Four New Restaurants Are Opening in San Francisco This September

Published: September 9, 2026 | By LocalJobPage Team

SAN FRANCISCO, CA — Four kitchens are lighting their stoves for the first time this month. A China Basin waterfront restaurant opens its doors today. A Fisherman's Wharf brewery is pouring its first pints under a full liquor license. A Russian Hill handroll counter and a Mission conchas bakery are both close behind. Every one of them needs a crew.

San Francisco's September restaurant openings are stacking up in four different neighborhoods at once, and that means real cook, server, bartender and baker openings across the city right now.

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📍 At a Glance: Four Openings This September

Business	Neighborhood / Address	Opens	Concept
Sergeant Ma	China Basin, 185 Berry St.	September 9	Chinese- and Vietnamese-inspired restaurant and bar on Mission Creek
Woods Beer & Wine Co.	Fisherman's Wharf, 2847 Taylor St.	Later in September	Brewery taproom, first location with a full liquor license and cocktail program
Handroll Hawker	Russian Hill, 2360 Polk St.	Late September	Grab-and-go Japanese handroll counter
Florecita Panadería	Mission, 3349 23rd St.	September, exact date not yet confirmed	Mexican bakery and café, expanding into a full storefront with a coffee program

🔥 Who's Opening and Where

Sergeant Ma opens today on the Mission Creek waterfront in China Basin, a short walk from Oracle Park and the Chase Center. Executive chef Jason Halverson, working with the Hi Neighbor Restaurant Group, built a menu he describes as Asian-inspired rather than a straight recreation of any one dish — halibut-and-uni crudo alongside a full cocktail program. The 54-seat room has floor-to-ceiling glass facing the water, fire pits outside and a turntable behind the bar.

Woods Beer & Wine Co. is taking over the old Fisherman's Grotto space on Taylor Street for what the brewery is calling a long-term pop-up, expected to run two to three years. It's a milestone for the company: its first location with a full Type 47 liquor license, which means cocktails alongside the beer and wine for the first time in Woods' history. Former Outerlands bar manager Jeremy Lucca-Flaherty is running that program.

Handroll Hawker is bringing a quick-service, grab-and-go handroll counter to Polk Street in Russian Hill, a block from the sit-down omakase spot Saru. No exact opening date has been announced yet, but the buildout is underway in a space that most recently held a bubble tea shop.

Florecita Panadería is moving out of its original alleyway counter and into a full storefront in the Mission, the old Shuggie's space on 23rd Street. Owners Ximena and Jared Williams are keeping the bakery's signature egg-free conchas at the center of the menu and adding a dedicated coffee program in a second room. Reporting on the exact opening date has varied by a week or so; treat "sometime in September" as the safe bet until it's confirmed on-site.

💼 Is Anyone Actually Hiring?

We're not going to promise headcounts nobody has announced. Of the four, Woods Beer & Wine Co. has a confirmed opening posted for a head brewer, which tells you the company is actively staffing this location, not just talking about it. None of the other three has published a hiring announcement or a specific number of positions as of this writing.

Here's what the pattern usually looks like anyway: a new restaurant or bakery typically brings on most of its front- and back-of-house crew in the two to three weeks before opening, then adjusts again sixty to ninety days in once management sees what real service volume looks like. A 54-seat waterfront restaurant, a brewery taproom, a fast-casual handroll counter and a bakery expanding into a full café all need different-sized crews, but every one of them needs cooks or bakers, counter or floor staff, and someone behind the bar or register. Get your resume ready now and watch each business's own social accounts, since that's typically where these openings post first, usually before any job board.

💵 What San Francisco Restaurant and Bakery Work Pays

Start with the floor, because San Francisco's is unusual. The citywide minimum wage rose to $19.61 an hour on July 1, 2026, for anyone doing at least two hours of work per week inside city limits — and because San Francisco is a consolidated city and county, there's no separate suburb rate to track the way there is in a sprawling metro. One number, one boundary: the address where the shift happens decides it.

California also does not allow a tip credit. Tipped workers must be paid the full minimum wage in cash before a single tip is added on top, unlike states that let employers count tips toward the wage floor. That's worth knowing if you're weighing an offer against experience from another state.

Above that floor, pay in San Francisco kitchens sorts the way it does everywhere: line cooks with real speed and bakers who can hit a production schedule are the hardest to replace and it shows in the offer, bartenders and servers at high-volume rooms live on tips that can meaningfully beat the base rate, and counter and entry-level roles at a fast-casual concept like Handroll Hawker tend to start closer to the floor with faster hiring timelines.

🔎 Where to Aim

Start here:

How to Approach a Restaurant That Just Opened (or Is About To)

Get your California food handler card first. It's inexpensive and quick online, and walking in with one already done puts you ahead of anyone who says they'll get around to it.
For bar work at Woods or Sergeant Ma, brush up on California's ABC service rules. Employers hiring for a full bar program notice who already knows them.
Follow the business's own Instagram or website, not just job boards. Handroll Hawker announced its Polk Street lease on social media before anywhere else, and that's the pattern across all four openings.
Go in person midweek, mid-afternoon, never during service. A manager two hours before dinner rush can actually talk to you; a manager at 7 p.m. cannot.
Say you can close and work weekends. New restaurants build their schedule around whoever can cover Friday and Saturday night first.

Frequently Asked Questions

Which San Francisco restaurants and bakeries are opening this September?

Sergeant Ma in China Basin (185 Berry St., opening September 9), Woods Beer & Wine Co. in Fisherman's Wharf (2847 Taylor St., later in September), Handroll Hawker in Russian Hill (2360 Polk St., late September, exact date not yet announced) and Florecita Panadería in the Mission (3349 23rd St., sometime in September).

Are any of them confirmed to be hiring right now?

Woods Beer & Wine Co. has a posted opening for a head brewer, confirming active staffing. The other three haven't published a hiring announcement as of this writing, though new restaurants typically staff up in the weeks just before opening.

What is San Francisco's minimum wage in 2026?

$19.61 an hour as of July 1, 2026, for anyone working at least two hours a week inside city limits. California doesn't allow employers to pay tipped workers less than that floor; tips come on top of the full wage.

Do I need experience to get hired at a new restaurant?

Not for host, busser, dishwasher, counter or entry-level bakery roles. Those are the standard way in, and a food handler card plus real weekend availability usually matters more than a resume.

Where is Sergeant Ma exactly?

185 Berry Street in China Basin, on Mission Creek, close to Oracle Park and the Chase Center.

Get the Listings First

Create a free LocalJobPage account and set alerts for restaurant and hospitality jobs in San Francisco so postings from these openings and the next wave reach you the day they go live.

Employers: staffing a new location is the hardest part of an opening. Post your openings on LocalJobPage and reach San Francisco job seekers who are already searching for cook, server, bartender and bakery roles.

Four different corners of the city are getting new kitchens this month — the waterfront in China Basin, the Wharf, Polk Street and 23rd in the Mission. Somebody's going to be working the line at each one by October.