SOMA Eats Doubling Down With Second Cafe and Bottle Shop

SOMA Eats founders Oussama Mannaa and Shirley Azzghayer have been catering to downtown diners at 184 2nd Street since 2014, and now they’re expanding with another location, this time near the Embarcadero. The new restaurant, also called SOMA Eats, is headed to the Rincon Tower East at 121 Spear Street, opening there (in a space next to Peet’s Coffee) in the next few weeks.

With the Rincon Hill area’s major development project, the Transbay Terminal, recently completed and the neighborhood booming generally — it’s even got a trendy and divisive new nickname, the East Cut — the timing is right to double down. The new SOMA Eats will serve more of the salads and sandwiches Second Street diners have come to enjoy, with take-out, dine-in, and delivery options. And, like the original SOMA Eats, the new restaurant comes complete with a cafe, a bar, and a retail bottle shop, too.

Azzghayer designed the new, 3,500 square foot space along with Studio KDA. It resembles the original, with more copper and turquoise touches, plus a big, central bar. The centerpiece remains food, both highly Californian — think baked salmon green goddess salads — and influenced by its founders’ roots in Lebanon and Palestine. A favorite dish at the current location is the roasted Superior Farms lamb sandwich, with date almond relish and garlic aioli on ciabatta. And some new menu items are in the works for the Embarcadero location, like bowls with protein and veggies over couscous.

Stay tuned for more details as SOMA Eats 2.0 nears an opening.