Jandii Cafe, the Korean-owned coffee shop that opened in San Francisco in June 2026, is opening a second San Francisco location in the Castro in early November. The new cafe will take over 3499 16th Street, the longtime home of brunch mainstay Kitchen Story, which permanently closed its San Francisco location in January 2026.
According to KRON4, Jandii told the outlet it plans to open the Castro cafe at that address, though no official opening date has been released. City records cited by the station confirm the new cafe replaces the space previously occupied by Kitchen Story. SFist reported that Kitchen Story opened in 2013 and closed after 12 years. Kitchen Story still has a location open in Oakland, per KRON4's reporting.
Jiyeon Choi, who was involved in opening Jandii, is married to fellow restaurateur Hoyul Steven Choi; the couple also co-own San Francisco brunch staple Sweet Maple. The couple's name is tied to one of the Bay Area's more unlikely food-world success stories — the trademarked “Millionaire's Bacon,” thick-cut pork cooked low and slow with brown sugar and cayenne, as WebstaurantStore describes. The Chois created it at Sweet Maple, where it drew long lines, and it was also served at Kitchen Story.
From Union Square Coffee Shop to Regional Brunch Brand
The Chois' San Francisco food career stretches back more than two decades. Steven and Jiyeon Choi launched their first venture, Taylor Street Coffee Shop near Union Square, in 2002, before opening flagship brunch spot Sweet Maple in Lower Pacific Heights in 2010, the same SFist report notes. Sweet Maple has since grown into a regional brand with locations in Palo Alto, Cupertino, Walnut Creek, and Santa Monica, according to Mashed. An airport outpost of Sweet Maple at San Francisco International Airport was expected to close in early fall because it was financially underperforming compared with other Terminal 2 food-and-beverage counterparts, per SFGATE.
Before he was flipping bacon and scouting commercial real estate, Steven Choi studied molecular cell biology at UC Berkeley and worked as a cancer research scientist at Stanford University, per Alameda Magazine. The couple's dessert spinoff, U :Dessert Story, has two locations, as the same SFist report notes.
What's on the Menu at the New Castro Cafe
Jandii's menu leans into coffee, Korean-inspired einspänner drinks, Japanese-imported matcha, and signature baked scones, according to KRON4. A fresh batch of scones comes out every 15 minutes.
The name Jandii comes from the Korean word for a lush green meadow, according to the business's own about page, and is pronounced jan-dee, per KRON4's reporting. The original Taraval Street location in the Sunset features a two-story layout with high ceilings, skylights, and communal seating designed for remote workers who linger rather than turn over tables quickly, according to The Bold Italic.
A Third Location Already in the Works
The Castro cafe won't be the last expansion. Jiyeon Choi has also planned a third Jandii location in Mountain View, slated to open within a year, the same Bold Italic report notes. Taken together, the moves suggest Jandii is being built as a scalable regional cafe brand rather than a one-off neighborhood project, a shift from the labor-intensive, full-service brunch model that made Kitchen Story and Sweet Maple local institutions.
Hoodline previously reported in signage spotted at the site that Jandii branding had appeared at 3499 16th Street following Kitchen Story's closure, and earlier covered the original shuttering of Kitchen Story's San Francisco location in January 2026.
