Lunch Geek Relocates Across the Street

Jonathan Kauffman

Lunch Geek has left the building (and moved to smaller digs).

​
Yesterday, SFoodie was walking down a block of Market Street we rarely hit when we noticed brown paper wrapping on the windows of Lunch Geek, one of our favorite sources for creative Asian-inflected sandwiches. Looks like Phillip Ma (who also owns the nearby Ma*Velous) and his wife, Lean, have moved down a block and across the street, into the former Cafico Cafe. But the signs there haven't changed.

Will the Taiwanese meatball sandwich come back soon? We hope.

​Lean says that the 8-month-old Lunch Geek took over Cafico's business a few weeks ago ― the new location sees more foot traffic, she says, and has more space ― and has been serving Cafico's menu while the owners complete a few renovations and get ready to relaunch. Or, at least, that was the plan until their loyal customers got impatient.

"We're in the process of rebranding, but as soon as we entered [Cafico], a lot of old customers came by and asked when we would open." The couple introduced Lunch Geek's basic menu (all-American sandwiches with good ingredients) for the moment. "But we don't have our kitchen experiments as of yet," she continues, referring to the cafe's name for its specials. "We have to do a little more electrical work to get the ovens going. Basically, we opened a little sooner than we expected."

The other Lunch Geek feature still in limbo is its Barefoot Coffee pourover service. Since Ma*Velous, which opened this fall, is now just a block away, that's not as big of a loss as it might have been. The Mas expect the full rebranding-relocation-refurbishing process to be complete in a few more weeks.

Lunch Geek: 1475 Market (at 11th St.), 626-8888.