A new cafe is preparing to bring Ukrainian flavors, French pastry technique, and an all-day coffeehouse rhythm to San Francisco’s Union Street.
Franko & Friends, the upcoming sequel to Sausalito’s Franko & Co., is planned for the former Joyride Pizza space at 2055 Union St., Unit B, in the Marina and Cow Hollow area. The roughly 1,600-square-foot location is tentatively targeting a soft opening in September, according to reporting by the San Francisco Business Times.
The project comes from Iryna Nevozhai, a Mill Valley resident who moved from Kyiv to Cupertino about a decade ago to work as a tech recruiter. After starting with Ukrainian baked goods at Sunday farmers markets in 2023, she opened Franko & Co. at 721 Bridgeway in Sausalito last spring. Now she is taking the concept across the bay.
The San Francisco cafe will begin with coffee, pastries, and brunch. Later, the plan is to add wine and sparkling wine service in the evening. That shift from morning cafe to night bar is still being developed, but the direction is clear: Franko & Friends wants to be a place people can use throughout the day, not simply a breakfast stop with a short service window.
And that matters. A neighborhood cafe needs more than a good pastry case. It needs a reason to return at 8 a.m., noon, and 6 p.m.
A Sausalito cafe with a broader point of view
Franko & Co. does not present itself as a strictly Ukrainian restaurant. Its menu moves between French pastry, European cafe culture, California brunch, and Ukrainian specialties.
The Sausalito location serves coffee and tea, along with items such as croissants, strawberry toast with goat cheese, Ukrainian crepes, sour cherry varenyky, and Kyiv-style cakes. Varenyky are traditional Ukrainian dumplings, often filled with ingredients such as potato, cheese, cabbage, or fruit. At Franko & Co., the sour cherry version brings a sweet-tart quality to a dish that is deeply associated with Ukrainian home cooking.
The cafe also serves affogato with gelato from nearby Lappert’s Ice Cream, a small local touch that connects the concept to its Sausalito surroundings.
That blend is part of the appeal. The food carries a clear cultural identity without treating every item as a museum piece. It can move from a French croissant to a Ukrainian dumpling to an espresso and gelato dessert without forcing the guest to choose one cultural lane.
The approach was documented by Eater San Francisco, which reported on Nevozhai’s plans for Franko & Co. and described a menu built around Ukrainian and Eastern European flavors shaped by local customer response.
What Franko & Friends plans to serve
The Union Street menu is expected to focus on coffee, pastries, breakfast, and brunch items during the day.
That leaves room for a menu that feels familiar at first glance but rewards a closer look. A croissant may share space with Ukrainian crepes. A brunch plate may carry flavors from Nevozhai’s background. Kyiv-style cake and sour cherry pastries can sit alongside more recognizable cafe staples.
The details are not final, and that uncertainty is worth acknowledging. The team has not published a complete menu, pricing, or daily hours for the San Francisco location. The Business Times reported that the model’s particulars are still being worked out.
That is normal for a restaurant in pre-opening. The public sees the address and the concept. Behind the scenes, the operators are still testing recipes, vendor relationships, equipment needs, staffing levels, service times, and the question every cafe eventually has to answer: what can the kitchen execute consistently when the room is full?
The evening wine plan adds another layer. Wine service can increase the useful hours of a space, but it also brings new requirements for purchasing, storage, glassware, training, menu design, and responsible alcohol service. The concept has to earn the transition. A coffee shop cannot simply switch on a few lights at 5 p.m. and call itself a wine bar.
A space designed for gathering
An employee, Anastasiia Tymchenko, described the intended rhythm to the Business Times:
“We want to create a space where people can be gathering and eating, drinking coffee mostly all day, and then our menu will transfer to the bar.”
It is a simple idea, but it has operational weight.
The best all-day spaces are not necessarily busy every minute. They are useful at different moments. Morning guests may want coffee and a pastry. A late-morning customer may stay for brunch. Someone meeting a friend in the afternoon may order coffee and cake. Evening guests may come for wine and small plates.
Each occasion needs to feel related without becoming repetitive. The room, music, lighting, menu language, and service style have to change gradually. If the transition is too abrupt, the space can feel like two unrelated businesses sharing rent.
For Franko & Friends, the advantage is that the Union Street location is larger than the Sausalito cafe. That creates more room to test the day-to-evening model, though it also increases the operating burden.
More seats mean more labor. More service periods mean more prep. More menu categories mean more inventory. The concept will need discipline as much as charm.
The name carries history
The Franko name honors Ivan Franko, the Ukrainian author, philosopher, and political activist whom Nevozhai admires.
That connection gives the business a cultural reference point without requiring every customer to know the history before walking through the door. The name appears to function as an invitation. Come for coffee. Stay for a pastry. Learn where the name comes from if you are curious.
That kind of layered identity can work well in a neighborhood cafe. It gives regulars something to understand over time, while keeping the first visit accessible.
Nevozhai’s own path also shapes the business. She moved from Kyiv to the Bay Area, worked in technology recruiting, began selling Ukrainian baked goods at farmers markets, and then opened a permanent cafe. The progression feels less like a sudden restaurant launch than a gradual test of demand.
The farmers market stage mattered. It gave her a chance to introduce dishes, observe reactions, and understand which products could connect with local guests. Eater reported that Nevozhai used her farmers market presence to introduce syrnyky, Ukrainian cheese pancakes, while she developed the Sausalito bakery.
That is a practical way to build a food business. Start close to the customer. Listen carefully. Keep the strongest ideas.
Union Street is changing around it
Franko & Friends is arriving in a neighborhood that is already seeing movement.
Blue Danube, a longtime Inner Richmond restaurant, is preparing to open near the Presidio in the former Liverpool Lil’s space. La Boulangerie is returning to the area after several years away, sharing space with a new event venue. Nippon Curry is expanding, while Asian Box is giving way to The Bird.
Other new arrivals include Vital Ice, Dandelion Chocolate, and Lil Sweet Treat. Swiss sportswear brand On has also opened its first San Francisco flagship on Chestnut Street. Topologie is working through the permit process for a Marina location.
Taken together, these projects suggest a commercial corridor with a mix of food, retail, fitness, events, and specialty products. That can create useful foot traffic, but it also raises the standard for every new operator. Guests have plenty of options. A business needs a sharp reason to exist.
For Franko & Friends, that reason is the combination of Ukrainian hospitality, French pastries, coffee throughout the day, and a future wine program. The concept is not trying to imitate a traditional brunch restaurant or a formal Eastern European dining room. It is building something more flexible.
The challenge will be making that flexibility feel intentional.
The operator lesson behind the opening
A second location is never just a larger version of the first.
The Union Street site has its own rent structure, customer patterns, neighborhood competition, staffing market, permitting history, equipment constraints, and service expectations. Even if the recipes remain the same, the business model will not be.
That is where pre-opening planning earns its keep. A serious feasibility study examines the site, trading area, target guests, competitive landscape, access issues, and realistic sales potential before the operator commits too deeply. McFadden-Finch’s feasibility study service focuses on those questions, along with the operating assumptions and financial projections required to build a sound business case.
Franko & Friends also illustrates why concept development and operations cannot be separated. The brand may promise an all-day gathering place, but the operation has to support that promise. The kitchen must handle brunch and pastry production. The bar must support a wine transition. The team must know when the menu changes and how guests are guided through it.
A good idea gets attention. A workable system keeps the doors open.
What to expect next
For now, Franko & Friends remains in the preparation stage. The team is hiring baristas, working through the opening process, and developing the evening service model. The target is a soft opening in September, though no final opening date or public hours have been announced.
That means the first visit will likely be best approached with a little patience. New cafes need time to find their pace. Menus change. Service gets smoother. The strongest items become clearer.
When Franko & Friends opens, guests can expect a cafe shaped by Ukrainian roots but not confined by them. French pastries, coffee, brunch, sour cherry varenyky, Kyiv-style cakes, and eventually wine all have a place in the picture.
The more interesting question is whether the concept can make those parts feel like one coherent neighborhood business.
That answer will come with time, one pastry case and one evening service at a time.
A practical note for restaurant founders
Franko & Friends is also a useful reminder for anyone considering a second restaurant, cafe, bakery, or bar.
Before signing a lease or copying the first location’s menu, ask:
- Does the new neighborhood support the same dayparts?
- Can the kitchen produce the menu with the available equipment?
- Does the rent make sense under conservative sales assumptions?
- Can the concept recruit and retain enough staff?
- Is the evening service a real demand opportunity or simply unused space?
- Which parts of the original business are essential, and which should change?
Those questions are not meant to drain the life from a concept. They protect the life that is already in it.
Franko & Friends has a compelling story and a clear point of view. Now the work is turning that point of view into a reliable daily operation.
Schedule a discovery call with McFadden-Finch Restaurant Consulting Group to discuss a restaurant opening, expansion, or concept plan.
Sources
[1] Alex Barreira, “Ukrainian-owned Sausalito brunch spot expands with wine in new San Francisco outpost,” San Francisco Business Times, August 10, 2026, URL, Accessed August 11, 2026.
[2] Maressa Ribeiro, “Franko & Friends To Open On Union Street In San Francisco,” What Now San Francisco, August 7, 2026, URL, Accessed August 11, 2026.
[3] Flora Tsapovsky, “Ukrainian Bakers Are Flooding the Bay Area With Sophisticated European Pastries,” Eater San Francisco, December 19, 2024, URL, Accessed August 11, 2026.
[4] McFadden-Finch Restaurant Consulting Group, “Feasibility Studies,” URL, Accessed August 11, 2026.
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