As of this morning, Loveski Deli has officially opened its doors at 499 Jackson Street in Jackson Square, and the carb era on one of SF's most bougie blocks has officially begun.
We wrote about this back in February, when Postscript—the Jackson Square café many referred to as the "Erewhon of SF"—quietly handed over the keys. The VC crowd's $16 functional latte sanctuary is gone. In its place: the Bay Area's best bagel, now just a BART stop from your desk.
The Bold Italic
From Three Stars to 499 Jackson
Chef Christopher Kostow isn't exactly a stranger to accolades. He earned three Michelin stars at The Restaurant at Meadowood in St. Helena, which burned down in the 2020 Glass Fire, before pivoting to a concept that, on paper, sounds like a very different vibe. As he told the SF Chronicle today, he wants people to see Loveski as "a lot more than a bagel shop." He wants it to feel like "the world's coolest bodega."
He might have actually pulled it off.
Loveski started as a "Jew-ish" deli concept—that's their hyphen, not ours—at Napa's Oxbow Public Market in 2022, followed by a second location at the Marin County Mart in Larkspur. The name is a tribute to Kostow's pre-Ellis Island family name. The bagels are made from a 30-year-old sourdough starter, boiled in honey Montreal-style, and are decidedly not trying to be New York or Montreal. They won the Chronicle's blind tasting of the entire Bay Area last year, which makes the opening of this third location feel less like a restaurant news item and more like a civic event.
What's Actually on the Menu
This SF outpost is its own thing. Gluten-free bagels are going to be "really important here," and the location leans harder into grab-and-go than the Napa and Marin spots. Think Japanese-style egg salad sandwiches, salads, and a cold case stocked for the lunch-on-the-go crowd.
The larder section is where Kostow gets to play: shelves stocked with tamari and miso made from bagels, pickle hot sauce, and everything-bagel chili crisp. If you leave without something from that shelf, you made a mistake.
SF-exclusive items include bone broth ($11), a tahini Caesar salad ($17), roasted salmon and chicken teriyaki bowls ($18), and a chicken Caesar wrap ($18). And then there's the new breakfast burrito: pastrami, a smashed latke, and green onion, available each morning until it sells out. Get there early.
Postscript's juices and smoothies are staying on the menu too. The Kostows have partnered with Postscript cofounders Gina and Stuart Peterson — Gina will continue roasting coffee at the location — and roughly 90% of the Postscript staff carried over. The morning routine doesn't have to change. It just gets a bagel now.
Jackson Square Is Having a Moment
The space itself didn't change much. The Kostows kept the 2,000-square-foot minimalist interior mostly intact, doubled the seating to 40, and added pops of Loveski's signature red branding. It still feels like a coffee shop, we heard, which, given that its predecessor was one of the city's most beloved coffee shops, is probably the right call.
The neighborhood context matters too. As SF Standard noted when the opening was announced, Jackson Square is in the middle of a full culinary renaissance; Quince, Cotogna, Verjus, Ama, and MadLab at the Transamerica Pyramid are all neighbors. Kostow told the Chronicle that being in a neighborhood at "the intersection of design, tech, and capital" means the concept has to apply to daily life, not just special occasions.
"The joy for us is choosing to have fun with it," he said, "and in doing so, make it dynamic and young, not a crusty old deli."
Go Get a Bagel
Postscript was beloved. Its Erewhon energy will be missed by exactly the people who never want to admit how much they loved Erewhon. But a three-Michelin-star chef setting up the world's coolest bodega in the same space, keeping the coffee and the staff, and adding the best bagel in the Bay Area? That's not a downgrade. That's an upgrade wearing a very unassuming everything-seed coat.
Loveski is open now at 499 Jackson Street, daily from 7am to 7pm. Get the bagel. Get the breakfast burrito before it runs out. Grab something from the larder. Report back.
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