When Elsa Touche takes center stage on Market Street, she’s known to do so in patterned florals, swirls of blue and white hair, and huge rings on her fingers like wizard’s trinkets. She leads a room full of people: those in their 80s, some not even 10 years old. A tiny pink cage full of green and pink and yellow balls stands before her. Smash burgers pop and sizzle to her right.

It’s a typical drag bingo brunch at Saluhall. But it’s totally the opposite of what so many assume is going on in downtown San Francisco.

The free-to-attend event just rang in its first year of monthly bingo brunches in May 2025. When the event launched in May 2024, about 30 people would show up, per data shared from the business. But since the end of last year, it’s blown up with a minimum of 65 or more folks in the audience. The last show clocked 76. Grandparents, families with small children, and the LGBTQ community alike attend. And, of course, they all grab something to eat while diligently dobbing cards in hopes of winning a gift card to a local business, or a cooking class, or free ice cream.

A year into operations, the Ikea-adjacent food hall is in a state of flux. The return of activity to the downtown corridor many have hailed has taken a long time to hit. The greater downtown area still suffers from a public perception issue, which is sometimes reinforced by reality; on a recent trip to Saluhall, Eater SF spied someone walk in, grab money from a business’s tip jar, and walk out. (Saluhall does maintain security on the premises.) That said, there are some signs of life. In March 2025, the San Francisco Standard wrote, “We’re at the beginning of the end of the remote-work era,” citing Mayor Daniel Lurie and Gov. Gavin Newsom’s mandates to state and federal workers to return to offices. Nevertheless, attendance is up; Kastle’s data shows that company card swipes to enter San Francisco downtown buildings are up 55 percent year-over-year in March.

At Saluhall, that slow uptick in foot traffic means vendors have come and gone — unable to wait out the uncertainty of the market. Two anchor tenants on the second floor departed in March: Taqueria La Venganza and Kayma Algerian Eatery. The former cited low foot traffic and Saluhall taking 12 percent of sales income that made operating untenable, while the latter reported low traffic and the need to spend more time with family. A few newcomers have brought more life to the first floor. Uber-popular player Smish Smash opened in January, drawing long lines, followed by Cheezy’s Artisan Pizza, which showed up in April with phenomenal pies.

The events program, though, has been a reliable high watermark. For her part, Touche says she’s happy to be involved, as one of the city’s most tenured drag stars. She always brings a guest performer. It’s a great venue for her, too, as she’s vegan and Saluhall has plenty of plant-based food. All kinds of fans turn out to see her perform, since so many of her shows are at night or at 21 and older venues. Drag brunches in general have risen in popularity. Tourists, too, who check out of their nearby hotels will come for a meal and to see something zany before boarding Bart to SFO.

Touche says that Saluhall audience is a rare, broader spectrum of ages and walks of life than her other shows. It’s a PG environment. It reminds her of the mall queens of the ’80s, Tiffany and Debbie Gibson. San Francisco is also specific in that even if you’re not someone who regularly goes into queer bars, you probably encounter drag queens somewhat regularly, Touche says. That means it’s not the political act of defiance it might be in, say, Texas.

Having this kind of win in Mid-Market is not lost on Touche. “The neighborhood is rough, and I really appreciate Ikea coming in and being an anchor there,” she says. “[Saluhall’s] in the post-downtown era of San Francisco, where people don’t go into downtown offices so much anymore. But I think they’re doing a good job.”

Stella Hoffman, Saluhall’s operations manager, moved to the city from London just five months before Saluhall’s opening. She’s responsible for scouting and booking its drag bingo event. Hoffman says that while Saluhall itself has struggled to bring in the numbers the team may have anticipated, she’s proud of how far the events have come. “We definitely have a following for bingo,” she says. “It’s definitely boosted sales for the vendors.”

Further, she points out that the programming at the food hall is part of a shared effort in the neighborhood to strengthen not just businesses but San Francisco itself. Rather than being in competition with other organizations in the area, she finds everyone is working to bring tourists and locals to the area together. For example, the food hall has worked out partnerships with some of the nearby hotel concierge services to ferry over guests. The Mid-Market Business Association also plays a major role. It’s a nonprofit that launched in 2019 to implement programming to bolster the downtown area; its Tenderloin/Mid-Market Community-Based Safety Program is behind Urban Alchemy, all those ambassadors in green vests.

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Patricia Chang

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Megan Garcia’s the marketing manager for the nonprofit, and she’s a huge fan of Saluhall. It’s an example of positive things happening in the downtown community: Contrary to the picture of San Francisco painted by outlets like Fox News, nothing scary — drug use-related or otherwise — has happened at any of Saluhall’s drag brunches. It’s part of Garcia’s job to promote the various events happening there while also raising awareness to the association’s own programming — namely, the Market Street Arts series and its flagship Well-Crafted events, which run through June. Those look a lot like sip-and-paints or screenprinting pop-ups. It launched in December 2024 as a way to support businesses. But from the jump the events sell out, sometimes for gigs with 100-person limits.

Between 60 and 80 people regularly attend the numerous events hosted at Saluhall. Garcia says mostly it’s people in their 20s and 30s, a slight skew toward women. But, like the drag bingo brunch, it’s really all-ages and families, too. Artists featured tend to be of all ages, many who’ve lived in San Francisco their whole lives. They’ve seen the “doom loop” narratives come and go, when the Zodiac Killer arrested the city in fear, when politicians were shot and killed. Like Elsa Touche, they’ve danced through it all.

Garcia isn’t so worried about the city, seeing all this regeneration firsthand. She takes her 6-and-a-half-year-old daughter to the events at the food hall, grabbing smash burgers after drag bingo brunch then going to the Orpheum Theatre for a show. “Come out and see for yourself,” Garcia says. “Take a time where you’re setting yourself up for success, that you’re going to feel the most secure. Then come and explore.”