The Embarcadero neighborhood, particularly the Golden Gateway Commons and Gateway Apartments and Townhomes, is losing an institution: Today is the final day of business for Coffee Roaster (536 Davis St.), which most know colloquially instead as "Lana's" or "Lana's place."
The intimate shop has been a hub for the community for 30 years. It's a place for friends to meet, neighbors to gossip, and everyone to get Graffeo coffee, Double Rainbow ice cream and other drinks and snacks from owner Lana Yelnin, who can recall how you get your coffee even if you haven't been in for months. She's at the shop nearly every weekday.
When asked why she's leaving, Yelnin said, "It's time to go," but declined to give specifics. She's not sure what she's going to do now. "It's a new chapter in my life I'm going to start," she said. Yelnin has owned the shop since October 1st, 1985.
Customers have been broken up upon hearing of the closure. "It’s a huge loss for our neighbors here," said Sy Aal, who's been going to the store with the same group of friends every Monday and Friday morning for many years. "We were all in there this morning. All week it’s been very teary."
Coincidentally, a recent Hoodline article reporting on new ownership and rebranding of the commercial spaces as Embarcadero Square and ongoing changes in the area specifically mentioned Yelnin:
A few retail and service businesses remain at Embarcadero, including Davis Cleaners, Golden Gateway Optometry and Coffee Roaster, a coffee shop run for about three decades by Lana Yelnin, who has a propensity for calling her customers "sweetheart" or "sweetie." [Carol] Parlette said jokingly, "If Lana goes, we should all get up in arms. That would be the last straw."
We reached out to Parlette, who said, "We’re really incredibly sad, and it makes the character of our neighborhood more bland; not as comforting and warm." Neighbor Don Campbell said, "They're driving out all of the service businesses from all of these three blocks. The things that make it really livable are going away." We called the management company for Embarcadero Square, Downtown Properties, and were told it had no comment.
Yelnin was busy this afternoon making lattes and milkshakes in between hugging customers, crying with them and giving them her contact information so they can stay in touch with her. "I'm going to miss everything," she said. "Making coffee, saying goodbye, saying hello, I miss people, I miss the area, I miss everything."
