A Salvadoran-inspired coffee roastery known for horchata-laced espresso drinks is set to open a second San Francisco cafe on Irving Street in the Inner Sunset by the end of September. Abanico Coffee Roasters, founded by certified Q Grader Ana Valle, will take over a storefront at 424 Irving St. that most recently served as a campaign office and, before that, sat empty as a former laundromat.
The move has been reported elsewhere under the spelling “Albanico,” but the business is registered and branded as Abanico Coffee Roasters, according to WhatNow, which first reported the Irving Street plans based on a social media announcement. Valle opened the company's original roastery cafe at 2121 Mission Street in 2021, as detailed by Daily Coffee News, which also notes she named the business after the Spanish word for handheld fan.
Contrary to any assumption that Abanico is picking up and leaving the Mission, the Inner Sunset shop is an expansion, not a relocation. According to Mission Local, Valle initially went looking for a new commercial space because her Mission District lease was nearing its renewal deadline, but after successfully renewing that lease in May, she decided to keep both locations running rather than choose one.
A Storefront With a Recent Political Past
The 424 Irving St. address near Fifth Avenue, close to UCSF, has cycled through several uses in a short span. The site formerly housed Cal Laundromat, and most recently served as an office for paid campaign canvassers during Supervisor Alan Wong's June primary election, per the same Mission Local report. Now it is being converted into a working roastery cafe.
Abanico has not released a complete opening menu for the Irving Street location, per WhatNow's report, though the shop is expected to offer coffee beverages and related cafe products. WhatNow's report indicates the new location may feature espresso-based drinks, brewed coffee, and other cafe beverages, in addition to Abanico's core lineup. Mission Local reports that the Inner Sunset shop is slated to open in late September with location-specific signature beverages created specifically for Irving Street, layered alongside the roastery's core Latin American menu, as Valle aims to draw foot traffic from both UCSF and local residents.
Cafecito Traditions Behind the Menu
Abanico's existing signature drinks lean heavily on Latin American traditions, including Café con Morro — an espresso drink made with Salvadoran horchata from morro seeds rather than the more familiar rice-and-cinnamon version — along with Café de Olla and Café con Coco y Choco, according to the same Daily Coffee News profile. The roastery focuses on developing its own roasts and sources specialty coffees from across Latin America, per WhatNow's report.
That sourcing extends into the company's mission: Abanico Coffee Roasters maintains direct relationships with female coffee producers and women-led agricultural communities, according to Abanico Coffee Roasters, which attributes the focus to Valle's shared culture and background with those producers. Valle immigrated to the United States from El Salvador in 1986 during the Salvadoran Civil War, growing up in Daly City while spending time in the Mission District, where her family shopped for familiar Salvadoran ingredients, Daily Coffee News reports — memories of cafecitos that directly inspired the company, per the same account.
Joining a Crowded Irving Street Coffee Corridor
Abanico will be entering an already competitive stretch of Irving Street and 9th Avenue, home to established operators including Saint Frank Coffee, Snowbird Coffee, Cafe La Flore, and Tartine, according to SF.gov, which describes Irving Street as the main commercial spine of the Inner Sunset. Hoodline covered the neighborhood's specialty-coffee growth as early as 2014, when Snowbird Coffee staked its claim among Inner Sunset cafes.
Independent roasters have historically had room to grow along the corridor in part because of San Francisco's formula retail ordinance, enforced since 2004, which requires conditional use authorization for chain businesses with 11 or more locations globally — a legal hurdle for national chains that has helped preserve storefronts for local operators, according to Hoodline's own past reporting. The Inner Sunset has also seen more direct support for small businesses recently: nonprofit SF New Deal launched the privately funded Neighborhood Vibrancy Fund in the neighborhood in July, offering financial assistance for opening costs and storefront improvements, according to Level Up Group, which reports the fund was seeded by local anonymous donors.
Abanico is described as a coffee roaster and cafe rather than a full-service restaurant, per WhatNow's report, which frames the business as one that brings together coffee, culture, and hospitality, emphasizing nostalgia, family, and community connection through its cafecito-inspired offerings.
