Before Eileen Rinaldi founded Ritual Coffee, she ran a Torrefazione Italia café in the 255Cal building at California and Battery. She left to start her own company in 2005. Shortly after, that café became a Starbucks and stayed one for the next 20 years.
This year she signed a new lease in the same building. In her own announcement she describes it as "kismet" and says the opening is planned for October 2026. Her story is the most personal one on a map that has changed a great deal since spring. Corner by corner, the Financial District's former Starbucks storefronts are reopening under local operators. The new owners are building rooms for sitting, and their hours reach past the office week, which matters most to the people who live downtown.
Why the Shells Went Local So Fast
These openings trace back to Starbucks' September 25, 2025 restructuring. CEO Brian Niccol's message said the company was closing stores where it couldn't provide the physical environment customers expect or saw no path to financial performance. Starbucks described the change as roughly a 1% net reduction across North America for fiscal 2025. Downtown San Francisco, though, got a cluster of empty storefronts at its best addresses.
SFGATE's July 31 reporting explains why independents took them so quickly. The spaces are turnkey, with plumbing, electrical and basic structure already in place for a café. Graham Grealish of CBRE told the San Francisco Business Times that downtown landlords were offering lower starting rents and more flexible terms than before the pandemic.
Permitting also got faster. When SPRO Coffee Lab opened at 201 Spear Street, co-founder Rich Lee credited the city's PermitSF reforms in the Mayor's Office release:
"What normally would have taken upwards of seven months for a permit, we got our permit for this location in only 2.5 weeks."
SPRO also received $75,000 through the Storefront Opportunity Grant program, plus First-Year Free permit fee waivers. Cheap shells, flexible leases and a permit that took weeks instead of months together explain why a single summer brought this many openings.
Three Rooms, Three Different Downtowns
The three cafés now open in former Starbucks spaces each keep a different schedule. Taken together, the schedules show what each owner expects downtown to be.
| Café | Address | Opened | Posted hours | What the room is built around |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Andytown | 66 Kearny St. | May 2026 | Weekdays 7 a.m. to 5 p.m.; closed weekends | Lounge seating, curved bench, stained glass |
| Sana'a Cafe | 27 Drumm St. | June 2026 | The chain's locations often stay open until 10 p.m. or later | Long, unhurried visits over Yemeni coffee |
| SPRO Coffee Lab | 201 Spear St., Suite 100 | Officially Aug. 12, 2026 | Daily, 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. | Rare coffees, house-made breakfast and lunch |
Andytown runs on the workweek. The Kearny Street café is the local chain's third downtown location and its tenth overall. Co-owner Lauren Crabbe told SFGATE it has been busy, saying "Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday are just packed." An August design feature describes the room's open lounge area, curved bench, stained-glass windows and mural. The bakery menu includes a made-to-order breakfast sandwich, soda farls, scones and sausage rolls. Andytown's own listing has it closed Saturday and Sunday, so residents can count on it only Monday through Friday.
Sana'a Cafe runs on evenings. The Yemeni coffee chain opened its first San Francisco location in 2023 and now has 17, with 22 more in the works, mostly in California. It imports its coffee from Yemen and roasts it locally. Co-founder Sadeq Alaqel told SFGATE that Sana'a locations are open late, often until 10 p.m. or later, and that customers are welcome to stay as long as they like. At 27 Drumm Street, a short walk from Embarcadero Center, that makes it one of the few downtown places built for an after-dinner coffee rather than a morning commute.
SPRO Coffee Lab runs every day. Rich Lee and Liza Otanes started SPRO in 2017 as a coffee cart at Spark Social in the East Cut. They have since grown it into a multi-location San Francisco business that includes a café at 500 Church Street in Mission Dolores. Sprudge describes the Spear Street program as European-influenced, with breakfast and lunch made in-house, juices pressed fresh daily, and a coffee menu that includes rare coffees and Gesha lots. SPRO's posted hours are 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. daily, which makes it the only café in this group with a confirmed weekend schedule. Andrew Robinson of The East Cut Community Benefit District said he expects it to become a gathering spot for "residents, workers, and visitors alike."
All three owners are building for people who stay. SFGATE notes that Starbucks had moved toward mobile pickup in San Francisco and removed seating, while local shops are finding success with the opposite approach. For residents, the difference is practical. A café that welcomes a two-hour visit on a Sunday or a 9 p.m. conversation works as a shared living room in a way a pickup counter does not. That ties into how our car-free downtown living guide maps walkable routines.
What October Adds
Ritual is the next expected arrival, and its exact address is still unclear. Rinaldi places the café in the 255Cal building at California and Battery. The San Francisco Chronicle lists the former Starbucks as 295 California St. As of early October, Ritual has not announced an opening day.
Other changes nearby are also pending:
- Sana'a Cafe at 388 Market St. Alaqel told SFGATE in late July that this location would open in the next few months.
- Compton's Coffee House at 359 Grant Ave. The café was expected to open by mid-September near Chinatown's Dragon Gate. Its own location page still says "coming soon."
- Coffee Bar. The café is on the city's list of downtown grant recipients preparing to open. The Business Times reported in September that it plans several new cafés.
Two free morning events this week fit the coffee theme, both at Mechanics Monument Plaza, 488 Market St. The SF Tech Week Coffee Rave runs Monday, October 5, from 9 to 11 a.m., with free coffee and live music. On Tuesday, October 6, Downtown SF Partnership's Breakfast Jams brings classical guitarist Yoon Lee from 8 to 9:30 a.m., with a free Boichik Bagels bagel.
At the Ferry Building, Lucania from the A16 team is expected to open in early October. It will bring back the 140-seat, dog-friendly patio off Embarcadero Plaza, which has been empty since MarketBar Cafe closed in April 2020. Lucania's own site still reads "coming soon," so check before planning a visit around it. On Thursday evenings, the Ferry Building's Music on the Plaza series features Bay Area musicians from 5 to 7 p.m. on October 8, 15, 22 and 29.
How Long This Window Lasts
The terms that brought local operators downtown may not last. Aidan Compton told SFGATE he has started to see rents creeping back up and more competition for leases as downtown recovers. That pressure is why he saw expanding downtown as "now or never." Lee is still expanding too. Beyond SPRO, he recently opened The Wild Fox at 123 Battery St. through the city's Vacant to Vibrant program.
The cafés that opened during this window chose their hours knowing downtown would be fuller on Tuesday than on Sunday. Andytown went with the workweek. Sana'a went with evenings. SPRO opens all seven days. Ritual's opening at 255Cal will show which schedule the next owner picks. For a resident at the north end of Downtown, a Saturday-morning coffee within a few blocks of home is now confirmed in at least one former Starbucks, at 201 Spear Street, from 7 a.m.
Bryant Kowalczyk tracks downtown block by block, including which new cafés, restaurants and shops are opening near a given tower and which are still only announced. If you are weighing a Financial District or East Cut residence, or planning to sell one, BrokerLuxe can walk you through that building's surroundings in detail. Schedule a private consultation.
