Attention Drivers – Helpful Hints For Those Who Drive To True Sake

First, a shout out to all of our customers who come to visit us at the store. We equally love everyone who makes the effort to support us in person. You may recall Mei doing a short survey a couple of years back regarding how our customers get to the shop. The results confirmed what we've known since we opened in 2002, that the majority of our customers come by car, bus, or ride-share. That hasn’t changed in over 20 years. Sadly, there is a continued push to restrict car access on Hayes Street, with an ultimate goal of transforming it into a pedestrian-only zone. We understand the desire for more walkable public space, but this plan would have devastating consequences for us and could very likely force True Sake to close. As stated, the majority of our customers drive to the store to shop or pick up orders. We get up to 15 sake deliveries a week from our distributors, and we ship your online orders using UPS every day of the work week. 

TL;DR: We need Hayes Street to function as the commercial corridor it was intended to be, open to cars and trucks to support the businesses that depend on it.

If you’d like to learn more about our struggle, please visit www.hvsafe.com and help us keep Hayes Street open.

In the meantime, as many of you know, there is a current street closure plan in Hayes Valley that takes place every Friday and Saturday. It has had a significant negative impact on our weekend traffic, especially from customers who usually drive in. Many of you have voiced frustration that it’s harder to visit Hayes Valley or True Sake on the weekends.

Here are some helpful tips to make this unfortunate situation a little easier to deal with:

• Closures happen Fridays (4:00pm–10:00pm) and Saturdays (10:00am–10:00pm).

• These affect only the 400 Block of Hayes Street (between Grove & Octavia). Unless there's a scheduled event, that stretch is usually empty, which makes this even more frustrating.

• BUT Hayes Street at the 500 Block (our block) is open – the portion in front of Hayes Street that True Sake is on is open to traffic and street parking is accessible.

• We recommend driving to the store and visiting us in-store using the many yellow-zone parking spaces, which were created by the city for food delivery drivers and cars that come to make pick-ups and drop offs. They are always open and you can park in them for 10-15 minutes of quick shopping, or picking up an order.

• If you drive to the store during the closed 400 block hours please approach the store using the Laguna side of the street (True Sake is between Laguna and Octavia). Many GPS systems guide you to the store using Gough street or Hayes street from the 300 Block, which do not give you access to the 500 or our Block. Please consider using Grove Street to Laguna or getting off the Octavia ramp from the freeway and turning on to Laguna Street then access True Sake. 

• Quick pickup hack: Order online for “Store Pick-Up,” then double park in front, on our same side of the street, call us at 415.355.9555, and we’ll run your order out to you. Easy, fast, and cost-effective.

You are awesome customers and WE ARE ACCESSIBLE BY CAR when Hayes Street is closed at the 400 block, so don’t give up! Please help us fight this on-going fight at www.hvsafe.com, and let’s keep Hayes Street open and functioning like it has for our last 23 years of existence.