A long-vacant corner of San Francisco's Ferry Building is finally getting a new tenant: Lucania, an all-day Southern Italian restaurant from the team behind A16, is set to open this month in the space once occupied by MarketBar Cafe. The project is led by A16 co-owner Shelley Lindgren, and while it won't carry the A16 name, it brings the same team to one of the city's most visible food-and-drink corridors.
Lucania will sit at 1 Ferry Building along the Embarcadero, according to The San Francisco Standard, which describes it as opening this October. Markets of Tomorrow likewise lists the restaurant's opening for October 2026. As for exactly when the doors swing open, accounts have varied: a September report from SFist noted that Eater had pegged the opening at “early October,” but cautioned that no official announcement or date had surfaced at that point, while an earlier Standard report had placed the opening more broadly in the second half of 2026.
Filling a Prime but Empty Corner
The space Lucania is taking over has sat empty since MarketBar Cafe's departure, and according to KTVU, the new restaurant is moving into that same high-profile footprint. The Standard's earlier reporting pegged the footprint at nearly 3,000 square feet, with a massive patio attached. Lindgren has said she plans for Lucania to operate from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m., stretching across coffee and cocktails through full dinner service, a rhythm Appetito Magazine describes as built to serve diners “whether that's for a coffee, a cocktail, wine, a small bite, or a full meal.”
That patio is shaping up to be one of the restaurant's signature features. The Standard reports Lucania will bring a 140-seat, dog-friendly patio just off Embarcadero Plaza, while Lucania's own website states that its dining room seats 90 guests and its heated patio accommodates up to 144 guests — a modest discrepancy between the news account and the restaurant's own figures. The restaurant's site also notes that Lucania is available for private events and full buyouts.
A Menu Rooted in Southern Italy
Lucania's cooking draws specifically from Basilicata, the region also known historically as Lucania, along with Calabria, Sicily, Puglia and Campania, according to Appetito Magazine. Eater reports the all-day menu will center on pizza, pasta and salads, while the Standard adds that a section of the menu leans into seafood, including marinated anchovies, roasted sardines and steamed mussels.
Part of a Bigger Ferry Building Moment
Lucania's arrival comes as the Ferry Building Marketplace has been drawing more visitors than it has in years. The San Francisco Chronicle reports the marketplace logged its best first quarter on record for foot traffic in 2025, a 23 percent year-over-year increase. Lucania's opening is also expected to bring the marketplace to full occupancy for the first time since 2020, per a report from the McFadden Finch Group.
This won't be A16's first outpost inside the Ferry Building. SFGATE notes the group already runs A16 La Pala, a counter-service pizza shop, inside the marketplace, and the Chronicle reports that spot has operated there on a permanent basis since 2024. Lucania joins a wider wave of new arrivals at the building, with KTVU pointing to Nopa Fish and Nash Bakes as recent openings, alongside Parachute Bakery and Arquet Restaurant still on the way.
