For 46 years at 1668 Union Street, near Gough, lunch at Corsagna Deli meant a pesto chicken panini or a Mr. Italiano stacked with salami, coppa, mortadella and provolone, eaten at little red bistro tables on the sidewalk. The deli served its last sandwiches on Friday, October 2.
Corsagna was a quick stop. It opened on weekdays, during the day, and you left with a sandwich. The businesses that came to Union Street around the same time this fall work the other way. A hand roll bar opened with a full cocktail program. About a block away, a gym added a coworking lounge to its training floor. Still under construction is a café with an indoor playground behind it, designed so parents can finish a conversation. Each one is selling time spent on the premises.
What 1668 Union Was Built Around
The address has changed hands within one family more than once. SFGATE reported that in the 1970s, Egidio Giampaoli took over an accordion studio there and turned it into an Italian bakery. His daughter Elvira Giampaoli took over in 1980 and made it a deli because customers kept asking for sandwiches. Her daughters, Angie Denardo and Paola Berdichevsky, grew up behind the counter and now manage it.
According to SFGATE, the deli operated on a weekday daytime schedule. Denardo told the outlet the closure had more causes than the cost of running a business in San Francisco, though cost played a part. "The economy changed, our clientele has shifted," she said, and that combination made it feel like the right time. She also said she wasn't sure an old-school deli was what San Franciscans were looking for anymore.
Tablehopper broke the news, and its item didn't name a new tenant for the space. We haven't been able to confirm one as of mid-October.
Kaiyo Came Back to the Street It Left
Six blocks west, at 1838 Union, the story starts with a closure that has since been reversed. Eater SF reported that restaurateur John Park opened the first Kaiyo, a Japanese-Peruvian Nikkei restaurant, in Cow Hollow in 2018. He then opened a rooftop bar and a second restaurant in the Hyatt Place San Francisco. About two years ago he closed the original Union Street location. Park told Eater the team felt the city wasn't busy enough to support two similar restaurants while San Francisco was still recovering from the pandemic.
Eater says that once office workers returned, Park's Brick by Brick Hospitality Group turned back to Union Street. Kaiyo Handroll Bar opened on Friday, September 11. The kitchen team is familiar. Chef Alex Reccio and chef de cuisine Kenji Sawada run it, and Danny Louie runs drinks.
The new format is built for lingering:
- The rolls: a lomo saltado hand roll with A5 wagyu and shoestring potatoes, and an arroz con pato roll with flash-seared duck and sansho pepper. Instead of standard sushi rice, the kitchen uses cilantro rice and chicha morada rice made with Peruvian purple corn.
- Beyond the rolls: ceviche and tiradito, aji gallina croquettes, and a scallop udon in a mentaiko and Peruvian-chile dashi cream.
- At the bar: the Deiji, a margarita with shiso and sakura. The orenji mixes rum, orange juice, condensed milk and sencha. There's also alcoholic soft serve, with non-alcoholic versions and a zero-proof list that includes matcha drinks.
"We want our food to be approachable," Park told Eater, calling hand rolls "that fun element." Hand rolls also made it to the Polk end of the neighborhood this fall. The SF Standard reported that Handroll Hawker, at 2360 Polk Street near Union, scheduled its opening for September 29, with owner Romi Trower and chef Tai Trinh.
A Gym That Includes a Place to Work
At 1906 Union, about a block from Kaiyo, The Yard Strength Training is now open. The company's Cow Hollow page says the location opened in fall 2026. A June press release described a 4,300-square-foot site, the company's third in the Bay Area, and quoted founder Joseph Cicero.
The Yard lists private strength-training pods, Pilates reformers, small-group classes and personal training. It also has a coworking lounge. The lounge is the detail that fits this fall's pattern. A gym with a place to set up a laptop is planning for members who stay after the workout, much as Kaiyo built a cocktail menu to keep people at the table.
The Former Sur La Table, Split in Two
The longest-running vacancy in this story is 2240 Union. The SF Standard reported that the 7,000-square-foot building, a former Sur La Table, had been empty since 2020. The landlords split it into two parts that would be easier to lease. The smaller half is going to Little Maison, which the Standard calls San Francisco's first play café. Founder Sue Perichon worked in tech before moving into design.
The layout is a café in front and a play space in back. The back will have a custom play structure, an area for crawlers and a "pretend play zone." The Standard reported that the interiors are by Cathie Hong, who designed Sōhn, the Dogpatch café. In the Standard's account, Perichon modeled the idea on an indoor version of the Presidio's Tunnel Tops: a third space meant to work for adults and children at once. She described her customer this way: "My target demographic isn't the 3-year-old. It's the 35-year-old with the 3-year-old."
Perichon told the Standard she plans to partner with local businesses on food and coffee. The other half of the building was still available in August, and she said she was hoping for "an amazing neighbor." Construction started in July, and the Standard lists the opening as late 2026, with no date yet.
Where Each Address Stands in Mid-October
| Address | Business | Status as of October 12, 2026 |
|---|---|---|
| 1668 Union St. | Corsagna Deli | Closed October 2; no successor reported |
| 1838 Union St. | Kaiyo Handroll Bar | Open since September 11 |
| 1906 Union St. | The Yard Strength Training | Open; company says fall 2026 |
| 2223 Union St. | Breakfast Little | Announced April 22; no opening date reported |
| 2240 Union St. | Little Maison | Under construction; opening expected late 2026 |
| 2240 Union St., second half | Not yet announced | Available as of August |
| 2360 Polk St. | Handroll Hawker | Opening reported for September 29; not independently confirmed |
Breakfast Little is the only pending item that dates from before summer. The San Francisco Chronicle reported on April 22 that owner Andrew Martinez-Perez planned a Cow Hollow location at 2223 Union, with no opening date. We haven't found a later update. That means two of the seven rows are still unknowns: the space Corsagna left at the Gough end and the other half of the old Sur La Table building. Those two leases will show whether the next tenants on Union Street keep following the pattern set by Kaiyo, The Yard and Little Maison.
If you're weighing how changes on Union Street affect a Cow Hollow home you own or are thinking about buying, Beverly Barnett follows these blocks lease by lease and can walk you through what each opening means for your street. Schedule a Private Consultation.
