The folks behind the beloved local food-truck meetup series Off the Grid are getting their own brick-and-mortar place in Union Square’s former Uniqlo store, and the place will be called Off the Grid’s Holiday Food Market.

Well this seems like a pop-up match made in heaven. Most San Franciscans are familiar with the Off the Grid food truck meetups, which have been around about 15 years, and have helped propel the local popularity of food trucks and food truck parties. And you may recall SF’s Vacant to Vibrant program that launched amid the pandemic-era vacancies, bringing pop-up food purveyors, coffee vendors, makers, and other retailers into persistently vacant downtown storefronts.  

Now Off the Grid and Vacant to Vibrant are doing a collaboration. Mayor Daniel Lurie announced five new Vacant to Vibrant pop-ups in a Tuesday afternoon press release. And it will catch the interest of street-food fans that one of these is a dedicated Off the Grid pop-up in its own brick-and-mortar space.

It’s slated to be called Off the Grid’s Holiday Food Market, and it will be open in the shuttered former Uniqlo space at 111 Powell (between Ellis and O’Farrell streets), a space that has been vacant now for nearly four-and-a-half years.

“Off the Grid has had the privilege to work around Union Square over many holiday seasons in the past. We’re thrilled to return with something entirely new for our first pop-up,” Off the Grid founder Matt Cohen said in a release. “This 30,000-square-foot brick-and-mortar space gives us an exciting opportunity to experiment by blending experiential art with music, design, and, of course, food.”

So how would this work? Surely they cannot get food trucks into an indoor, three-level retail space in the middle of Union Square. But the release from Lurie’s office indicates what Off the Grid has up their sleeve here.

"Off the Grid will transform a vacant Union Square storefront at 111 Powell Street into its first-ever brick-and-mortar pop-up, a festive holiday market later this month, that brings together food, art, and music to create an immersive community experience," the release says.

There is no opening date listed. But given the holiday theme, it’s a pretty fair bet that they are trying to open before Thanksgiving, and will stick around until sometime near New Year’s Day 2026.

Lurie’s release mentions four other new Vacant to Vibrant pop-ups: a Union Square Dandelion Chocolate that opened in September; something called TIAT (The Intersection of Art and Technology) that opens this Friday, November 7; a cafe called the Wild Fox that opens next Wednesday at Battery and California streets; and an apparel shop called Fibers of Being that already has one Divisadero Street location, and will open an additional pop-up at a shuttered former CVS location at Market and New Montgomery streets.  

Related: San Francisco's Original Food Truck Market, Off the Grid, Returns Next Week [SFist]

Image: Off The Grid