A huge food and drink project is opening at San Francisco’s picturesque Presidio Tunnel Tops in 2025. The Mess Hall at the Presidio is a multi-hyphenate space that will house, yes, a food hall, but also an all-day cafe, plus a bar serving cocktails, beer, and wine. It’s the last piece of the food and beverage puzzle for the newish park that opened in July 2022, which is already home to Italian cafe Il Parco and food truck pop-ups.

The new Tunnel Top food hall comes from the Mess Hall Group, which have ties to another food hall in Southern California, Mess Hall Market OC in Tustin that opened in 2019. The plan for the San Francisco food hall is to offer both made-to-order foods and grab-and-go options to take into the park. A provisions market will also have some local and imported goods to round out food options while visiting the Tunnel Tops.

While no businesses were yet announced as part of the food hall at 201 Halleck Street, the cafe and bar already have some known industry names behind them. Chef Peter Serpico is leading the development of Mess Hall’s various food concepts, a spokesperson shares. Serpico is known for working his way through the kitchens of the Momofuku restaurant empire, landing as head chef at Momofuku Ko, and earning a James Beard Award for Best New Restaurant in 2009. He eventually became director of culinary operations for the Momofuku group before departing for Philadelphia, where he opened his acclaimed namesake restaurant Serpico in 2013. He’s also the cookbook author of Learning Korean, which was published in 2022.

Meanwhile, Los Angeles bar owner Zach Negin will develop the drinks at the Mess Hall’s upcoming bar. Negin owns Tabula Rasa Bar and Shop and the Silverlake Lounge and is also a partner in San Francisco corner store Dolores Deluxe. He’ll work on a menu of cocktails and nonalcoholic drinks, as well as curating a list of craft beers and wines for the space.

The Mess Hall at the Presidio (201 Halleck Street) is expected to open in 2025.

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Nate Israel

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SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) — Coyote warning signs are now up in several parks across San Francisco as there have been a number of coyote/dog incidents.

This comes less than three weeks after a 5-year-old girl was bitten in the butt by a coyote in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park. Fortunately, her injuries were minor.

ABC7 News reporter J.R. Stone was in a park in San Francisco’s Bernal Heights Monday and got quite the surprise.

The above video you’re looking at shows the first coyote pup we came across on Monday night as we put together – yes, a coyote warning story at Saint Mary’s Recreation Center Field in San Francisco. Who would have thought? Anyway, recently the summer kids camp here was moved elsewhere and the field closed due to the high number of coyote sightings.

MORE: Belvedere considering use of federal snipers to kill all coyotes in city

“It’s really important to follow leash laws and try to pay attention to where you’re taking your dogs, pay attention to signage,” says Christine Wilkinson who is a wildlife ecologist at UC Berkeley and the California Academy of Sciences.

But where there is one pup, there are often two pups or more; there is sometimes a mom coyote, and a dad coyote. Yes, it seems that it was a family event and five coyotes began playing on the ball field for our camera here in Bernal Heights.

From what we’ve heard it’s a similar scene in the Presidio’s Mountain Lake Park dog area. One that is now closed to dogs due to at least three dog/coyote incidents in recent weeks. No dogs or humans were injured at this location but the concern over these animals is there. It seems that most we talked with here have had positive experiences.

“The coyote and him were approaching each other in a friendly manor and we both yelled and Stu ran and got Obi to come away from the coyote,” said a woman named Terri referring to her dog Obi.

“They were really playing. They were going down the way dogs do with each other and nosing back and forth,” said Stu.

VIDEO: Coyote spotted visiting Pink Triangle at San Francisco’s Twin Peaks

The beautiful sight of a coyote is not always welcome though. Less than three weeks ago, a 5-year-old girl was attacked by a coyote in San Francisco’s Botanical Garden at Golden Gate Park. Officials later killed three coyotes and linked one of them through DNA to the bite.

“The kids were relatively close to the tree lines and also relatively close to the den which are two things that should not happen near coyotes, and from all accounts it seems as though this coyote was very stimulated from all the screaming and yelling and playfulness of kids as young kids are,” said Wilkinson.

We kept our distance from the coyote family at the Saint Mary’s field though – if this was playtime before dinner, we wanted no part of that, nor did those in the neighborhood who say they’ve seen even more coyotes than this in recent days here. As for the coyote warning – the video here speaks for itself. Be careful out there.

In recent years, Wilkinson put together a study on coyotes and their pups. She found that coyotes often give birth to pups in late February or March, they then raise those pups before they disperse from their den in August and September.

Wilkinson and others say that if you see a coyote in San Francisco you should report it online, even when seemingly nothing happens. It helps management and life planning for the future in tracking the number of coyotes in the city. You can report a coyote sighting here.