In yet another sign of the times, a very well loved and financially stable neighborhood coffeeshop, Bean There at the corner of Waller and Steiner, is now gone for good. As owners Susi Weissmann and Mike Fakhoury told customers in an email this week, picked up by Hoodline, an agreement with the landlord to close for seismic upgrades led to the landlord, secretly, shopping the place out to other potential, higher-paying tenants. And he found one, so he reneged on an agreement he had with Weissmann and Fakhoury to sign a new lease.
The cafe had been closed since December with a promise it would reopen in March, but that's now not happening.
"We are devastated to have to give up the cafe in such a manner," they write, obviously emotionally. "Above all, it is heart breaking to know that we will not see you, our friends, everyday as we did for so many years. You were not just our customers but our friends."
They say they're going to "begin immediately" hunting for a new location, but space available in the Lower Haight is already pretty limited.
Hoodline heard from landlord Danny Scher who claimed that there had been a lease agreement written, but it had gone unsigned by Bean There's owners pending further negotiation, at which point he began looking for other tenants.
Our condolences to everyone who spent months or years of their lives working, writing, studying, designing, reading, commiserating, falling in love, or just sitting quietly in this place. There are a lot of you.
Related: Beloved Duboce Triangle Coffeeshop Shutters This Weekend