Bay Area/ San Francisco
Published on July 24, 2015
Sunrise Deli And Skunkfunk To Close, Plus More Upper Haight Business BulletinsPhoto: Chris T./Yelp

Summer is already well underway: tourist season is in full swing, it's only two weeks until the Playa Pop-Up store opens to equip travelers for Burning Man, and it's already been almost two months since your last Upper Haight retail roundup. There have been some changes in the meantime.

First up are some pending closures on the Haight Street strip.

We noticed that the space housing Sunrise Deli, the falafel shop at 1671 Haight, is currently up for restaurant-retail lease (its 750 square feet are going for $5,300 a month). Bad news for falafel fans: according to an employee at the shop, Sunrise is closing its Haight Street location altogether. The shop opened up on Haight Street back in December 2012; the other two San Francisco locations of the restaurant (in the Sunset and the Financial District) will remain unaffected by the closure. Stay tuned for more on when Sunrise might close its doors for good.

Also on the way out is Skunkfunk, which opened at 1475 Haight St. in January 2010. The 1,500-square-foot retail space is up for lease beginning August 1st at $9,500 a month. According to an employee at the store yesterday, the Haight Street location is closing, and the Spanish-Basque apparel brand plans to open a shop in the East Bay, possibly near Lake Merritt.

Also closing up shop is Cukui, which as we noted earlier this month, will be shutting down at  1439 Haight St. at the end of the month.

In other news, Hyperoptics, the optometrist and eyewear shop that recently relocated to 1728 Haight St., has just put the finishing touches on its newish retail space. Hyperoptics leased and moved into the new space back in February, after 15 years at their previous address, 1463 Haight, which still remains vacant. The construction will provide display space for about 200 new frames, bringing the store's total offering up to about 1,000 pairs of glasses. The new shelves are to be the space's finishing touch; construction was expected to wrap up yesterday afternoon.

In terms of new businesses that are still brewing on the Haight corridor, VeganBurg still plans to open its first U.S. extension of the Singapore-based vegan fast food chain at the former All You Knead storefront (1466 Haight) later this year, although the substantial changes to the space so far remain interior improvements only, with no external sign of changes.

And as we noted yesterday, Ritual Coffee Roasters is still on the way to Haight & Central, with an October opening date in mind and a query about what neighbors would like to see move in next-door, where two adjacent spaces are still open for lease after being announced for lease last August. The building, 1300 Haight, seems slated to become the new eastern outpost of retail in the Upper Haight.

Meanwhile, the former Pinklily's 1,850-square-foot location is still up for lease at 1748 Haight, but the rental price has dropped from last month's $6,500 to $5,000. And if you're looking for a space to hold yoga or martial arts classes, the Zanshin Center on Stanyan is offering space for use for just $25 an hour.

Know of any other business news in the neighborhood or have a tip we should check out? Let us know in the comments.