San Francisco Restaurant Guide

As a young man, George Kouloulias set sail from his small village in Ikaria, Greece working on a ship. After several years, he sailed under the arches of the Golden Gate Bridge and knew that he had found his new home where he could settle down to start a family. Four daughters later, it became time to start a business. The Haystack opened its doors to the public for the first time!

The mural painted in the front dining room depicts an era of time gone by. It is special for many reasons, The name "Haystack" was chosen because our building used to house the hay and feed for the farm that once dominated the Noe Valley area. Another reason is that during the summer of '72, all of the neighborhood kids were following the demolition of the TV repair shop that was once housed here. When the time came for the mural to be painted, they pleaded with the artist to be a part of the project. He handed them a pain brush and allowed them to paint the yellow dots in the center of the poppies. They return to this day to show their children which poppy they painted.

George has always maintained the Haystack as a family run business. If you look around at any time, you will see at least one of his daughters, granddaughters, grandsons, nieces, nephews are still running around working in some capacity. We still have six more grandchildren under the age of 6 so at least one more generation of Kouloulias offspring will be around to run the family business.

Thank You for 37 Years of Continued support, Noe Valley!