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Food & Drink

How one restaurant kick-started a culinary boom in the Presidio

It has always been a world-class park. Now it’s becoming a first-rate dining destination.

A cozy room with floral and bird murals, featuring a gray sofa and a person carrying drinks from an adjacent room. A bar with bottles is to the right.
Thanks in part to Dalida’s runaway success, the Presidio may soon have a bonafide dining scene. | Source: Jungho Kim for The Standard

The Presidio has long been a prime destination for views, trails, and trees. For restaurants? Not so much. 

That changed virtually overnight in June 2023 when Laura and Sayat Ozyilmaz opened Dalida, an Eastern Mediterranean restaurant that has gone on to win plaudits from the Michelin Guide and James Beard Foundation. The couple took over a space that’d been sitting empty since Traci Des Jardins’ Commissary ended its six-year run in 2021, injecting a shot of culinary energy into a corner of the city that desperately needed it. 

“Three years ago, when we started our conversation with the Presidio, nobody wanted to open restaurants. Now, there’s hope around,” Sayat says. “When we were making the decision, it was a lot darker than today. But we believed in the Presidio.” 

A chef in a white coat and dark apron is garnishing a dish with an orange ingredient in a professional kitchen, with pots and ingredients visible around.
Chef Laura Ozyilmaz plating a dish at Dalida. | Source: Jason Henry for The Standard

The couple’s confidence jump-started a culinary renaissance in the national park. In April 2022, Union Square mainstay Colibri Mexican Bistro opened a second location in the historic Presidio Officers’ Club, formerly home to Des Jardins’ Arguello. In January, the Colibri team doubled down on the Presidio by opening Il Parco, a fast-casual Italian restaurant known for its fluffy focaccia. Next up, Dogpatch restaurant Piccino will join the roster, opening a second location in February in the space currently occupied by Sessions at the Presidio. Also in 2025, the park will welcome The Mess Hall, an ambitious complex that will encompass an all-day cafe, bar, and market, in addition to made-to-order and grab-and-go stalls.  

The sudden influx of culinary talent is no fluke; it’s the result of a concerted effort by management arm the Presido Trust to turn over the park’s dining options to experienced pros. While the trust previously handled operations of the park’s food and beverage outlets in-house, post-pandemic “financial realities” spurred it to “get out of the business of running restaurants,” spokesperson Lisa Petrie said. Instead, the trust sought out high-profile operators to sign leases on unoccupied spaces. 

The summer 2022 debut of Tunnel Tops Park, expected to draw 10 million visitors per year, also drove the desire to improve the Presidio’s food and beverage options. “We knew that we’d be seeing a lot of hungry people,” Petrie says. 

A cozy restaurant with large round lights hangs over patrons dining at tables. The room is filled with people in conversation, creating a lively atmosphere.
Dalida is inside a historic building within the Presidio, a former Army base. | Source: Jungho Kim for The Standard
A person stands outside a red-brick building with a sign reading "DALIDA Mediterranean Restaurant." There's a tall streetlamp and greenery nearby.
The bucolic setting has been a positive for both diners and staff, the owners say. | Source: Jungho Kim for The Standard

Sayat remembers the first time he laid eyes on the Presidio’s Main Parade lawn. He waxes poetic about the smell of the soil and trees and the soft calls of an owl that has become a regular visitor to Dalida. “It’s so grounding,” he says of the park. “You don’t have an excuse to feel down.” The backdrop also boosts morale among the staff, Laura adds, noting that a pastry chef always takes time to step outside and catch the sunset before service. 

But it wasn’t just the physical beauty of the place that drew the couple. As first-time owners, they’d struggled to find a location they could afford. The Presidio team, however, was eager to work out a deal. “It was a hard nut to crack,” Sayat says. “I think we needed them, but they needed us, too, because they’re getting better tenants now by leveraging our success.”

That roster of better tenants now includes Piccino, whose owners Margherita Sagan and Cherly Rogat credited a chance meeting with the CFO of Lucasfilm — which owns the One Letterman campus where the restaurant will be located — for opening the door to a deal. Now the new Piccino will not only offer the hyper-seasonal Italian cuisine that made it a Dogpatch staple but will showcase produce from LucasFilm’s Skywalker Ranch and wines from Skywalker Vineyards.

Piccino partner Sean Manchester, whom Sagan describes as “a master of managing multi-location entities,” says there’s one more reason the Presidio deal was a no-brainer: To his surprise, the permitting processes within the federally owned park were remarkably smooth. “They’ve had a reputation of difficulty,” he says of the Presidio Trust. “But honestly, it has not been my experience. To be honest, this seems a little easier.” 

That experience isn’t universal, however. In March, the owner of Presidio Social Club compared working with the trust to “negotiating with Russian President Vladimir Putin.” Sayat says his building’s historical designation has made something as simple as repainting the porch a drawn-out affair. “Every situation is very different,” Petrie agrees, acknowledging that the Presidio’s myriad stakeholders can slow decision-making.

But there’s a romantic allure to the Presidio that can’t be overlooked. Sayat says he “goes to work with the hummingbirds and heads home with the coyotes.” There’s ample parking for customers and staff and fewer concerns about safety than in other parts of the city. For Sagan, the new Piccino will be a years-long dream coming to fruition. “We’ve loved the possibility of being in the Presidio for about a decade,” she says. “I believe it’s one of the prettiest, most appealing places that we’re lucky enough to have in San Francisco.”