York Street Café in Embarcadero closed

York Street Café at Embarcadero Center closed this month. Anand Upender, who ran the place, announced it via Instagram. He called it temporary, but downtown coffee shops don’t usually come back.

The cafe was known for ‘Pandan in Paradise’—a bright green iced drink with pandan, coconut milk, and coffee. Southeast Asian flavors in a Financial District pop-up that stood out. Too creative for the crowd, apparently.

Why It Didn’t Work

Limited space. Maybe 15 seats total, squeezed into Embarcadero Center’s lower level near the fountain. Fridays were dead—office workers gone early, tourists didn’t know the place existed.

The downtown crowd wanted lattes, Americanos, black coffee. Straightforward drinks. York Street Cafe served turmeric lattes, Vietnamese iced coffee, mocktails. Wrong audience. You can’t fight what people want to order.

Embarcadero Center has struggled since the pandemic. Even before COVID, foot traffic was mostly office workers during weekday lunch; weekends were quiet. The four-tower complex never had the energy of Union Square or the Ferry Building.

Anand tried to bring something different to downtown—color, flavor, creativity. The neighborhood wasn’t ready for it. Or maybe downtown SF just isn’t built for creative coffee shops anymore. Everyone works from home now.

York Street Cafe lasted about a year at Embarcadero. Short run, but it was good while it lasted.