"Let's keep it going," Vanick Der Bedrossian told The New Fillmore in October. He had just signed a new 10-year lease for La Mediterranee, the restaurant his father Levon opened at 2210 Fillmore in 1979.
With that lease, the 2200 block has a firm date for the first time in two years. The other changes on Upper Fillmore this fall come with loose timing. One is a Michelin-starred chef's restaurant that has no name yet. Another is a Korean barbecue build-out at the Pine corner. The third is a century-old movie house aiming for next year. The 1979 restaurant is the one storefront whose future is fixed, and its lease now runs well past every opening estimate on the street.
The longest lease on the block belongs to its oldest tenant
La Med's lease has been in question since investor Neil Mehta's project bought its building and several others on the 2200 block, including the Clay Theater. The restaurant first got a three-year extension. Then Cody Allen, Mehta's partner on the effort, offered a new 10-year lease on top of it, which keeps La Med in the space until 2038. In August, the SF Standard was still describing the lease as running to 2028, with longer-term talks underway. The October deal settled it.
The extension first came up in public at a merchants meeting in August. Fillmore Merchants Association president Tim Omi and District 2 Supervisor Stephen Sherrill both brought it up. Allen, who comments only by written statement, put the group's position in an email to The New Fillmore:
"La Mediterranee has helped make this neighborhood special for nearly 50 years. Their independent spirit, dedication and commitment to continual improvement embody our vision for Upper Fillmore's future."
Inside, the changes will be small. Der Bedrossian described sprucing up the dining room "chunk by chunk," with fresh paint and maybe a refinished bar. The restaurant may close for a few days to fix plumbing. "Nothing major is changing," he said. For the 20 people who work there, the lease means a decade of certainty.
Everything else runs on a shorter, softer clock
The same ownership group that just committed to La Med for 12 more years is building the rest of the block's future around it. In 2024, the Mehta group set off fears of a "hostile takeover." Two years later, the SF Standard reported that street-level changes had started to show up. The San Francisco Chronicle counted half a dozen properties on three blocks of Fillmore between Clay and Pine. Here is where the main projects stand:
| Storefront | Address | What's coming | Timing as last reported |
|---|---|---|---|
| Former Noosh, Thai Stick and Pacific Heights Bar & Grill | 2001 Fillmore, at Pine | Monami, Korean barbecue from Junsoo and Hyunyoung Bae | Build-out underway in late October, with a late 2026 target |
| Former Mio, A-Pizza and Aquatalia | 2035–2047 Fillmore | Four storefronts combined into one restaurant | Recently bought for about $8.6 million |
| Former Starbucks | 2222 Fillmore | A restaurant from Chef Pim Techamuanvivit | Working through city permitting as of August |
| Clay Theatre | 2261 Fillmore | A restored single-screen cinema | Completion expected in 2027 |
Each row has its own holdup. According to SFist, Monami will serve premium beef on tabletop grills, with à la carte and tasting menus instead of an all-you-can-eat format. When the Chronicle reported the project in January, the Baes planned to open in the fall.
Chef Pim runs Michelin-starred Kin Khao downtown and Nari in the Kabuki Hotel. In August, The New Fillmore reported that her team was working through city permitting at 2222 Fillmore. The permits will decide which kitchen equipment can go in, and so what the restaurant can serve. Starbucks moved out of that space in 2024 after more than 30 years on the street.
At 2035–2047 Fillmore, the storefronts started emptying in 2022. The Mediterranean revival building is also going through historic landmark designation, which the SF Standard noted could make changes harder. "The space has been sitting empty, and it will be amazing to have it start to get worked on," Omi told the Standard.
Walking it north from Post Street
While the big projects work through permits and construction, the street keeps changing one storefront at a time. Here it is from south to north, as of this week:
- Super Duper Burgers, at Fillmore and Post. It took over the old Burger King space and serves burgers, chicken sandwiches, fries, shakes and soft serve.
- Yuzu, on Sutter near Fillmore. Restaurateur Kevin Chen's citrus-yellow storefront is a takeout counter and grocery by day. In the evening, a "speakeasy omakase" behind a refrigerator door serves 12 courses for $65 at a 10-seat counter. Chen told The New Fillmore that his seafood buying power keeps the price low.
- Matdol Tofu, at Fillmore and Sutter. This is the former Pride of the Mediterranean corner. Jiman Jang's team, which started the San Jose food truck Jevikal, is building a restaurant around handmade tofu. Planned dishes include sundubu jjigae, L.A. galbi and deulgireum makguksu, and the team is aiming for December or January. Jang pointed out that the Gongnip Association for newly arrived Koreans moved its headquarters to 1944 Buchanan in 1908, a few blocks away.
- Avocado Green, at 1800 Fillmore. Chen's tea and coffee counter sits in the windows of his Nono Baru space and serves matcha lattes, housemade pastries and takeout food. His other places nearby are Don Don and Ninniku.
- Monami, at Pine. The first Mehta-group storefront you reach going north.
- Hello Mart, at 2135 Buchanan. It sells groceries, bento boxes to go and coffee on an otherwise residential block, a block east of Fillmore. The Infatuation reviewed it in late September.
- 2133 Fillmore. Jonathan Adler's longtime home furnishings store closed here over the summer.
- Alohas, at 2208 Fillmore. The Spanish footwear brand opened its first San Francisco store in the former Rocksbox space next to D&M Liquor, according to WWD.
- La Mediterranee, at 2210 Fillmore. Open, and staying until 2038.
- 2222 and 2261 Fillmore. Chef Pim's future restaurant, then the Clay.
Most of the new businesses opening this fall are on the south half of the walk, run by independent operators outside the Mehta portfolio. The Mehta-owned stretch north of Pine is where the big projects are still under construction.
The Clay is the last piece, and the slowest
The Clay has been closed since 2020. Restoring it is the one part of the project that has drawn broad agreement. When San Francisco's Historic Preservation Commission approved the plans in April, commissioners and public speakers alike spoke in favor, the Chronicle reported.
The plans keep the Clay a single-screen theater. The historic facade and signage will be restored. Inside, the work adds a new balcony level, an elevator and a kitchen, and keeps the curved ceilings and sloped auditorium floor. Veteran cinema curator Ted Gerike will run it. The plan calls for more than 500 screenings a year in 4K digital and 35mm, a mix of first-run films and repertory classics, live events, filmmaker talks and a bookstore-style concession area.
In April, the team said the theater could reopen early next year. By August, The New Fillmore was reporting completion "sometime next year," meaning 2027. "To have this coming back is almost too good to be true," one neighbor on the block told the paper.
What the block looks like through winter
For the next few months, the 2200 block will be mostly finished storefronts next to construction. Alohas and La Med are open. Two doors up from La Med, 2222 Fillmore waits on permits. Past it, the Clay is still under construction. South of Pine, the Monami build-out is aiming for the end of the year, and Matdol Tofu's December-or-January target puts it close behind.
Anyone planning a holiday dinner on the street this winter has the open places to work with. La Med is the safe bet among them, with the caveat that it may close for a few days while the plumbing gets fixed.
I'm Sasha, and I live on Nob Hill. I keep track of which Fillmore storefronts are open, which are still under construction and what's coming next. If you have a question about a block you're watching, I'm happy to walk through it with you. Reach out through Selling San Francisco. Let's Connect.
