A Yemeni coffee chain is muscling into some of downtown San Francisco’s most familiar corners, taking over three former Starbucks storefronts and promising spiced, late-night coffee in the Financial District and beyond. One of the new cafés is slated for 27 Drumm Street in the heart of FiDi, on a block that hums with weekday foot traffic. The expansion is one of the clearest signs yet of national chains giving way to independent, culturally specific coffee shops in the city.
According to the San Francisco Business Times, Sana'a Cafe has signed leases for three former Starbucks locations, including the Drumm Street space. The chain plans to convert the former Starbucks units into full-service Sana'a cafés rather than pickup-only counters. The Business Times notes that firm opening dates have not yet been announced.
Where Sana'a already operates
The company’s own site lists an existing San Francisco outpost at 199 New Montgomery, alongside several other Bay Area locations. As detailed on Sana'a Cafe, the menu leans on staples such as spiced Yemeni coffee, Adeni chai and Middle Eastern pastries, and the brand has been pushing beyond its original Oakland base in recent years. The pitch is a sit-down café experience that highlights Yemen’s deep coffee traditions rather than grabbing a generic drip to go.
Yemeni cafes on the rise
Across San Francisco and Oakland, Bay Area diners and late-shift workers have helped fuel a wave of Yemeni-style cafés that stay open later, offer roomy seating and showcase sweets meant to pair with cardamom-forward brews. That momentum has turned Yemeni coffee from niche curiosity into neighborhood staple. As one report from turned Yemeni coffee into a mainstream local fixture put it, the style has become part of the city’s everyday coffee vocabulary. The result is growing demand for storefronts that can serve both daytime office crowds and evening visitors lingering after work.
What this swap says about downtown retail
The conversion of former Starbucks spaces into independent concepts highlights the retail churn still playing out in downtown San Francisco as landlords look for tenants that can reliably pull in foot traffic, the Business Times reporting suggests. Former chain locations come with built-out coffee bars and prime visibility, which make them attractive to expanding independents like Sana'a. If the new leases move ahead as planned, the openings could give weekday FiDi blocks a bit more reason to stick around after that 3 p.m. slump.
Neighborhood notes
Sana'a’s existing downtown location is listed across local directories and review platforms, where customers call out the pastries, traditional drinks and late hours. The 199 New Montgomery shop, for instance, appears on sites such as Corner and other restaurant guides. For regulars, these cafés often double as community hangouts as much as caffeine stops.
The Sana'a Cafe locations page does not yet list opening dates for the new storefronts, so exact timelines remain up in the air. Taken together with the San Francisco Business Times report, the company’s listings point to a near-term expansion that is poised to further diversify San Francisco’s coffee landscape, one reclaimed Starbucks at a time.
