On Saturday, Oct. 10, and Sunday, Oct. 11, the Powell/Hyde cable car will run as a bus from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. That covers both of the weekend's busiest afternoons. Russian Hill's most famous piece of infrastructure takes a two-day break just as Fleet Week and the Italian Heritage Parade fill the north side of the city.
The neighborhood's own October happens a few blocks west. A handroll counter just opened on Polk Street. A long-awaited bakery is getting ready a few doors away. Russian Hill Neighbors has a Polk cleanup on its calendar, and the month ends with Polk Street turning into a trick-or-treat route. For anyone who lives on the hill, October revolves around Polk Street. Hyde Street mostly hosts visitors this month.
The weekend Hyde Street gives up its cable car
On SFMTA's Fleet Week travel page, Russian Hill appears in the list of affected neighborhoods for Oct. 9 through 11. The agency also says the details may change before the event. The Sunday parade adds its own schedule on top of the air show. The Italian Heritage Parade runs through North Beach and Russian Hill, starting at 12:30 p.m., and SFPD can close streets as early as 7:30 a.m.
Here is the Powell/Hyde line, day by day:
| Day | Cable car runs | Bus substitution | Reason |
|---|---|---|---|
| Saturday, Oct. 10 | 6 to 11 a.m., then 7 p.m. to end of service | 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. | Fleet Week |
| Sunday, Oct. 11 | 6 to 11 a.m., then 7 p.m. to end of service | 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. | Italian Heritage Parade |
The Sunday bus changes the stops at the north end of the line. Inbound buses skip the Hyde and Beach stop, with a temporary terminal at Beach and Hyde and an alternate stop at Hyde and North Point. Outbound buses use a temporary terminal at Ellis and Powell, and their route at the top of the hill loops via North Point, Larkin and Beach. The parade route follows Jefferson, Leavenworth and Columbus before it heads into North Beach. Rolling closures run from around noon until 5 p.m., and a car show closes Union between Columbus and Stockton from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.
If you need the cable car that weekend, take it before 11 a.m. or after 7 p.m. Midday plans on the hill work better on foot, and Polk Street sits outside the parade route on the SFMTA map. For a citywide view of the same nine days, our earlier post on where locals go when the waterfront fills up covers the escape routes. This post stays on the hill.
A handroll you can eat walking uphill
The newest storefront on Polk is built around eating on the move. Handroll Hawker, at 2360 Polk Street, was set to open on Tuesday, Sept. 29, according to Eater SF. It's open from 11:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. every day.
Founder Romi Trower is a filmmaker from Australia, where uncut handrolls sell the way sandwiches do. She told Eater that "it's as common as getting a sandwich or a salad for lunch." The Australian style is made ahead and kept in a patisserie-style fridge, so the rice is cold and the nori is soft, and the roll holds together in one hand. On a hill where every errand includes a climb, a lunch built to eat on the walk home fits the neighborhood.
The kitchen is run by chef Tai Trinh, formerly of the omakase restaurant Robin. Trower also went to culinary school in Tokyo to learn sushi rice. The team consulted with David Steele of Flour + Water Hospitality Group. The opening menu has nine rolls, according to Eater:
- Crispy chicken or shrimp tempura with lettuce and house mayo
- Spicy salmon or spicy tuna with cucumber and a yuzu mayo
- Salmon-avocado, and cooked shrimp with avocado, cucumber and sesame
- Two vegan rolls, one with inari tofu and pickled daikon, one cucumber-avocado
- A cooked tuna roll with cucumber and mayo, which Trower calls "the Australian classic"
The fish comes as a whole slice rather than chopped, and the rice uses red vinegar instead of the white vinegar common in Australian rolls. Beyond the rolls, there's a vegan miso soup, canned drinks and Trinh's yuzu lemonade. The room is pink and teal, with artwork by Serge Gay Jr., and the shop has only a few tables because it's set up mainly for takeout.
The bakery behind the paper on 2139 Polk
A few blocks south, Lorella is coming together at 2139 Polk Street. It comes from Melissa Perello, chef-owner of Frances and Octavia, and pastry chef Melissa Loar. The name blends their last names. The Standard pointed out that it's easy to mix up with Sorella, the Italian restaurant down the street.
The bakery grew out of the monthly "Saturbake" pop-ups at Octavia. Regulars there had asked for bread at the takeout window for years. When the bake sale started in spring 2024, the line went around the block. "We sold out in like 10 minutes!" Loar told The Standard. Lorella's menu will include croissants and sourdough. Loar baked at Swift & Sons, Somerset and Boka in Chicago before she joined Octavia in 2021.
There's no opening date yet. In July, The Standard said Lorella was slated to open "before the holidays," and a WhatNow report a few days later said fall. As of early October, we haven't found a confirmed date. Lorella belongs on the list of things to watch for this fall, not yet on the list of places you can go. Its arrival adds to a stretch of Polk that we followed over the summer in our Upper Polk walk.
The neighborhood calendar keeps returning to Polk
Russian Hill Neighbors' October 2026 calendar shows where the hill's own events happen. Here's the month after the first week:
- Oct. 8: Upper Polk Cleanup
- Oct. 10: Clean Up and Smile FALL Sweep
- Oct. 13: Cooking Club: Harvest Table
- Oct. 22: New Member Happy Hour
- Oct. 24: Parks at Ina Coolbrith Park
- Oct. 25: Spoolk Street Spooktacular
The public calendar lists names and dates, but its detail pages don't show times or meeting spots, so check with the association before you go. The order of the month stands out. The cleanup on Upper Polk comes three days after Handroll Hawker's announced opening. The fall sweep falls on Oct. 10, the Saturday the cable car runs as a bus. The month's one event at Ina Coolbrith Park, on the eastern side of the hill, comes the day before Polk Street's Halloween event. Six of the hill's October events are on the calendar, and two of them are named for Polk.
Oct. 25, when Polk becomes the route
The Spoolk Street Spooktacular is on the RHN calendar for Sunday, Oct. 25. The 2026 times and route haven't been posted yet, but past years show what to expect.
In 2025, the free event ran from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. People picked up a trick-or-treat map at Helen Wills Park, 1401 Broadway, then came back later for a costume contest "for both kids and grown-up kids"; the organizers called it "a Polk Street tradition," according to SF Funcheap. One 2025 listing also mentioned treat bags, carnival games, magic and balloon art, with the costume contest at 1:30 p.m. and a magician at 2 p.m. In 2023, the partners were Discover Polk CBD, Russian Hill Neighbors and Polk District Merchants, and trick-or-treating ran along Polk storefronts between Broadway and Filbert.
If 2026 follows the same pattern, merchants along Polk will spend that Sunday afternoon handing out candy. By then, the newest of them will include a pink-and-teal handroll counter at 2360 Polk. If Lorella opens on schedule, the stretch could also include a bakery at 2139 Polk by the holidays.
More on how the hill fits together is on our Russian Hill neighborhood page. If you own on Russian Hill and want to talk about how changes on Polk Street affect your block, from new tenants to the storefronts still waiting for one, James Rowbotham follows this corridor closely. Let's Connect.
