When a phoenix dies in Greek mythology, new life rises from the ashes. That’s what happened in San Francisco’s Lower Haight neighborhood in the late 1970s. The area, which used to be called Haight-Fillmore, was known as the worst heroin trafficking site in the city. In 1977, SFPD conducted a massive raid that shut down an entire block of Haight Street and led to many arrests. For some people, the raid led to the gentrification of the blight-filled neighborhood. But it also opened up new opportunities, such as a small, independently owned grocery store for an area that was likely to go without one.
That’s the origin story of Haight Fillmore Whole Foods Co., which to this day is one of only two grocers in the Lower Haight. While the neighborhood has changed over the years, the corner store has remained a constant.
Located at 501 Haight St., at the busy intersection of Haight and Fillmore streets, the 48-year-old corner store can lay claim to possibly being the healthiest corner store in the city. Don’t expect to find any tobacco products, mainstream sodas, hard alcohol or Ruffles potato chips at the counter. The shelves are stocked with kombucha, whole-grain breads, vitamins, fresh fruits and paraben-free deodorants.
Article continues below this ad
Feras Kardouh, the store manager of the Haight Fillmore Whole Foods Co., is pictured in the doorway of his business on March 17, 2026.
Charles Russo/SFGATE
It would fit right in as the general store of a hippie commune, but in fact, it’s a community stronghold in a neighborhood known for record stores, eclectic beer bars and an up-and-coming restaurant scene.
“I know people, they met here in the neighborhood, then they got married and then they had kids. Now they bring the babies back to the store,” store manager Feras Kardouh told SFGATE. “It’s a community because we’ve been here a long time.”
Founded in 1978, Haight Fillmore Whole Foods Co. has always been a neighborhood pantry focused on small-batch products, like SunRidge Farms nuts and dried fruits, specialty goods and organic foods. Founders Robert “Bob” Guarino and Harvey Reigle opened the store because the Lower Haight was without any fresh produce at the time. They even commissioned a mural of “Carmen Banana,” a personified banana wearing a fruit hat that was inspired by the Brazilian singer and actress Carmen Miranda. The mural remains intact today.
Article continues below this ad
An interior view of the Haight Fillmore Whole Foods Co. in San Francisco on March 17, 2026.
Charles Russo/SFGATE
“It wasn’t easy trying to start a new business in the area, but it’s working,” Guarino told the San Francisco Chronicle four years after the store opened. (The Chronicle and SFGATE are both owned by Hearst but have separate newsrooms.)
To this day, it is one of the few grocery stores in the Lower Haight. (The closest chain supermarket is the Safeway on Market Street, in the Duboce Triangle neighborhood.) By 1985, Guarino and Reigle had sold the store to the Nazzal brothers, Freddy and Naim, who, in turn, sold it to their cousin John Nazzal in the late 1990s.
In 2005, Mahana and Basil Askandafi bought the store from John Nazzal. It has remained in their family ever since, and became a San Francisco Legacy Business in 2018.
Article continues below this ad
A selection of goods on sale at the Haight Fillmore Whole Foods Co. in San Francisco.
Charles Russo/SFGATE
Nowadays, Haight Fillmore Whole Foods is run by Kardouh, who married into the Askandafi family. The store hasn’t changed much over the years. It’s still a place where folks can come down from their apartments, wearing pajamas, to buy what they need and walk right back home, Kardouh said.
“If we were to ever change it, this place [the neighborhood] would go crazy, man,” Kardouh said.
Article continues below this ad
On a recent Wednesday afternoon, Kardouh was at the store doing inventory, tagging new prices on bulk items and noting the changes in a binder. A mural of dancing fruits, circa 1978, adorns the walls above the refrigerators. Several people came in and bought fresh vegetables or fruit from the stands out front. Kardouh knows almost all of them, or at least recognizes them, he said.
“I’m not so good with names, but I can always remember a face,” he said.
Fontaine Hernandez, who runs a nearby photography studio called Brouhaha, has lived a block away for nearly 20 years. An outgoing person, she is the opposite of her husband, she said. About seven years ago, her husband went into the store to get pancake ingredients to make her a special breakfast for her birthday. Hernandez waited outside with their dog.
A view of the longstanding mural on the wall of Haight Fillmore Whole Foods Co. in San Francisco, on March 17, 2026.
Charles Russo/SFGATE
“He’s shy and doesn’t always talk to people, but he told Feras that he was buying the pancake mix for my birthday. As we were about to cross the street, Feras came running after us with a bottle of wine,” Hernandez explained.
Article continues below this ad
“He said, ‘I didn’t know it was your birthday but now I know,’ which was a very sweet gesture. I told my husband, ‘See. It pays to talk to your neighbors.’”
It’s not the only time that Kardouh has been there for the community. In 2011, there was a massive four-alarm fire that burned down the entire building next to the Walgreens (which is now a CVS) across the street from Haight Fillmore Whole Foods Co. In the midst of the blaze, Feras opened his basement to residents of 493 Haight St. so they could store whatever they could salvage from the devastating fire.
“People were bringing suitcases full of clothes and pictures of their families, whatever they could grab,” Kardouh said. “I didn’t even think twice. It was like an instinct [to open the basement for them].”
Even now, Kardouh will keep the spare keys of neighbors at the shop or he will accept packages if no one is home. The store is a beacon of community — and not just for the apartment dwellers.
Article continues below this ad
The exterior of Haight Fillmore Whole Foods Co. in San Francisco on March 24, 2026.
Douglas Zimmerman/SFGATE
“I was just there buying spinach,” said Max Blachman-Gentile, owner of Jules, the pizza restaurant just around the corner from the store. “It has all the herbs that a restaurant runs out of often, which is great for us. Like, if we run out of lemons, I just walk over and they solve my problems.”
Like all San Francisco corner stores, its greatest purpose is to be available to the community for any purpose. Healthy snacks where options are limited? Check. Friendly employees and managers you can shoot the s—t with? Check. A long history of helping neighbors in need? Haight Fillmore Whole Foods Co. has that in spades, too.
Article continues below this ad
Through thick and thin, the corner stores of San Francisco will always serve the neighborhood locals, and Haight Fillmore Whole Foods Co. is no exception.
“It’s just always there when you need it,” Blachman-Gentile said.