Happy Monday! Downtown businesses rejoice amid back-to-office order

A steady stream of employees, many donning Salesforce backpacks, marched down sidewalks that have been more or less empty on Mondays since the pandemic struck. Traffic jams and a cacophony of honks filled the streets in SoMa, where Salesforce occupies multiple buildings, including Salesforce Tower. Commuters piled out of buses and into Salesforce Transit Center, the regional hub located below Salesforce Park. 

“It’s a big thing they are coming back to work,” said Dario Barbone, owner of Aurora Centro, an Italian deli in Salesforce Park. Unlike many tech companies, Salesforce does not have an in-house cafeteria, which meant local eateries thrived during the workday lunch rush before the pandemic. Now that workers are back, Barbone says, “it’s the best-case scenario for us.” 

This week’s return-to-office mandate, which applies to select Salesforce employees in sales, workplace services, data-center engineering, and on-site support, reverses a broad shift to remote work during the pandemic that saw blue-chip tech firms in San Francisco retreating en masse from downtown. 

The city is still reeling from the pullback. More than a third of offices in San Francisco are vacant, according to preliminary third-quarter data from real estate firm JLL. 

The downturn has hurt local businesses. But on Monday, lines of hungry workers waited for a salad or sandwich at downtown eateries.

At Tender Greens next to Salesforce West, the lunch line went out the door. “It’s never this busy,” an employee yelled over the crowd as she packed a salad for pickup. 

Down the street at Ebiko, a sushi spot that opened two weeks ago, Salesforce employees crowded in at lunchtime to choose from a variety of poke bowls and sushi platters. Owner David Liu made the decision to open a downtown San Francisco location following the success of his Oakland restaurant, based on his theory that employees and companies would eventually return to the area. 

“This is the prime location to be in,” said Liu, adding Monday that he had recognized customers who used to frequent his Oakland location returning to their offices in downtown San Francisco.