Four years after water damage from an apartment fire upstairs closed the neighborhood staple Oasis Cafe, there are signs of life at the corner storefront on Divisadero and McAllister Streets. A new coffee shop called Cafe MD will be opening at 901 Divisadero St. in the coming months.
The storefront has been vacant since Oasis Cafe closed in 2022 after sustaining significant water damage from a fire upstairs. Owner Taddesse Haile moved to the Bay from Ethiopia in 2000 and opened his NoPa business in 2007, first as a grocery store before transitioning it to an Eritrean and Ethiopian restaurant and cafe. The three-alarm fire, which started on a third-floor apartment, displaced 13 residents. Next door, Kava Lounge was also damaged by the blaze and remains vacant.
Neighbors anticipated Oasis Cafe’s reopening after seeing that the re-done apartments upstairs were inhabited once again. However, per an update on a GoFundMe page organized by a longtime Oasis customer Susan Work, as of last summer Haile was “in a difficult standoff with an uncooperative landlord who is failing to uphold his responsibilities.” At that time, Haile was still negotiating rent terms and getting the space restored, the update explained.
Haile learned in 2024 that all construction-related costs would not be covered by insurance, including electrical, paint, and plumbing repairs. Work wrote on the GoFundMe page that Haile and his wife had taken second jobs to sustain their livelihoods and get the cafe running again.
Fires, in many ways, have defined the ebb and flow of Divisadero Street in recent years. A week after the fire that closed Oasis, another fire broke out down the street at 244 Divisadero St. by Haight, displacing another 13 residents and shuttering the 35-year-old restaurant Phuket Thai. That building is still vacant and in a state of disrepair today.
This year, in mid June, the popular Italian restaurant Che Fico sustained significant damage from a chimney flue fire and closed indefinitely. At the time, owner David Nayfeld said in a video on Instagram that running a restaurant can be “soul-crushing” at times and that he didn’t know when Che Fico would again open its doors. The company did not respond to Gazetteer SF but the restaurant remained shuttered at time of publication. However, as of six weeks ago, the business was hiring two staff positions as it prepared to reopen.
Also in June, a fire caused by an oven being left on closed popular bakery and cafe The Mill. The combined cafe space for Josey Baker Bread and Four Barrel Coffee at 736 Divisadero St., popular for its coffee and toasts, has raised over $100,000 on GoFundMe.
By mid August, owner Josey Baker said that restoration had been stalled while they dealt with insurance, but that clean up would commence in the coming weeks. Josey Baker Bread is temporarily baking out of the newly-opened Saltwater Bake Shop in SoMa and still sells their loaves at grocery stores including Bi-Rite Market, Rainbow Grocery, Berkeley Bowl, Mollie Stone’s, and Falletti Foods.
There is no opening date for Cafe MD. Efforts to reach its owners were unsuccessful but we will update this story with more information when we get it.
