Legal judgments for Valencia Street
San Francisco Superior Court entered a default judgment of $200,196 against Outset Coffee SF 2205 LLC and its parent company, Fuji Inc., on October 7. This judgment follows a lawsuit from the Valencia Street landlord, MW790VALE LP. The total amount includes $166,194 in damages, $21,222 in interest, $10,752 in attorney fees, and $2,027 in court costs. The landlord alleged that Outset stopped making rent payments after December 2024 and accumulated $101,375 in unpaid rent and other charges by April 2025. Because the cafe stopped responding to communications and posted a sign regarding a "temporary closure" due to staffing changes, the landlord terminated the lease on April 29, 2025, after claiming the company had "abandoned the property."
| Location | Unpaid Rent and Charges |
|---|---|
| 790 Valencia St. | $101,375 |
| 90 New Montgomery St. | $121,775 |
Downtown location eviction
In response to an October 2025 lawsuit, the court awarded 90 New Montgomery Partners possession of the Financial District property on December 30, 2025, though the San Francisco Sheriff’s Office did not return possession until July 29, 2026. The downtown case alleged that Outset owed $121,775 in unpaid rent and other charges. In January 2024, the company expanded with a 1,500-square-foot cafe at New Montgomery and Mission streets. Outset opened its original Valencia Street cafe in the summer of 2023 and served coffees from Onyx Coffee Lab. The specialty drinks incorporated ingredients such as durian, osmanthus, and yuja.
Fuji Inc. owns the company and also owns the fruit tea brand Zero& and the bakery brand Hanabi. Weiyao Sun, who also co-founded the electric scooter ride-share company Lime, leads Fuji Inc. In July 2025, co-founder Heng Qiu told Eater San Francisco that a business partner negotiated with the Valencia Street landlord to reopen the cafe. By September, Little Sweet reportedly took over the Valencia Street location. The closure of both locations follows separate legal battles that ended the three-year-old specialty coffee company. The landlord for the Valencia Street cafe alleged the business stopped making rent payments in December 2024. The Financial District landlord claimed Outset owed $121,775 in unpaid rent. The San Francisco Sheriff’s Office returned the downtown property to its landlord in July 2026. These disputes ended the expansion of a business that received recognition in the San Francisco Chronicle’s 2024 guide to the Bay Area’s best coffee shops.
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