Upper Fillmore This Fall: The Three Blocks That Will Look Different by New Year's

Walk Fillmore from Jackson down to Pine on any given weekday morning in August, and the sidewalk reads about the same as it did a year ago. Coffee cups outside Jane. A dog tied up at Compton's. The Clay's marquee still dark. What changes this fall is not the surface. It is what happens behind the plywood.

Between now and the end of the year, one investor's plan for three blocks of Pacific Heights moves from press release into daily life. A Michelin-lineage restaurant opens on the corner of Fillmore and Pine. A 200-seat theater begins its build-out down the block. A jazz festival that almost disappeared last year returned bigger. If you already live here, this is the season the plan stops being abstract.

The address that explains the season

Every conversation about Upper Fillmore this fall runs through one number: 2001 Fillmore, the corner of Fillmore and Pine. For years the space was home to the much-beloved Pacific Heights Bar & Grill, then Thai Stick, and later Noosh. It has been dark since Noosh closed in the early pandemic.

That corner is now under construction. All upstairs tenants at 2001 Fillmore got letters on April 24 that they must move by the end of May to accommodate construction of Monami, a new Korean barbecue restaurant that will replace Noosh, with ground-floor construction starting June 1. The upstairs floor held a hair stylist, an aesthetician, a milliner, a marketing consultant, and an acupuncturist, several of whom had been in the building for more than a decade.

Monami is not a hopeful first-timer. Junsoo and Hyunyoung Bae, the founders of SSAL on upper Polk, are branching out to open a second restaurant there. SSAL holds a Michelin star. Chef-owner Junsoo Bae told the Chronicle he wants it to be "a Korean barbecue version of House of Prime Rib." Opening is targeted for Fall 2026.

Read that intent slowly. A Korean barbecue interpretation of a Van Ness institution, on a Pacific Heights corner that has cycled through three restaurants in twenty years, opening in the same quarter as the theater down the street begins its renovation. The season is not a coincidence.

What is actually happening on the block

The clearest way to see the change is by address. Here is what the three blocks between Clay and Pine look like right now, and what they will look like when the plywood comes down.

The owner is the same across most of these. The Upper Fillmore Revitalization Project (UFRP) is a real estate development project in San Francisco, California, US. The project has led to controversy, pushback from local officials, and a new San Francisco City Ordinance. The Upper Fillmore Revitalization Project, or UFRP, states that their goal is to restore and revitalize Upper Fillmore Street, in the Lower Pacific Heights and Pacific Heights neighborhood of San Francisco. The project is funded by venture capitalist Neil Mehta, and operated by nightlife entrepreneur Cody Allen. Both are residents of the neighborhood.

The scale changed again this spring. The decision comes about a week after a Mehta-linked fund, Friends of Fillmore LP, raised $50 million to advance the broader Upper Fillmore Revitalization Project, or UFRP, public records show. That was on top of an earlier $100 million raise in 2024. When you see a construction fence go up on Fillmore this fall, it is likely tied to that capital.

The Clay is the anchor, not the accessory

The reopening the neighborhood is watching most closely is the Clay. The historic movie house, situated at 2261 Fillmore Street and a mainstay since at least 1913, plans to light up the silver screen as early as 2026 after a five-year closure, as reported by the San Francisco Chronicle.

The April vote was the moment the theater stopped being a rumor. A plan to revive the Clay Theater as a single-screen neighborhood theater has passed its first test before city authorities with flying colors. The Historic Preservation Commission on April 1 unanimously endorsed plans to restore historic elements of the Clay while bringing it into the modern age.

The programming plan is more ambitious than a repertory house. "When complete," Allen said, "the theater will operate seven days a week with more than 500 annual screenings, including independent films, repertory programming, 35mm presentation and community events." An expanded concession area at the new Clay Theater will become an all-day cafe.

Timing, from the source most likely to know: San Francisco's Historic Preservation Commission on Wednesday approved plans to restore the single-screen movie house, which Mehta's team says could reopen early next year. If that holds, Fillmore has a working single-screen cinema for the first time since Sundance Kabuki felt like the only game in town for arthouse.

Two things worth setting side by side. The old Clay under Landmark ran as a straightforward second-tier art-film booking. The new Clay is being programmed by Ted Gerike, formerly of New York's Metrograph and the founder of Los Angeles microcinema Now Instant. Ted Gerike will guide the theater's creative vision. Previously with Metrograph and founder of Now Instant in Los Angeles, Gerike plans to feature new releases, classics, and filmmaker Q&As. "We want to make a place for serious film lovers and people just looking for a good movie night," Gerike said. That is a different audience calculation. A block that draws people for a 9 p.m. Kurosawa screening also fills the tables at Monami at 7.

What the Jazz Festival's near-death told us

The other fall story worth understanding is the one that already played out in July. After briefly facing cancellation in 2025 over a funding shortfall, the annual Fillmore Jazz Festival returned this weekend with two days of free live performances, food vendors, and merchants along Fillmore Street for its 4th of July tradition dating back to 1986.

The rescue tells you something about how the neighborhood works now. The festival had been briefly canceled in 2025 after organizers faced a roughly $400,000 funding gap for annual operating costs, but it was revived days later with support from crypto billionaire Chris Larsen and his nonprofit Avenue Greenlight, along with additional community sponsors. New for 2026, the festival added three main stages and featured performances by 25+ local and nationally renowned artists across multiple music venues. Stages this year were named in honor of Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Tony Bennett, and Johnny Mathis.

Read that as a data point about the corridor's civic economics. A four-decade street festival almost fell to a $400,000 gap. Private neighborhood capital closed it in a week. Whatever you think about that dynamic, it is the same dynamic reshaping the storefronts.

A fall Saturday that uses the block as it is right now

The construction period is not a reason to route around Upper Fillmore. It is a reason to walk it while you still recognize it. A workable Saturday, using only what is already open:

1. Bagels and coffee cake at Jane on Fillmore, then a walk north past the Clay to see how far the exterior work has come.
2. Boichik Bagels or Compton's for a second cup, whichever line is shorter.
3. Alta Plaza Park with a loaf from La Boulangerie on Pine.
4. Late lunch at Little Shucker for a lobster roll, or Chouquet's if the sidewalk tables are open.
5. Early dinner reservation at SPQR or Florio, both of which have held their ground through every wave of turnover this block has seen.
6. Nightcap at Palmer's or The Snug.

None of the anchors on that list are affected by the UFRP build cycle. They are the reason the corridor still functions as a corridor while the rest of it changes.

What to watch between now and New Year's

Three things worth tracking as a resident, not a spectator.

The first is Monami's soft-open window. A Fall 2026 target from a Michelin-starred team almost never means September. Watch for signage and permit updates at 2001 Fillmore through October and November. The build touches roof, second floor, and ground floor, so the visible work will be constant.

The second is the Clay's fence. The April approval was for the treatment plan. The permit path for the actual work has its own timeline, and the neighborhood scuttlebutt about "early 2027" only holds if that path stays clean. If you walk past 2261 Fillmore and see the marquee scaffolded by Thanksgiving, the timeline is real. If you do not, adjust expectations.

The third is the tenant mix on the side streets. Sacramento, California, and Pine each feed foot traffic into the Fillmore corridor. As the block anchors change, so does the calculus for the boutique, the salon, and the small operator one block off the main drag. That is the quiet part of a revitalization plan, and it is where the next round of openings and closings will show up first.

For neighbors thinking past the sidewalk

If you already own on these blocks, the fall is a good moment to walk your own frontage with fresh eyes. The corridor is being repositioned in public. What that means for how your home reads to a future buyer, how the retail changes affect what "walkable Upper Fillmore" signals in a listing, and how the Clay's reopening timeline lines up with your own plans is worth thinking through before the plywood comes down, not after.

If you would like to talk through what this fall's changes mean for a specific property or a specific block, Michelle Pender works these micro-markets for a living and is happy to walk the corridor with you. You can request a private consultation or read more about the Pacific Heights market before you do.