For years, the northeast corner of 18th and Castro had a reputation in the neighborhood for being cursed. Businesses came and went — a camera store, a historical society center, a soup joint, a Korean restaurant — until a Mediterranean gyro spot called Gyro Xpress arrived in early 2014 and, against the odds, stuck around. More than a decade later, the curse may be back. On the morning of March 17, 2026, a San Francisco Department of Public Health inspector walked in and found an active cockroach infestation spanning nearly every corner of the kitchen — including a dying cockroach inside a container of sugar sitting out in the beverage area. The restaurant's permit was immediately suspended and the doors were ordered shut. The full report is available through the SFDPH inspection portal.
What the Inspector Found
Inspector Katie Dea documented live cockroaches of multiple life stages across nearly every corner of the kitchen: on the wall beside the dishwasher, on the floor near it, on the electrical plug, on stored skewers, on the back rail and behind the dishwasher, on the door frame leading into the warewash room, and on the floor under the ice machine. A dead cockroach was found on the bottom hinge of the produce cooler, encrusted in food debris. The most unsettling detail: a dying cockroach inside a container of sugar and herbs sitting out in the beverage area. The sugar was voluntarily discarded on site. The cockroach violation is flagged as a repeat — meaning this same problem had been identified in a prior inspection and not resolved.
Also found near the point-of-sale counter and beside the dishwasher: two cans of Raid. California health code is explicit that household pesticides cannot be used in commercial food facilities — pest control must be handled by a licensed professional. The presence of Raid suggests the infestation was known, and that someone had been attempting a DIY fix. It hadn't worked. Cracks in the FRP wall panels and loose trim throughout the kitchen gave the roaches plenty of places to hide and breed.
The food safety violations on top of the pest findings make for a grim picture. A broken produce cooler was running at 51°F ambient — hummus inside measured 50°F, and had already been used in a catering order that morning before the inspector arrived. Cooked spinach and onion pastries were sitting at the point of sale at 78°F. A container of garbanzo beans left to cool overnight had reached only 79-87°F, far from the required 41°F — a classic improper cooling violation. All three items were voluntarily discarded. Raw eggs were found stored directly on top of kiwis in the reach-in cooler. Co-owner Volkan Akoglu, identified in the report as the person in charge, was informed of the closure. He refused to sign the inspection report.
The Corner That Was Supposed to Be Uncursed
The irony here is thick. When Gyro Xpress was approaching its first anniversary in 2015, the story was about a neighborhood restaurant finally breaking the corner's curse. Co-owner Cem Bulutoglu — who'd worked for his uncle at the nearby Ararat restaurant before spotting the opportunity on this particular corner — told us at the time that his goal was simple: earn the trust of locals, not just tourists. "Repeating customers will come again and again," he said. And for over a decade, it worked. Gyro Xpress became exactly the kind of Castro institution it set out to be, open until 1am on weeknights and 3am on weekends, slinging gyros, falafel, and hummus to regulars and late-night crowds alike.
Bulutoglu's business partner Volkan Akoglu has been the day-to-day operator of the Castro location. Bulutoglu, meanwhile, pursued a separate expansion — launching a second Greek concept in the Mission called Gyros and Tzatziki, a separate venture that didn't involve Akoglu.
A Complaint Triggered the Visit
Today's inspection wasn't purely routine — the report notes it was conducted in conjunction with Complaint ID5817, meaning a customer contacted the health department directly. That someone saw something concerning enough to make that call, combined with the repeat cockroach citation and the cans of Raid, suggests the infestation had been building for some time before anyone with authority got involved. The cursed corner has a way of creeping back.
Cockroach closures have been a recurring story across San Francisco's dining scene over the past year. As KTVU reported last August, multiple restaurants were shuttered in a single week for roach infestations — including the popular Dumpling Bites in the Sunset. Pest-related closures have hit a wide range of city establishments, suggesting this is less a matter of isolated negligence and more a systemic challenge in a dense urban food environment.
What It Takes to Reopen
Before Gyro Xpress can request a reinspection, it must bring in a licensed pest control operator to treat the walls, cracks, and crevices throughout the facility, remove all evidence of the infestation, deep clean every surface in the kitchen, seal every gap identified in the report, and email a pest control service report to Inspector Dea. The Raid must go. A minimum of 24 hours must pass before a reinspection can even be requested, to give treatments time to work. If the curse is going to be broken again, it's going to take more than a can of bug spray.
Gyro Xpress had not posted publicly about the closure as of publication. The restaurant's health permit remains suspended until all conditions are corrected and the department signs off.
