New restaurants are helping reshape San Francisco’s Mission Bay, where a growing population, expanding technology sector and major sports venues are creating fresh demand for places to eat and drink.
The latest arrival is Sergeant Ma, which opened on September 9 at 185 Berry Street in China Basin, facing Oracle Park. The waterfront restaurant is the sixth venue from Hi Neighbor Hospitality Group.
Its menu combines seasonal Northern Californian ingredients with Chinese and Vietnamese influences. The 54-seat dining room is accompanied by an indoor-outdoor lounge and a daytime café called Water’s Edge.
Sergeant Ma occupies part of the historic Wharfside Building, a former Southern Pacific shipping hub dating from 1922. The restaurant’s opening adds to a cluster of new hospitality businesses developing around Mission Bay and the China Basin waterfront.
San Francisco Brewing Company opened a much larger venue at 100 Hooper Street in June. The 18,680-square-foot site includes a production brewery, restaurant, courtyard, event mezzanine and space for a future distillery.
The brewery’s expansion reflects the area’s changing commercial landscape. Mission Bay, once dominated by rail yards and industrial land, has developed into a mixed-use district with homes, offices, medical and research facilities, public parks and waterfront attractions.
The University of California, San Francisco’s Mission Bay campus helped drive the area’s growth, while Oracle Park and the Chase Center bring regular crowds for baseball, basketball, concerts and other events. New developments at Mission Rock are adding further homes, workplaces, shops and open space beside China Basin Park.
Restaurant operators are betting that the combination of residents, workers and visitors will give Mission Bay the steady footfall it has long lacked. The arrival of Sergeant Ma and San Francisco Brewing Company suggests the neighbourhood’s next phase is being built around dining as much as offices, housing and entertainment.
