Hundreds of customers lined Market Street before dawn when Jollibee opened its new downtown San Francisco restaurant on July 31, 2026 — the brand's 13th Bay Area unit and its 111th location in the United States. The store at 934 Market Street, steps from the Powell Street BART station, offers dine-in, takeout, digital ordering via the Jollibee website and app, and catering service, operating daily from 9 a.m. to 10 p.m.
The Demand Signal
The opening generated the kind of organic queue that franchise operators covet: the first customer arrived at roughly 7:15 p.m. the night before, waiting nearly 14 hours for doors to open. That level of consumer enthusiasm reflects a brand trajectory that has seen Jollibee named USA TODAY's best fast-food fried chicken in America for three consecutive years — a marketing credential the chain has leveraged heavily in new-market entries. Beth Dela Cruz, President of Jollibee North America, called the San Francisco community "one that has as much heart for our iconic brand as we do," noting the brand's nearly 30-year history in the U.S. market that began with its first domestic location in nearby Daly City.
California Expansion Continues
The San Francisco unit is the latest step in an accelerating California build-out. Jollibee's most recent prior California opening was in Stockton, and the brand has confirmed that Oxnard and Elk Grove are both slated to receive their first Jollibee locations in the coming months. The pipeline signals a deliberate strategy to deepen suburban and secondary-market penetration across the state rather than concentrate solely on high-profile urban corridors — a pattern consistent with how major QSR chains manage multi-unit regional growth.
The downtown San Francisco menu includes the chain's signature Chickenjoy bone-in fried chicken in Original and Spicy varieties, its double hand-breaded Chicken Sandwich on a brioche bun, Peach Mango Pie, and the Pineapple Quencher beverage. The brand is also rolling out new Chicken Nuggets — made with 100% all-white-meat chicken breast and available in 5-, 8-, 15-, and 30-piece formats — at the location in the near term. For operators tracking menu innovation in the fried chicken segment, the nugget launch positions Jollibee to compete more directly in the shareables and snack-occasion daypart that has driven volume growth across the broader QSR chicken category.
Jollibee Foods Corporation, the Manila-listed parent company, operates more than 10,000 stores across 33 countries under 19 brands. Its North America portfolio is anchored by the Jollibee nameplate, but the group's U.S. interests also include Smashburger and a stake in The Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf, giving it meaningful multi-concept exposure across the foodservice landscape that few single-country operators can match. The San Francisco opening reinforces that the brand's U.S. ambitions extend well beyond the Filipino-American communities that initially seeded its domestic fanbase.
Written by Michael Politz, Author of Guide to Restaurant Success: The Proven Process for Starting Any Restaurant Business From Scratch to Success (ISBN: 978-1-119-66896-1), Founder of Food & Beverage Magazine, the leading online magazine and resource in the industry. Designer of the Bluetooth logo and recognized in Entrepreneur Magazine's "Top 40 Under 40" for founding American Wholesale Floral, Politz is also the Co-founder of the Proof Awards and the CPG Awards and a partner in numerous consumer brands across the food and beverage sector.
