“I was interested in applying because it was free rent and that’s kind of amazing, so that was definitely an incentive,” said Devil’s Teeth owner Hilary Passman. “But also I’m pretty sick of hearing about the city’s doom loop … I am excited to be part of turning around this doom loop rhetoric.” 

Devil’s Teeth plans to celebrate the opening with a free drag show on Oct. 6.

More than 850 businesses applied to participate in the program run by nonprofit SF New Deal with a grant from the city’s Office of Economic and Workforce Development. Devil’s Teeth is sharing its space with Green Apple Books. All of the bakery’s usual fare will be on the menu: pastries, lunch sandwiches and, of course, those famous breakfast sandwiches. 

Pacifica’s Rosalind Bakery was also selected to open a pop-up downtown. It’s slated to open its doors the first or second week of October. The new location at Four Embarcadero will serve espresso drinks and pastries and sell Rosalind’s sought-after bread. 

“We want to bring a vibe, we want to make a unique environment in that section of the city and play good music and have art and create something out of nothing,” said owner Matthew Kosoy. 

The pop-ups are scheduled to last three months, after which the businesses will have the opportunity to extend their leases directly with the landlord. Both Passman and Kosoy said they’d be happy to stick around longer if the pop-ups go well.

“We’ve always kind of wanted to have a place downtown, and obviously pre-pandemic it looked different, but this is, in a way, better,” said Passman. “We never could have gotten a foothold into a big nice downtown fancy property.”

Other restaurants opening at Embarcadero Center as part of the program are SF doughnut pop-up Whack Donuts in collaboration with coffee pop-up York Street Cafe (which expects to open Oct. 2), as well as Teranga, a Senegalese restaurant that had a kiosk at the recently closed La Cocina Municipal Marketplace. Some of the other types of vendors include skate collective and apparel brand Brujas, radio station KALW, performance venue and plant store The Mellow. 

Two more groups of “Vacant to Vibrant” pop-ups are scheduled to open in San Francisco in 2024. Future pop-ups might be centered in other areas of downtown besides the Financial District, Sarah Dennis Phillips, executive director of the city’s Office of Economic and Workforce Development, told the San Francisco Chronicle (the Chronicle and SFGATE are both owned by Hearst but have separate newsrooms). Participating businesses get the aforementioned free rent as well as grant funding up to $8,000. 

“There’s a bunch of cool new diverse creators who now have a space and a platform that they wouldn’t have had before and I think that’s really cool,” said Passman. “I’m excited that the city is putting out marketing and really making us a good reason for people to come downtown.”

Devil’s Teeth Baking Company, One Embarcadero Center, Suite R1113, San Francisco. Opening Sept. 25, with regular hours of 7 a.m. to 2 p.m. daily. 
Rosalind Bakery, Four Embarcadero Center, Suite 4054, San Francisco. Opening early October, with regular hours of Tuesday to Friday, 8 a.m. to 2 p.m.
Whack Donuts and York Street Cafe, Four Embarcadero Center, Suite 4507, San Francisco. Opening Oct. 2, with regular hours of Tuesday to Saturday, 8 a.m. to 2 p.m.
For a full list of pop-ups and their locations, see press release.