Irving Cafe Reopens With Altered Decor, New Menu At Former Quickly Location

Irving Cafe Reopens With Altered Decor, New Menu At Former Quickly LocationPhotos: Walter Thompson/Hoodline
Walter Thompson
Published on July 08, 2015

A restaurant doing business as Irving Cafe is now open at 716 Irving St., the same location that briefly operated as a Quickly tea shop before closing last month for apparently violating city guidelines governing formula retailers.

In June, Inner Sunset residents and the city's Planning Department were caught by surprise when Quickly opened a new location on the site of the former Irving Street Cafe, which closed in January. According to officials, Quickly's owners represented the business as "Irving Cafe" in permit applications and declared that it wasn't a formula retailer.

Irving Cafe's interior as it appeared on June 3.

San Francisco regulations require businesses with more than 11 locations and two standardized design features to apply for conditional use permits and notify neighbors before opening. After Quickly received Planning's notice of code enforcement, the store closed and replaced its illuminated Quickly signage with an "Irving Cafe" banner.

No one from the Planning Department was available to comment, but the cafe's interior has been altered to remove several standardized items that can classify a business as a formula retailer. A new wall menu has no Quickly branding, several Quickly-branded specials and promotional signs have been removed and employees wore street clothes instead of uniforms.

The orange flowers appear to be obscuring Quickly logos.

A few vestiges of Quickly remain: a handful of logos still appear behind the counter and around the store, the chain's trademarked colors are integrated into the decor, counters and seating, and a flyer in the window appears to use clip art to cover the Quickly logo.

If you're in the neighborhood, stop in to check out the new addition, and let us know what you think in the comments.