Walk Polk from Broadway to Union today and the ground floor reads differently than it did two summers ago. The Peet's between Broadway and Vallejo is dark. A few blocks south, the Real Food Company space has been reopened as a full-service grocery. The former Cocotte on Hyde is being permitted for something new. A gym is going up for a fall opening. What looks at first like a scattered set of openings is actually a fairly coherent shift: Polk is being re-anchored around daily-use retail, not destination dining. For residents who already live within a few blocks, that changes the weekly routine more than any new tasting menu could.
Here is what has actually changed, where it sits on the block, and what to expect through the rest of 2026.
The 2193 Polk anchor
The most-watched storefront on the corridor right now is the former Peet's at 2193 Polk, between Broadway and Vallejo. It went dark earlier this year during a broader wave of Peet's closures, and it did not sit empty long. Bageletto, the Mission-born bagel shop that set up a production kitchen on 14th Street last year, is bringing its all-day bagel program to Polk Street, turning a former coffee chain outpost into a sit-down cafe built around Mission-made bagels at 2193 Polk St., the former Peet's between Broadway and Vallejo.
Two details matter for how this changes the block. First, it is a sit-down operation, not a bakery counter. Unlike the mother ship, the Polk Street location won't be a bagel factory fronted by a customer-facing counter. It will be a sit-down cafe where fresh-baked sesame, everything, and cinnamon raisin bagels, plus specialty flavors such as Calabrian chile and cheese, are delivered from the Mission in small batches twice a day, or more often as needed. Second, it is meant to be a full meal stop, not a grab-and-go. Bageletto is more than a grab-and-go breakfast spot. It also offers a wide selection of Italian sandwiches, including a muffuletta, roast beef, and a prosciutto cotto breakfast sandwich, all with meats produced in-house.
On timing, cofounder Kiki Theodorides told the San Francisco Standard in April that the team was aiming to open in the next 60 to 90 days, which points to a late-spring to summer 2026 debut on Polk.
Where Bageletto sits inside a bigger corridor shift
Bageletto is the newest signal, but it is not the first. It lands into a stretch that has been quietly filling in for two years:
| Location | Address | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Bi-Rite Market Polk | 2140 Polk St | Open, third SF location |
| Bageletto | 2193 Polk St | Opening summer 2026 |
| Former Cocotte space | Hyde Street | Vietnamese concept in the works |
| FITNESS SF Polk | Polk Gulch | Opening Fall 2026 |
The Bi-Rite piece is worth pausing on because it set the tone for what followed. Bi-Rite opened on Polk Street between Broadway and Vallejo, in the same spot that Real Food Company used to occupy, and is known for stocking products and produce from local vendors with the motto of creating community through food. It is a full grocery, open every day from 8 a.m. to 9 p.m., and it is the third Bi-Rite in the city. A full-service grocer of that quality within a five-minute walk of most Russian Hill addresses changes how often a resident actually needs to drive to Marina or Cow Hollow for a mid-week shop.
Add Bageletto next door, and the block between Broadway and Vallejo starts to look less like a stretch of coffee-and-lunch chains and more like a daily-errand corner. That is the corridor's underlying re-anchoring: destination places like Nisei, Sorella, and Leopold's at 2400 Polk are still doing what they do at dinner, but the daytime pattern is being rebuilt around named local operators.
Arriving after summer
Two additions coming later in the year matter for the same reason.
The first is on Hyde. Le, as we heard last year, is also working on opening a Vietnamese restaurant in the former Cocotte space on Hyde Street in Russian Hill, and this will likely be a second expansion effort. Cocotte's old address had been quiet for a while, and a mid-price Vietnamese room fills a gap the corridor genuinely has. It also pulls foot traffic one block east of Polk, which the Hyde blocks between Union and Vallejo need.
The second is fitness. FITNESS SF Polk is set to open Fall 2026 in San Francisco's Polk Gulch neighborhood, positioned as the only locally owned gym of its scale in San Francisco. Whether or not you care about the amenity list, the practical read for a Russian Hill resident is that a large-format gym on Polk means one less reason to leave the neighborhood in the morning. That kind of anchor tenant is what tends to hold a corridor's evening foot traffic through winter, when night-life spots on their own do not.
The northern bookend: Ghirardelli and Fort Mason
Two blocks north and west, the corridor's edges are also in motion.
Ghirardelli Square, at the bottom of the hill, changed hands this spring. Ghirardelli Square has been sold to new owners, per the Business Times. The buyer is Embrace Real Estate, which will be managing the complex along with Denver-based Continuum Partners, promising to bring in "best-in-class tenants and experiences," which may mean new restaurants in the near future to join current tenants like Palette Tea House. New ownership on a complex that size usually means a two-year tenant refresh cycle, and given that it sits at the bottom of the Hyde cable-car line, whatever lands there will pull directly from Russian Hill's walkable radius.
Fort Mason, just west, has already restarted its warm-weather calendar. The Fort Mason Night Market returns for 2026 with food trucks, craft vendors and live music on the waterfront. San Francisco's popular waterfront night market is back for 2026, returning monthly from April through December. Add the Sunday farmers market, which runs 9:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. at Fort Mason Center with more than fifty family farmers and food purveyors, and the summer weekend pattern for a Russian Hill household looks fairly settled: walk down Larkin or Polk, pick up produce, come back up the hill.
The gallery calendar at Fort Mason is also worth pulling into a Saturday. Summer 2026 exhibitions include Andy Goldsworthy: For Olle and Once The Ocean Floor: Photography By John Chiara, Linda Connor, David Maisel, and Meghann Riepenhoff at Haines Gallery, plus a joint SF Camerawork and Haines presentation of Chris McCaw and John Chiara. West Coast Craft returns to the Fort Mason campus for the summer shopping season.
The through-line: convenience, not novelty
The interesting thing about Polk in 2026 is not the number of openings. It is that most of them are things you use on a Wednesday.
Grocer. Bagel counter. Gym. Weekly night market. Corner produce stand. A neighborhood Vietnamese room in the works. The corridor is being rebuilt around the residents who live within a fifteen-minute walk, not around visitors coming up from Union Square. For a homeowner already on Hyde, Larkin, or Green, that translates into fewer trips over the hill for basics and a denser daytime street to walk on. It also tends to be the kind of retail mix that holds during a downturn, since it does not depend on tourism to survive.
A few practical notes for the summer:
- The Hyde-Powell cable car and the 19-Polk, 41, and 45 Muni lines all serve the corridor, so a Saturday morning at Fort Mason and lunch back on Polk is a straightforward car-free loop.
- Ina Coolbrith Park at the top of Vallejo is still the best short walk in the neighborhood for panoramic views, and it pairs well with a walk down through the Vallejo Street stair sections.
- Reservations are worth booking ahead at the established Polk rooms, especially Nisei on the Michelin list and Leopold's at 2400 Polk, both of which fill through summer weekends.
If you have lived in Russian Hill for a few years, the practical takeaway is small but real: fewer errands need to leave the neighborhood this year than last, and by fall, that list should shrink again.
If you are thinking about how these changes shape long-term value on your block, or you simply want a second read on how the corridor is trending as you plan a move within the neighborhood, Lauren Fraser is happy to talk it through. Let's connect.
