Driver crashes into Castro restaurant, flees overnight scene

A hit-and-run crash turned a Castro restaurant’s parklet and storefront into an overnight cleanup site, but the most important fact was what did not happen: nobody was hurt. The driver struck the streetside dining area outside Castro Indian Restaurant and Bar, then crashed into Café Mystique at 464 Castro St., leaving the corner boarded up and safety crews on scene in the heart of one of San Francisco’s busiest nightlife corridors.

The collision happened around 1:45 a.m. Sunday on Castro Street, when surveillance video showed a sedan veering off the roadway, plowing through the restaurant’s parklet and slamming into Café Mystique along the 500 block. Another camera angle appeared to show the driver running toward 18th Street moments later. Firefighters received multiple calls about a vehicle driving through a parklet and into a building, and Lt. Mariano Elias said the driver was not located and appeared to be under the influence.

Police had not announced an arrest by Sunday night, and the San Francisco Police Department was still trying to identify the driver. The suspect vehicle was impounded. For residents and merchants on Castro Street, the crash was a jarring reminder of how quickly a late-night collision can become a public-safety emergency in a dense pedestrian district.

The damage hit two businesses at once. Café Mystique manager Narmela Khordians said the café could not open for breakfast after the crash, cutting off a steady flow of Sunday customers before the restaurant later reopened. City inspectors yellow-tagged the building, a restricted-use designation that signals safety concerns after a structural impact.

Ajay Khadka, who owns Castro Indian Restaurant and Bar, said he arrived within about 15 minutes after getting an alert and then reviewed security video showing how narrowly the crash missed pedestrians who had been nearby just moments earlier. He said the impact tore apart the parklet and destroyed tables, chairs, heaters and ornaments, with repairs likely to run as high as $25,000.

The crash also landed in the middle of a larger neighborhood bet on Castro nightlife. Mayor Daniel Lurie launched the Castro Upper Market Entertainment Zone on May 16, 2025, part of a city effort that now includes 21 entertainment zones adopted or pending across San Francisco. San Francisco’s parklet program dates to the 2009 Pavement to Parks effort, and the city is credited with creating the first parklet. Those spaces were built to support pedestrians and small businesses, but Sunday’s crash showed how exposed they remain when a driver loses control, or chooses to flee, in a packed commercial corridor.