The Haight's Music Comeback Is Running on Second Shifts
"We need more live music," Peterson Harter said at the preview party for The DeLuxe in June. "And where else do you have this music history in the city? It's really gonna bring back the Haight." Harter owns Sandy's, the New Orleans-style sandwich shop on the next block of Haight Street. He had watched the old Club DeLuxe close just before his own shop opened.
Four months later, the live music he asked for is on the calendar most nights. The people booking it own small rooms that were already open for something else. A shuttered jazz bar came back under its former bartender. A plant shop and barbershop at Masonic started booking bands after dark. Covers start at $4 if you buy online. Meanwhile, the street's biggest music proposal, a broadcast studio and rooftop venue at Haight and Ashbury, is still a letter of intent. Building it would mean combining six of the smallest storefronts on the corridor.
Club DeLuxe ran at 1511 Haight from the late 1990s until April 2023, when it closed after a dispute between its former owner and the landlord. It reopened as The DeLuxe on June 18, 2026. The operators are Christian Beaulieu, who used to tend bar there, and Jay Bordelau, owner of the Mid-Market jazz bar Mr. Tipple's. The room still has its intimate art deco feel, with close-set round cabaret tables, murals of people dancing and shooting pool, and a small bandshell-style stage.
The booking has changed more than the room. Beaulieu told The Standard the program would grow beyond the club's rockabilly and Latin jazz to include indie pop, country and a nod to the Grateful Dead. A Dead night at The DeLuxe struck him as odd, "which is why I want to do it." That night now has a date. Danny's Live Dead plays Sunday, November 1, at 9:30 p.m. for $10.
Opening coverage described music seven nights a week, with the DeLuxe Jazz Collective as the Monday house band. The current calendar still lists the Collective on Mondays, at $5. Other nights are priced by the act. The Sundra Manning Organ Quartet played October 1 for $10, and Seismics play Halloween at 9 p.m. for $15. Current hours on the venue's site are 6 to 11 p.m. Monday through Thursday, 5 p.m. to 1 a.m. Friday and Saturday, and 2:30 to 10 p.m. Sunday. Those are later on weeknights than the hours reported at the June opening, so check the site before a weekday visit.
The Mellow has been at the corner of Haight and Masonic since 2021. It started as a small plant store in the Mission in 2020, and the Haight shop is a daytime cafe, plant store and barbershop. The Standard's headline on the change noted that it followed years of free sidewalk shows. This summer, owners Lorena Cortez and David Velasco started a live music program with tapas, bar bites, and a beer, wine and cocktail list from Gillian Fitzgerald of the Mission bar Casements. Neighborhood coverage in September listed coffee from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Mellow Nights Thursday through Saturday. Cortez described the business as one that "can't be pinned to one thing."
The format is clearly set out:
A $5 Thursday set in a room that sold plants and cut hair that afternoon is the clearest example of how this comeback works. The room was already paid for and already open. The evening shift adds a stage to it.
Between The DeLuxe, The Mellow and two long-standing businesses farther up the street, a resident can catch something on Upper Haight most weeks this month. As of October 1:
Several Mellow dates, and every listed November slot there, still say "to be announced." The venue's calendar subscription updates as acts are added.
On September 17, SF Heritage announced it is exploring a partnership with KEXP, the Seattle radio station, and Blue Bear School of Music. The plan would turn the Doolan-Larson building at Haight and Ashbury into a music and cultural center with broadcast facilities, teaching space and a rooftop venue. SF Heritage CEO Woody LaBounty described a ground floor "open for the community both day and night," with a cafe and a "neighborhood living room." That's close to what The Mellow does at Masonic for a $5 cover.
The building has a long history. It went up in 1903, survived the 1906 earthquake, and was later raised to add six storefronts along Haight. In the mid-1960s it housed Mnasidika, which The Standard describes as the first hippie shop on Haight. Norman Larson bought it in 1980 and left it to SF Heritage when he died in 2018.
Those six storefronts are the point of contention. Each is about 500 square feet, much smaller than a typical retail space. The tenants are Welcome Haight & Ashbury, Haight Jewelry, a barbershop, a toy store, a vintage boutique and a seller of Nepalese art and jewelry, all on month-to-month leases. Arkady Pletman opened Haight Jewelry in the building 32 years ago. Before the 47th Haight-Ashbury Street Fair on September 20, all six hung banners saying that SF Heritage "should preserve community not displace it."
The numbers behind the merchants' argument come from the Haight Ashbury Merchants Association. Retail vacancy in the neighborhood peaked at 32 during the pandemic and is now fewer than 10. When the street is that full, a small storefront is hard to replace. Robert Emmons, who owns Welcome Haight & Ashbury, has suggested KEXP and Blue Bear use the upper floors and leave the shops in place. The street has also lost an old shop this year. Held Over, reported to be the Haight's oldest vintage store, closed May 30 after nearly 50 years. Owner Cynthia Anderson spoke about the closure.
The project's backers have responded publicly. KEXP CEO Ethan Raup called the merchants' reaction "perfectly understandable" and promised a "thoughtful transition plan that prioritizes keeping these businesses in the Haight." LaBounty said the tenants can stay throughout the years before construction begins. Naomi Silverman, the third-generation owner of Mendel's, is speaking for the merchants association. She said everyone's intentions seem good, "but the reality is that this is people's livelihoods."
KEXP's own project page says plainly that "it's not a sure thing yet." These are the steps reported so far:
As of the September 24 report, the merchants association was trying to set up another meeting with project leaders. Until anything changes at the corner, the music on Haight Street is at 1401, 1511 and 1840, and covers start at $4.
At Sage Real Estate, we follow Haight Street closely, from the new music nights to the six storefronts at Haight and Ashbury, because changes like these shape the blocks around them. If you own nearby and want to know what your home is worth on this corridor today, we're happy to walk you through it.
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