Visitors headed to San Francisco's Ferry Building will find fewer food options in the coming weeks as several popular stands exit the historic city landmark. The Ferry Building is losing three eateries, beginning with bagel sensation Daily Driver, which closed its quick-service counter on Monday, according to an Instagram post. Reem's California, by celebrated chef Reem Asil, as well as Red Bay Coffee are both expected to close Jan. 31.
The Reem's California closure comes as its lease ends next month. Asil debuted Reem's at a small kiosk inside the Ferry Building in 2022 with dreams of eventually building a kitchen where she could bake bread on a center saj oven, but, according to an Instagram post, those plans were put on hold last month when she learned that her lease was nearly up.
"We were informed that our current space would be needed for reconstruction and that our lease would not be renewed," ownership wrote. "With no viable alternative space available, this chapter of our story has come to an end (at least for now!)." The Reem's California store at 2901 Mission St. will remain open.
Red Bay Coffee, which opened at the Ferry Building in 2021 and filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in September, will also exit next month when its lease ends, the Ferry Building management team confirmed via email. Once Reem's California and Red Bay Coffee exit late next month, the two spaces will be remodeled and combined to make way for a future restaurant in a renovation project that is expected to take a year to complete, the management team wrote in a statement.
"One of the Ferry Building management's ongoing priorities to enhance the building is to make it more accessible in the evenings, in part by offering additional full-service restaurant options," Ferry Building management said in a statement. "When we signed Red Bay's and Reem's leases several years ago, we intentionally structured them to be shorter-term to allow us to fully renovate these spaces to accommodate such a full-service restaurant."
Daily Driver, which opened its Ferry Building outpost in 2020, did not share specific details behind its closure, only stating on Instagram that the "model isn't working." Ferry Building management told SFGATE that it had "mutually agreed with Daily Driver to allow the lease to expire." New developments are also headed to the Daily Driver's Dogpatch outpost, which -- per the company's Instagram -- is getting new ownership. SFGATE reached out to Daily Driver for comment but did not hear back by publication.
The Ferry Building isn't new to change. In the spring, chef Charles Phan announced that his James Beard-awarded restaurant the Slanted Door would not reopen after 15 years at the Ferry Building. Phan had initially planned to reopen his seminal waterfront restaurant, which had been closed since 2020, but told Eater SF that high construction costs needed to renovate the space made it challenging to move forward. Later, Phan announced that he would reopen the Slanted Door at its original Mission District digs at 584 Valencia St. by spring 2025. Early next year, the team behind Michelin-starred Sorrel plans to take over the former Slanted Door location at the Ferry Building, opening a restaurant focused on seasonal dishes that highlight California's coastline.
An additional restaurant called Nopa Fish is expected to open at the Ferry Building early next year, focusing on seafood dishes like chowders and salads. The restaurant is a collaboration between Nopa chef Laurence Jossel and Joe Conte, owner of seafood distributor Water2Table.