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St Francis Fountain was founded in 1918 by James Christakes, an immigrant from Sparta, Greece. It has been in continuous operation in its present location ever since. Three generations of the Christakes family ran the St Francis as a confectionary, ice cream parlor, and lunch counter until 2000.

In 2002, the current owners, Peter Hood and Levon Kazarian, purchased the business and restored the beautiful but dilapidated 1948 dining room and installed a full service kitchen in order to expand and improve the food offerings. Changing the focus from old-fashioned confectionary to updated diner, the St Francis Fountain is once again the living, bustling neighborhood anchor that it was in its heyday.

From San Francisco Examiner, 1989
by Bill Mandel

Plenty of restaurants will feature 49ers Specials this weekend, but only one will be the exact dish served at the founding of the team.

The 49ers Special at the 70 year–old St Francis Fountain Candy Shop & Fountain at 24th and York streets in the Mission was the invariable power lunch enjoyed by the Morabito boys, Tony and Vic, as they planned San Francisco's new NFL franchise in the closing months of World War II.

The Morabitos, who were in the lumber transport business, would come over to the St Francis to meet their football partners – Allan Sorrell, Ernest Turre and the money man Nate Fardgli from the Bank of America on the corner. They'd fall into the six–person back booth and chow down like the working–class guys they were. They ate open–faced sandwiches, half tuna salad, half egg salad, on toasted slice thick French bread slathered with the St Francis' homemade mayo. Hardly exalted fare, but how could the first 49ers know they were dining at the creation of an empire?

There were lean years and fat years after 1946's first season. Lean years aren't possible for the St Francis, which still makes its own mayo, as well as its own ice cream, toppings, syrups, peanut brittle, a large variety chocolate candies and, above all, a nourishing brew of friendliness, generosity, and reminders of (dare I say it?) a kinder, gentler age.

Founded in 1918, the St Francis is celebrating its 70th birthday in 1989. Why the leisurely pace? Because the Christakes family, owners since the beginning, knows how to take its time. The informal motto of the St Francis is, the more things outside our door change, the more we'll stay the same. The St Francis is the only time capsule I know of that serves a concrete–thick milk shake.

If I were making a list of the 10 most magical places in San Francisco, the St Francis Candy Shop & Fountain would be high on the roster. It's one of the few surviving treasures of the small, neighborly city old–time San Franciscans mourn and latecomers can only imagine. The St Francis confirms sweet cultural memories – yes places like this really did exist outside of Archie comics and Mickey Rooney movies.

The long room, lit by a glass wall that runs along the York Street side, was last decorated in 1949. The décor – exactly what 80s restaurant designers try, and fail, to capture in their retro diners – is peppermint Air Stream, pink and white, highlighted by curving Deco cornices made of pink mirror mosaic. The walls are adorned with super–realist food iconography: glowingly painted sandwiches, sundaes, malts and banana splits float throught the air like plump Renaissance cherubim.

On the left as you enter are pot–bellied glass candy cases filled with brittle, toffee and chocolates made in the back room. On the right, red–topped stools sidle up to a marble counter facing big silver Hamilton Beach milk shakers with extra–generous canisters. Roomy booths in the rear. Heart shaped windows cut into the swinging doors that lead to the restrooms. An actual phone booth of actual wood.