Glen Park's Old Food Storefronts Are Filling Up With Something Else

In 2025, workers were gutting the interior of 683 Chenery Street to get it ready for a music studio. Behind the drywall they found a green and yellow tile mosaic that read "Vogel Bros. Meat Co., Inc." It had been out of sight for decades and was 96 years old, but according to Glen Park History's account of the building, it "looked as fresh and new as it must have appeared" when Adolph Vogel opened his store in 1929. The tile couldn't be reassembled, and it went out with the drywall.

That small loss sums up what happened to the Glen Park village this year. Rooms on Chenery and Diamond that sold meat, pizza, pastry and dinner for most of a century are being leased to businesses you book ahead: music lessons, massage, yoga, nails, dog grooming. The food places that are still open aren't multiplying. They're changing how you get in the door.

Ninety-Seven Years at 683 Chenery

The building at 683 Chenery shows the pattern most clearly. Adolph Vogel tore down the original structure there and put up the single-story Spanish Colonial/Mediterranean Revival building that still stands on the commercial corridor. Here's what has been inside it since:

The laundromat was the only stretch in nearly 100 years when the building wasn't feeding the neighborhood. Glen Park History notes that the structure "has mostly been used for supporting Glen Park's culinary needs." Its October 5 update reports that Crescendo Music Studios is now open there.

The ownership has a neat link to the grocery history. In 1957 Albert Firpo moved his market to the Diamond Super at Diamond and Wilder, the lot where Canyon Market stands today. Canyon Market's owners now also own 683 Chenery. So the grocers on the corner leased their other building to a music school.

The Newcomers Mostly Take Appointments

Crescendo isn't the only one. At the Glen Park Association's July 16 meeting at Bird & Beckett Books & Records, the merchants report said the neighborhood still has "a few empty store fronts" but has seen about half a dozen new businesses open over the last year or so. Most of them are services:

• Celtica Wellness Sanctuary, 590 Bosworth Street, opened April 25. Founder Kat Cullen lives in Glen Park, and the first services include massage and bodywork. "The core of our brand and treatments is water," Cullen told the GPA.
• Soluna, the yoga and wellness studio on the former Glen Park Cleaners site on Chenery, added new classes this spring.
• Goose & Co. Grooming, 667 Chenery Street, is run by Heather Schneider and offers low-stress grooming for dogs and cats.
• Martin's Nail Corner, 2966 Diamond Street, was introduced as a newcomer at the July meeting.
• Crescendo Music Studios, 683 Chenery, is in the old Chenery Park space.

Retail is shifting as well. The July meeting summary says Perch, the gift shop, has a new owner. In the spring, a vintage seller named Tony started the Idol Vintage pop-up inside Critter Fritters.

When merchants explained at that meeting why they chose Glen Park, they named three things: a welcoming neighborhood, a supportive merchants association, and being close to public transit. Those are reasons to sign a lease. The open question is what goes into the spaces that come with a kitchen already installed.

598 Chenery Is Still Waiting

Destination Bakery at 598 Chenery is the clearest case. Joe Schuver closed it after 25 years, and he'd been working in that space for 38. "I'm sad but I'm also happy," he told the Glen Park News at 71. "It was time."

Schuver said he'd already gotten three calls from people who might want to open something in the neighborhood. "I'm hoping someone will open bakery," he said. He also hoped to sell his equipment and fixtures to whoever came next, so they'd "be able to have a fresh start." His time in the space ran through the end of January.

By the GPA's April 29 meeting, the building itself was for sale. As of early October, none of the neighborhood or local news sources we checked had reported a buyer, a tenant, or a planned use. Whether it reopens as a bakery is still undecided, which makes it the corner to watch on Chenery this fall.

The Food Rooms Still Open Are Changing Their Terms

The food businesses that remain are adjusting how they operate rather than expanding.

La Cigale is the biggest change. The Michelin Guide-listed restaurant cooks southwestern French food over live fire. Until this summer, getting a seat meant putting your name down in person in Glen Park, by 4:30 p.m., or hoping a spot at the communal table opened up on a digital waitlist. Chef-owner Joseph Magidow told The San Francisco Standard that he had wanted to keep the restaurant as accessible as possible to Glen Park residents. "We were doing an experiment, and that experiment has run its course," he said. "We learned that the system we have has more cons than pros."

Since July 8, La Cigale has taken reservations on OpenTable. There are two prepaid seatings a night, at 5 and 8 p.m., which is a little earlier than before. Magidow said he polled people in a key group, "elder millennials, many of whom have younger children," and many of them liked the 5 p.m. slot. He was frank that he doesn't: "I am personally never going to make a 5 p.m. reservation in my lifetime." Daisy from La Cigale announced the switch at the July GPA meeting.

Glen Park Station, the neighborhood bar, turned 100 in August. Sean Kelly and Shane Ryan bought both the bar and the building in January 2022, four years before the centennial. Kelly grew up in Glen Park. Ryan had already been tending bar there for six years and managing it for four. Before them, Rene Lecour and Tom Coulter co-owned the bar for 30 years. In the GPA's profile, Ryan called the new owners "temporary caretakers" and said he hoped the bar would be around "a hundred years more."

Glen Park Cafe, 2798 Diamond Street, started Super Senior Thursdays. From 8 to 10 a.m., seniors get 50% off everything on the menu.

All three are making the business they already had easier to use. None of them is a new place to eat. The one new food item on the GPA's list is outside the village core: Keikos Coffee Shop, on the 3900 block of Mission Street, the corridor the association calls the gateway to Glen Park.

Where the Neighborhood Gathers Now

With fewer kitchens, more of the neighborhood's evenings are happening in shared spaces. The 2026 Night Markets on Kern Street ran on June 20, July 18, August 15 and September 19, and the season is over. Bird & Beckett owner Eric Whittington told the July meeting that his arts nonprofit pays for live music, poetry readings and book readings more than four times a week.

Glen Park also won three Avenue Greenlight grants this year. They cover corner murals and planters along Slow Arlington, beautification of the Pono patio that the GPA says could host pop-up events, and neighborhood banners on Mission Street between Highland and Bosworth. Separately, SFMTA's Bosworth-Monterey quick-build proposal includes a new crosswalk across Bosworth at the foot of Arlington and a flashing beacon at the I-280 on-ramp crosswalk. The agency is taking public input through the fall, and work could start in 2027. Feedback goes to [email protected].

Down the hill, Glen Canyon Recreation Center has a full family calendar for the rest of the year:

1. October 24: Halloween Haunted House family workshop
2. November 14: Thanksgiving family workshop
3. December 12: Holiday family workshop
4. December 12 to 13: Camp In, Climb On overnight

Rec & Park says the fall schedule may change, so check the page before you go.

At Sage Real Estate, we follow Glen Park block by block, including the storefront at 598 Chenery that's still dark. If you live near the village and want to know how this year's changes affect your property, we're glad to talk it through. Discover what your home is worth.