One of the newest arrivals to San Francisco has brought a touch of Los Angeles to the nation's artificial intelligence capital with offerings like gluten-free pasta and turmeric-spiced chicken bone broth.
Actress-turned-healthy-food-guru Gwyneth Paltrow's Santa Monica-based fast-casual "clean eating" brand Goop Kitchen has embarked on a spree of openings in recent months, expanding to new outlets in the Bay Area and New York.
Goop's geographic strategy is mirroring that of AI tenants: San Francisco and New York are garnering the lion's share of leasing demand among those firms, deals show.
Goop inked a lease late last month to open its second outlet in San Francisco's tech-forward South of Market Street neighborhood. The chain signed a lease late last month for around 1,850 square feet on the ground floor of 405 Howard St., one of several buildings that make up AI giant Anthropic's nearly block-long downtown headquarters.
Newmark's Ben Lazzareschi, who represented the landlord in the deal, touted the new lease in a post on LinkedIn.
"Think rotisserie chicken, gluten-free pizza, signature chopped salads, and much more," Lazzareschi wrote. He said the news was evidence that the "market continues to attract best-in-class food and beverage tenants in its recovery."
The delivery-focused chain appears undaunted by the recent struggles of fast-casual brands such as Chipotle Mexican Grill and Sweetgreen and other chains that specialize in various protein and vegetable concoctions.
Goop's bicoastal growth
Paltrow's food chain opened its first outlet in Los Angeles in 2021 in partnership with the founders of Southern California-based sandwich/salad chain Mendocino Farms. Five years later, there are 11 Goop Kitchens in LA and three in the Bay Area — one other in San Francisco and two in Silicon Valley — and the brand plans to open seven restaurants in New York by the end of the year.
AI companies leased 21 million square feet of office space in California's Bay Area since 2019, the most of any region, while Manhattan, Boston and Seattle drew some 9.4 million square feet of deals over the same period, according to a May CBRE report.
“With continued robust AI investment and companies adding more talent, we expect more U.S. office markets to benefit from the ongoing expansion of the tech growth cycle,” said Colin Yasukochi, executive director of CBRE Tech Insights Center.
Goop set sales records during its opening week in April for its first Manhattan outlet near Times Square, according to The New York Times.
The friendly reception in the Big Apple mirrored Goop Kitchen's successful opening at 60 Morris St. in San Francisco late last year. Publication SF Gate reported that the ordering system stalled on its first day because the SoMa ghost kitchen was overwhelmed by orders.
Lifestyle extension
While most Goop Kitchens operate as "cloud kitchens" with delivery and pickup only, Lazzareschi said the newest San Francisco outlet will also offer on-site dining, though he did not provide details.
In addition to gluten-free everything, the menu offers "certified clean" marinades and sauces sans dairy and seed oils and "detox friendly" salmon "from the fjords of Norway."
The chain is opening soon in East Williamsburg, Brooklyn, and on the Upper East Side, on 92nd Street, the same street where Paltrow, 53, grew up.
Goop Kitchen is a separate business entity from Goop, but it’s become a fast-growing offshoot of the company that shares its logo, name and founder. Goop Kitchens serve 40,000-plus customers a week, with half of the locations making $20,000 a day each and close to $7 million a year on average, according to the company.
This is not the tech capital's first experience with Paltrow's lifestyle brand. In 2019, Goop Lab opened a store in tony Pacific Heights, selling items from olive oil to "psychic vampire repellant" and the brand's infamous jade eggs. The store closed only months later amid the COVID-19 shutdown.
Across the Golden Gate Bridge, Goop opened a boutique at the upscale outdoor shopping center Marin Country Mart in Larkspur in 2024, where it sells high-priced clothing, accessories and beauty items.