few addresses from the site of the biggest proposed change on the Avenue in years.

The block around the Empire Theater

Of everything planned on the Avenue, this is the one that doesn't come from the neighborhood's own operators. San Francisco YIMBY reported on September 1, 2026, that DM Development is handling an application for property owner Empire West Portal LLC. It would replace the vacant theater with a 12-story mixed-use building. After the owner bought the adjacent parcel at 59 West Portal Ave., the proposal grew from 64 to 172 rental apartments, 26 of them deed-restricted as affordable.

SF YIMBY's report says the application relies on the city's Family Zoning plan, Assembly Bill 1287 and Senate Bill 423, which raise residential capacity and streamline approval. As of that report, the developer had not shared a construction timeline or cost estimate. For now it's a filed proposal.

The businesses near the site have been on this block a long time. El Toreador has served empalmadas, chalupitas and margaritas since 1980, and the San Francisco Standard noted that the space has been a Mexican restaurant since 1957. Spiazzo Ristorante has had the same owner for 30 years. Mozzarella di Bufala, an Italian-Brazilian restaurant, is in a building between the Empire Theater and the 59 West Portal building.

Merchants who spoke with the Standard had different views on what construction would mean for the block. Giuseppe Vivacqua of Spiazzo looked past the build. "The construction will be a pain, but customers will come anyway," he told the Standard. "And then the new housing will bring many more people." Pedro Galletti of Mozzarella di Bufala chose not to sell his building, and he told the Standard he thinks the development will ultimately be good for his restaurant.

The station end after dark

The stroll runs until 7 p.m., when it's already dark, so the changes around the Muni station matter more than usual. SFMTA's quick-build package around West Portal Station added a red transit lane, turn restrictions at West Portal and Ulloa and at West Portal and Vicente, speed-control elements on Wawona, a flashing beacon at Ulloa and Wawona, and one-way traffic on Lenox Way. It also moved the 91 Owl stop to Ulloa.

SFMTA's evaluation, published July 20, 2026, reported 60% fewer injury crashes in the project area, 75% fewer illegal U-turns at the station, and 97% legal vehicle movements at West Portal and Ulloa since the changes. The agency says the current materials around the station horseshoe should last three to five years, and it's looking for grant funding to make them permanent.

If you come by car, the old habit of making a U-turn at the station to grab a curbside spot doesn't match the street layout anymore.

After Halloween, the same pattern continues

The next date on the Avenue's calendar comes from another local business. West Portal Gallery is holding its First Year Celebration on Friday, November 13, 2026, from 6 to 9 p.m., as part of the neighborhood's 2nd Fridays tradition. Its current exhibition runs October 9 through November 19.

The next restaurant is further off, and it fits the same pattern. SFist reported in August that John and Elena Duggan plan to open Original Joe's Cable Car at 385 West Portal Ave., in the former Clay Oven space. The siblings run Original Joe's, Little Original Joe's and Elena's in West Portal, and they live in the neighborhood. The new spot will focus on burgers and chicken tenders, with milkshakes, beer and wine, sloppy joes, tater tots and a funfetti ice cream sandwich. It will have about 20 to 25 seats inside and more outdoors. The Duggans are aiming for late 2027, so this Halloween's trick-or-treaters will see that storefront change slowly.

The Duggans' description of what they want, as they told the San Francisco Chronicle, could describe the whole Halloween Stroll: "something parents can take their kids to, and kids can drag their parents to."

If you're out on the Avenue on October 31 and wondering how these changes might affect your own place on the west side, I'm glad to talk it through over coffee at 32 W Portal Ave. or anywhere else you like. Greg Mundia keeps up with what's opening, what's proposed and what's staying on West Portal Avenue. Let's Connect.