New Mission Street Businesses: Excelsior & Mission Terrace, Fall 2026

Faded red letters above the door at 5196 Mission Street still say "Optometrist." Inside are rows of vintage comics, children's titles and new issues of Absolute Batman. There is also a bin of $1 and free comics, which one employee told Mission Local he loves handing to kids.

Mission: Comics–Excelsior is one of three Excelsior storefronts that opened or got ready to open this year. A city check is behind all three. A few blocks north, along the stretch of Mission Street that forms Mission Terrace's eastern edge, a Guatemalan grill and a corner market changed hands without any grant. Put together, they show what the corridor is gaining this fall: places to spend an afternoon, opened by owners who already had a following somewhere else.

Three Hobby Shops, One City Program

The San Francisco Office of Economic and Workforce Development runs the Storefront Opportunity Grant. It pays small business owners to open in vacant commercial spaces. In June 2026, the city announced that 39 businesses citywide had signed leases through the 2026 round, with grants ranging from $50,000 to $100,000. Three of those 39 are in the Excelsior, and the city's recipient list reads like a hobby shelf.

The comic shop is open noon to 6 p.m. Sunday through Tuesday and noon to 7 p.m. Wednesday through Saturday, according to its website. Small Change Arcade said it would announce its opening on its Instagram, so check there for current hours before you go.

Why the Grant Favors Shops Like These

The eligibility rules shape who shows up. According to the city's application page, applicants cannot already hold a lease when they apply, and they must have been in business for at least three years. Brand-new concepts don't qualify. The program rewards established operators who want a second location or their first real storefront, and each of the three Excelsior recipients has that kind of history.

Leef Smith already owns Mission: Comics & Art in the Mission District. He received a $50,000 grant, spent it on small renovations, and opened about a month later than his original July target, Mission Local reported. His father grew up on Naples Street in the Excelsior, and Smith told the outlet he is glad to be "bringing some literature, culture and providing something different" to the neighborhood.

Matthew Sengbusch of Small Change Arcade has a specialty you won't find at most arcades. He takes full-size, 6-foot vintage machines apart and rebuilds them at about half the height, small enough for a San Francisco apartment. On Geneva Avenue, owner Sarah Cain describes City Made Quilts as a place that brings quilting supplies to local quilters. A local quilter wrote on her Substack in mid-August that the shop was open and described shopping there.

Once the renovations were done, the shops still had to build a customer base. Smith told Mission Local that business had been slow in the first weeks, with neighbors walking down Mission Street "trickling in to take a peek inside." A comic shop, an arcade and a quilt store all depend on repeat visits, and that is where the people who live within walking distance come in.

Closer to Mission Terrace, Owners Arrived Without a Grant

The blocks of Mission Street nearest Mission Terrace changed this year too, with no city program involved. Each owner simply took over a space.

• El Quetzal Grill Restaurant, 4441 Mission St. near Avalon Avenue, opened July 1 in the space that had been Fili-Taste Grill & Restaurant and, before that, Pampanguena. Owner Juan Castañon is an Excelsior resident who runs it with his wife, Claudia. He told Mission Local that weekend customers come in for the handmade tortillas, churrasco and chicken soup. It is open daily, 11 a.m. to 10 p.m.
• La Guatemalteca Express opened a second shop at 4490 Mission St. near Santa Rosa Avenue on July 6. It sells snacks and personal-care products and offers international shipping.
• Mission Silver Market, 4304 Mission St., has a new owner. Prem Lama, who also owns the Nepalese restaurant Ingredients at 25th and Church streets, bought it in early fall and plans to reopen it with his daughter as Mission Market & Liquor once renovations are done, Mission Local reported.

This is the same pattern as the grant shops on a smaller scale. Every one of these owners already had roots in the city before signing a lease on Mission Street. Castañon has lived in San Francisco for 15 years, and El Quetzal is his first business. "We try, we try," he told Mission Local.

The Largest Space on Alemany Is Still Under Construction

The biggest project nearby is Aisle 19, the bouldering gym Touchstone Climbing is building inside the former Pacific Super grocery store at 2900 Alemany Blvd. Its history shows why vacant space is so hard to fill here. In 2023, the grocery chain Island Pacific Supermarket signed a lease for the building, then pulled out that October, saying the city's formula retail rules made permitting too slow and expensive. Touchstone has 18 gyms in California, but each has its own name and logo, so it doesn't count as formula retail.

The Ingleside Light toured the building at a Sept. 24 open house. It described a 27,764-square-foot space with Walltopia bouldering walls up to 17 feet tall, plus a weight room, a yoga studio, men's and women's saunas and a room for high-intensity classes. Touchstone architect Emma Kim told the outlet, "We want to be a neighborhood fitness center."

Reports on the opening date disagree. The Ingleside Light's Sept. 30 report gives a tentative 2027 opening, while Mission Local's Oct. 8 column says it will open by the end of the year. Touchstone's Aisle 19 page still says "Coming Soon," so it is the best place to watch for an official date.

The Dates That Bring Foot Traffic Through December

If the new shops need repeat customers, the most useful dates on the calendar are the ones that fill Mission Street with people after dark. From the E: Excelsior Night Market started in July 2025, organized by the Excelsior Action Group and funded by the Civic Joy Fund. Mission Local's account of the first one describes Lucha Libre wrestlers from Wrestling for Charity, salsa and cumbia from Bateria Batuki, and booths from Excelsior Coffee, Deli Man and The Korner Store. The vendors were local to the Excelsior and its commercial corridor, and the market's stated purpose was promoting local businesses.

Here is what is left on the calendar this year:

1. Friday, Oct. 30, 3 to 9 p.m.: Recreation and Park's free Scaregrove Halloween event at Sigmund Stern Grove, with a haunted house, a maze and carnival rides. It's across town, but it's the closest large free Halloween event on the city calendar.
2. Every Saturday, 7 a.m. to 2 p.m.: the Alemany Farmers Market at 100 Alemany Blvd., run by Foodwise since February.
3. Friday, Nov. 20, 4:30 to 8:30 p.m.: the free From the E Harvest Night Market at Ocean Avenue and Mission Street.
4. Friday, Dec. 11, 4:30 to 8:30 p.m.: the free From the E Holiday Night Market, same location. RSVPs on the organizer's site enter you in a raffle for prizes that include gift cards to local businesses.
5. Through Dec. 12: the fall schedule at Balboa Pool, covering lap, senior and recreational swims plus lessons.

A Mission Street night market is also a good time to drop by Mission: Comics, Small Change Arcade and El Quetzal. Further out, Big Art Loop is raising money for Big Apple, a walk-in red apple sculpture with inward-facing seats planned for Balboa Park's Fairy Circle. The group told Mission Local it aims to install it in early 2027.

Kevin pays attention to which Mission Street storefronts stay lit and which sit empty, because owners and tenants ask about it. If you own a building in Mission Terrace or a commercial space along the corridor and want to talk through what this year's openings mean for your property, Kevin Wong is a neighbor who keeps track of them. Let's Connect.