Where Munchery opened their operations at 554 Clement (corner of 7th Avenue)
In September, we reported on Munchery, a food delivery service based in San Francisco, that had opened a food storage and delivery outpost at 554 Clement Street at 7th Avenue, formerly the May Shun Trading Co.
This caught the attention of nearby neighbors, who noticed Munchery delivery vehicles coming to and from the corner location which also has a parking area on the 7th Avenue side of the building. The building looked unoccupied with bars on the windows and tinting to prevent anyone from seeing inside.
The problem with that particular commercial space was that it is not zoned for any kind of food service or food operations. As a result, the Planning Department issued Munchery a notice of violation (2015-011414ENF).
As of October 9, Munchery had complied with the Planning Department notice of violation and ceased operations at 554 Clement.
It’s not known whether Munchery plans to file the necessary permits to change the zoning on the 554 Clement space to accommodate their food operations. But as of today, nothing has been filed with the Planning Department.
It’s likely Munchery will find another place to operate on the west side. Let’s hope they do it legally next time.
Sarah B.
Heartening to see that community outreach (might have) played a part in this.
I hope if Munchery returns to our hood they do it properly. There are more than enough vacant food service/restaurant locations in the hood for them to choose from.
Good. What comes next? Another filthy Chinese dollar store?
GOOD! I will not support businesses like Munchery that show no respect for zoning regulations that are in place to preserve the character of our community and keep the playing field level for responsible food businesses that go through the proper channels to open. When neighbors pay attention and work together, we can prevent the encroachment of greedy, ignorant, sneaky companies (cough cough tech start-ups that have $32 million in financing http://techcrunch.com/2014/04/10/munchery-28m-sherpa-seattle/ cough cough) from our community.
Cough cough cough most companies in the city break the rules at one point or another cough cough cough. You only fix it if you get caught.
Glad to hear they closed their warehouse on Clement! Any kind of storefront retail operation is preferable to a running a warehouse out of that location.
I like Munchery’s service and now that they’re not wasting retail space on Clement I’ll start using them again.
A startup that doesn’t heed city regulations? Now I’ve seen everything!
Several decades ago that block had numerous fresh produce markets with trucks blocking traffic and driveways and discarded produce rotting in sidewalks and gutters. New May Wah wanted to open the site as its 2nproduce market on the block. recollection is that after strenuous objections and petitions by neighborhood, the Planning Dept. agreed to limit use of the site to non produce and that the 7th Ave parking spaces could not be used for large delivery trucks. Ironically these complaints of large trucks and rotting garbage are similar to those of Munchery’s neighbors at its original warehouse.