On Bernal's Stretch of Mission Street, the Pop-Ups Moved In for Good

In 2014, Andrew Evans started doing magic tricks on the back deck of his Mission Street apartment. He built the stage so that "the rest of the building could come up to their balconies and watch the show, like unofficial box seats." The shows grew from one weekend a summer to one weekend a month, then to every other weekend. During his last season on the deck, he sold 1,000 tickets in 60 seconds.

Today The Magic Patio is a 50-seat theater at 3264 Mission St., two blocks from that old deck. It sits on the stretch of Mission Street that runs along Bernal Heights' western edge, south of Cesar Chavez. In 2026, two more long-running side projects opened permanent rooms on that same strip. Chicano Nuevo ran as a fish taco pop-up for about a decade before landing at 3355 Mission. Chef Kevin Tang's South Vietnamese pop-up became a permanent kitchen inside Fat Cat at 3215 Mission. Most Bernal conversations about where to eat still start with Cortland. On Mission Street, a night out now comes from three operators who spent years proving their following before they signed a lease.

Three Graduations, One Strip

None of these venues is a chain expansion or a new concept tested on the neighborhood. Each one built its audience somewhere else first.

Their histories also explain why each one feels the way it does. Small rooms, set menus, walk-in rules and limited nights fit operators who already know their audience.

The Theater That Took Two Years to Build

Evans found the 3264 Mission storefront in 2017. It had been a cell phone shop and, before that, a clothing store. He rebuilt it with a team of friends, and after two years of construction and permitting the theater opened in 2019. The room is fully indoors but still nods to the deck where it began. The floorboards are rough-hewn to look like decking, artificial plants grow from cracks in the floor, and the brick walls are faux.

"Part of the appeal of the patio is the whole space and getting to design and build all of this, not just do a magic show," Evans told Mission Local in September.

Evans runs the operation with a team of two: himself and a stage manager who handles lights and sound. He lets the audience in, checks tickets and sells $10 bags of Giddy candy in a lobby lined with magic books. He has never spent anything on advertising. Even so, he sells out three shows a week, often weeks in advance, and recently added a family matinee.

The venue's own schedule lists evening shows Thursday through Saturday at 7:30 p.m. They run 80 minutes, cost $75 and are for ages 16 and up. The family matinee is at 2 p.m. on select Saturdays, runs 60 minutes and costs $60. It's for ages 6 and up with an adult. Tickets bought through Eventbrite show higher starting prices, $81.20 for the evening show and $65.87 for the matinee. The Eventbrite listings show an evening show on Thursday, Oct. 15 and a matinee on Saturday, Oct. 17. We couldn't find a Halloween-specific show in the listings published so far.

A Wine Bar With a Kitchen That Used to Travel

At 3215 Mission, Fat Cat owner Jessica Bell turned her wine club into what Eater SF describes as "a pink-hued haven for lovers of crushable wines." Kevin Tang is "finally running his South Vietnamese pop-up as a permanent restaurant" inside it. In April, Mission Local reported that Fat Cat and the Claws of Mantis pop-up were taking over the address together, with the Mantis expected to open in mid-May. SFGATE covered its grand opening on May 22. In September, Eater SF put the pairing on its list of the city's best new restaurants.

The schedule takes a little planning. Sundays and Mondays, Tang serves a $75 nine-course menu. Other nights are à la carte. The Mantis website lists Thursday through Monday, 5 to 10 p.m., walk-in only with no reservations. In August, KQED described dinner service as Friday through Monday from 5 to 10 p.m., with the wine bar open until 11 p.m. on weekends. Eater's listing agrees that the bar opens Thursday and the kitchen starts Friday. If a Thursday dinner is the plan, check with the restaurant before you walk over.

Ten Years of Fish Tacos, Now With a Dining Room

Chef Abe Núñez cooked at State Bird Provisions. He started Chicano Nuevo as a pop-up selling Baja-style beer-battered fish tacos. "I had the longest running fish taco popup in the city," he told the Chronicle. Over the years Eater SF tracked him at the original Emmy's Spaghetti Shack, in a residency at the former Broken Record in the Excelsior, and in one-day stints at Old Devil Moon, El Rio and Casements.

His partner, Courtney Fujita, is a Rich Table alum who spent nine years with the Future Bars group. The two opened 3355 Mission as a bar last December, pouring Tecates, Carta Blanca caguamas and classic cocktails. By June it was serving a six-course Baja seafood tasting menu for $95. The fish taco is still the signature, now made with fried basa and served with a clarified salmon consommé on the side. Núñez wants that drunk as a chaser after each bite, not used for dunking. The squid ink tamale negro from the pop-up days is available as a course or a $22 add-on.

There are two things to know before booking. In June, the Chronicle reported that the bar program was on hold while the owners waited for a liquor license transfer. The restaurant's OpenTable profile still describes only "a small selection of non-alcoholic options." We found no confirmation that alcohol service has resumed. Eater SF singled out the agua frescas, at $12 each, as worth ordering in the meantime. OpenTable lists seatings Thursday through Sunday between 6 and 8 p.m.

Putting an Evening Together

Each venue books in a different way, so the order matters more than it would on a block of standard restaurants:

• Book the magic first. The Magic Patio is the hardest ticket, and Thursday through Saturday at 7:30 p.m. is the only evening window.
• Reserve Chicano Nuevo for a Friday or Saturday if you want dinner before the show. Its 6 p.m. seating and the 7:30 p.m. curtain are close together.
• Walk in at Fat Cat x the Mantis afterward. The wine bar stays open until 11 p.m. on weekends.
• Save Sunday or Monday for the Mantis tasting menu. The $75 nine-course menu is only served those nights.

On a Saturday, a family can pair the 2 p.m. matinee with an early walk-in at the Mantis.

The Building Across the Street

The biggest change coming to this strip is at 3350 Mission, the Safeway site across from Chicano Nuevo. In June, developers filed permits for a six-story building with 379 units. It would include 76 affordable homes and a replacement Safeway on the ground floor. According to Mission Local, the application uses the state density bonus and SB 330 streamlining. That makes approval ministerial, so the project doesn't go to the Planning Commission for a hearing.

Mission Local's June report said there was no official project timeline and no scheduled date for the Safeway to close. Upper Noe Neighbors held a community meeting on July 15. Its summary described the project as early-stage and said construction appeared to be years away. We found no later hearing, closure notice or temporary grocery plan in the reporting we checked. For now, the Safeway is still open across the street.

The strip's 2026 openings didn't wait for that project. Evans spent two years turning a former cell phone shop into a theater. Núñez and Fujita opened as a bar first and added the full menu months later. Bell and Tang combined two followings into one room. The 3350 filing could eventually bring hundreds of new households to the street, but the businesses that make it a night out are already open.

If you own a storefront or mixed-use building on this part of Mission Street and want to know what a ministerial filing like 3350 means for the parcels around it, KJ Kohlmyer has hands-on experience with entitlements and storefront conversions and can walk you through it, starting with a no-pressure valuation.