The Lower Haight's Next Restaurants Are Pop-Ups Moving Indoors

Two dining rooms on the Lower Haight are about to change hands, and both are going to chefs who built their names at pop-ups. Spencer Horovitz's Hadeem takes over 682 Haight after Otra closes in early December. Alex Lauritzen, who ran a vegan pop-up for four years, is opening a wine bar at 401 Haight, the corner Two Jack's Nik's Place left in July 2022.

Neither opens until 2027, and the pop-up habits are already visible in the plans. There are movable tables, a babka counter meant for drop-ins, and a reservation book that only covers part of the room. The strip that grows from these rooms will run looser than the reservation-only dinner spots people have gotten used to.

Jules Showed It Could Work

Before Max Blachman-Gentile had a restaurant, his sourdough pizzas were sold at pop-ups. SFGATE reported that after Jules opened in the Lower Haight in May 2025, it quickly became one of the hardest reservations to get in San Francisco. In August 2026, Bon Appétit named it one of 19 best new restaurants in the country. The magazine singled out the Fun Guy, a mushroom pizza with black garlic and tamarind sauce, and Fiona's Destiny, which comes with burnt scallion crème fraîche, pickled shallots, spring onions and Funyuns.

Jules is at 237 Fillmore, a few steps from Haight. Eater SF described the crust as blistered, crisp and chewy. A national list for a former pop-up three blocks from Otra makes the next two signings easier to understand.

Why Pop-Up Chefs Want This Block

The stretch around Haight and Pierce filled in quickly. When The Standard covered Otra's closing, it listed the order: cocktail bar Stoa opened kitty-corner from Otra in 2023, Bar Jabroni opened next door in 2024, and Jules came in May 2025. In June 2025, The Standard called the two blocks of Haight between Pierce and Fillmore the city's best destination for dinner and drinks. That piece named Danny Coyle's, Molotov's, Noc Noc, Toronado, Woods Lowside, Coffee Out There and Choux along with the newer spots.

Here is the current state of the established rooms:

• Stoa, 701 Haight. Eater SF put it on its July 2026 best cocktail bars list, praising Yanni Kehagiaras's pared-back cocktails and seasonal snacks such as popcorn and chicken wings.
• Bar Jabroni, 698 Haight. It takes reservations, and bar seats are first come, first served.
• Toronado, 547 Haight. The beer bar has been here since 1987. In June, SFGATE reported that founder Dave Keene was handing the cash-only bar to Bill Lewis, a longtime regular who has lived in San Francisco for three decades.

Horovitz explained the appeal plainly in The Standard: "I think that our offerings just fit into the Lower Haight so well. I'm really excited to be shoulder to shoulder with so many great options."

682 Haight Goes From Otra to Hadeem

Otra itself came about through a local connection. The Standard reported that the space opened up because the landlord knew the couple's first restaurant, Son's Addition. Nick Cobarruvias and Anna Sager Cobarruvias signed the Otra lease in January 2020 and lived two blocks away for years. They told The Standard that they will close in early December so they can spend more time with family and on their salsa macha business, Chingonas, after a slower-than-usual summer. Before then, they plan to serve tacos on fresh corn tortillas, mezcal margaritas, and favorites from past menus.

The next tenant had already signed before the closing was announced. Horovitz, a 2025 James Beard Emerging Chef semifinalist, started Hadeem three years ago. He spent more than a year looking for a permanent space while carrying food and equipment to pop-ups in the Mission, Nob Hill, Healdsburg and Rochester, New York. He told The Standard that those years shaped the menu. "We've done events that have been in wine bars with just a hot plate and a dream," he said.

Hadeem is planned to open in the first half of 2027 with dinner, weekend brunch, cocktails and mostly California wines. Horovitz calls it California cooking seasoned by Jewish identity, and he doesn't want diners expecting a classic deli. The pop-up influence shows in the daytime plan. He hopes to bring in a coffee partner to run the room during the day, with fresh babka for "a little nosh and kibitz," and to sell seasonal loaves to take home.

401 Haight After Two Jack's Nik's Place

The corner at Webster has a longer history. Two Jack's Nik's Place served Southern comfort food at 401 Haight starting in 1977. SFGATE reported that second-generation owner Nikki Cooper set July 14, 2022, as the last day. She sold the rest of the lease and took a job as program director at the San Francisco African American Chamber of Commerce.

Passages is scheduled to open there in March 2027. Lauritzen has more than ten years in restaurants, including work at Cotogna, Verjus and Bar Gemini, and he ran the vegan pop-up the Mushroom for four years starting in 2021. He told the San Francisco Chronicle that limited walk-ins, strict table time limits and prebooked bar seats have brought "hostility" into Bay Area dining. He designed the room to work the other way.

"So if you're sitting in the window and three of your friends walk by, they can just grab stools and sit down."

That's Lauritzen in the Chronicle, explaining why he's collecting vintage wooden stools. Reservations will cover one strip of tables. The rest of the room will be lightweight tables that diners can move around, plus a row of stadium-style benches at the back. The menu will have fries and onion rings all night and vegan dishes. The mostly Californian wine list will include a house Chardonnay from Llewelyn and an orange wine from Etteilla.

The Winter Before the New Rooms Open

The gap months are full on their own:

1. Now through early December. Otra's farewell run at 682 Haight, with tacos, mezcal margaritas and dishes from past menus.
2. Thursday, November 5, 6 to 8 p.m. The free opening reception for "The Art of Metallica" at the Haight Street Art Center, 215 Haight. The show includes the original paintings behind the "Ride the Lightning" and "Master of Puppets" covers, concert posters and fan art. Starting November 6, it's open Thursday through Sunday, noon to 6, until January 10, 2027.
3. Sunday mornings, 10 to 11. The Lower Haight Merchants & Neighbors Association holds a weekly cleanup starting from Tarragon Cafe at 200 Fillmore, at Waller, through November and December.
4. Mondays, November 9 and December 14. The association's monthly community meetings. Locations are still to be confirmed.
5. December. Hadeem hosts two events with Brandon Jew of Mister Jiu's and Moongate Lounge. During Hanukkah, it runs "Eight Nights of Babka," a limited preorder of loaves in flavors like chocolate tiramisu and pumpkin-miso cheesecake, plus collaborations with The Happy Crane, Square Pie Guys and Bernal Cutlery. The Standard's September report didn't give dates for either.

By spring, all three pop-up chefs could be on the strip. Jules will have been open nearly two years, Passages is aiming for March, and Hadeem for sometime in the first half of the year.

At Sage Real Estate, we follow changes like these block by block, because a corner restaurant changing hands shapes what living nearby feels like. If you own a home within walking distance of Haight and Fillmore and want to know how it compares in today's market, we'll walk you through what your home is worth.