Done Deal: St. Francis Fountain

Patrick Totah of Restaurant Realty Company is proud to announce the sale of the St. Francis Fountain, a business that has been in operation for more than 100 years, located on historic 24^th Street in San Francisco’s Mission District.  

Once upon a time, the St. Francis Fountain was, as its name suggests, an old-school soda fountain, where candy and ice cream were made on-site.  

The most recent owners, Levon Kazarian and Peter Hood, who met when they were high school students in Sacramento, turned the St. Francis Fountain into more of a breakfast spot with a retro diner vibe.  

Although they continued to serve ice cream, they stopped making it in-house, and started sourcing it from Mitchell’s, another beloved San Francisco ice cream maker.

The new owner, Mantakarn Seenin, is a first-time restaurant owner with experience working in hugely popular San Francisco brunch restaurants such as Mama’s, on Washington Square in North Beach.  Originally from Thailand, Mantakarn is excited to be a part of San Francisco history as she combines tradition and innovation at the St. Francis Fountain.  

Having owned the Fountain since 2001, Levon and Peter are looking forward to their next adventures.  Levon will be focusing on the Cross Roads Café in Joshua Tree, which he owns and operates.  Peter is retiring from the restaurant business, and considering writing a book.  

We encourage everyone to check out the piece of San Francisco history that is the St. Francis Fountain.  Among other fun facts, it is rumored to be the site of the handshake deal that led to the founding of the San Francisco 49ers football team.  (Patrick hopes that it might be the site of a future handshake deal to bring the 49ers back to San Francisco.)  It also has a real, old-school phone booth inside.

Congratulations to the buyer and the sellers!  We wish you all the best as you begin this next chapter of your lives.