Massawa Owner Not Happy About Leaving the Haight

​On Friday, Eater SF reported that Haight Street Market just won approval from the S.F. Planning Commission to expand into the building next door, effectively tripling its space. As anyone who lives in the neighborhood knows, the 30-year-old natural foods store is one of the commercial strip's few touchstones, with a good (if modest) selection, friendly staff, and discounts for locals. But it's about to face the stiffest competition out there: Socket Site reports that construction just began on the Whole Foods being built on Stanyan and Haight.

The expansion, a risk clearly meant to give HSM a shot at competing against a business that has killed so many other places like it, is that the move displaces another one of the Upper Haight's long-running businesses: Massawa. A few days ago, SFoodie spoke to the Ethiopian restaurant's owner, Asmerom G.

Asmerom says he has owned Massawa for 10 years, but took over the business from family members who established it 24 years ago. "Massawa was really the first African restaurant in San Francisco," he says.

He refused to go to the meeting ― no point, he said ― and sounded upset and defeated. "The city is trying to help us stay in San Francisco," Asmerom reported. "They're trying to help me relocate. But times are tough. You know of a place I can move?" (One suggestion: Bernal Heights or the Outer Mission?) Furthermore, he's talked to other neighborhood businesses that are about to close. "All the Haight is miserable," he says. "Haight Street used to be a nice place, with a lot of tourists. But no more."