Grand Lake Kitchen, the Oakland all-day café that built a following at Lake Merritt and in the Dimond District, has crossed the bridge — opening its first San Francisco location at 1199 Church St. in Noe Valley, inside the refurbished space that used to be Mr. Digby's Bar.

The debut hands a long-churning Noe Valley corner — formerly Mr. Digby's Bar, and before that Noe's Cantina — to a proven East Bay operator. It's a name-brand brunch-and-cocktails arrival on a stretch of Church Street that has cycled through tenants, and it comes to San Francisco with an East Bay following already in tow.

Grand Lake Kitchen is now open in Noe Valley, its third location and first in San Francisco, according to the restaurant's own website, which greets visitors with a "NOW OPEN IN SAN FRANCISCO!" banner and lists the new address alongside its two Oakland originals: Lake Merritt at 576 Grand Ave. and Dimond at 2042 MacArthur Blvd.

The San Francisco outpost sits at 1199 Church St., the corner space that most recently operated as Mr. Digby's Bar and, before that, Noe's Cantina. A Mission Local review published July 30 noted the restaurant "made her entrance into Noe Valley just four months ago," dating the opening to roughly late March.

That address is already familiar to readers of The Dissent. In late April, we reported on a community blood drive at 1199 Church St., where a bloodmobile offered donors a coupon for a free Grand Lake Kitchen burger. Our coverage described the bloodmobile as parked "in the Castro," while Mission Local files the restaurant under Noe Valley — the same corner, labeled two ways. By then, per Mission Local's timeline, Grand Lake Kitchen had already opened; the drive is an early marker of the operator's tie to the address, not evidence it predated the debut.

The menu is built around the all-day café format that made the Oakland locations popular: a "nosh" section of shareable starters, a full slate of mains, and a weekend brunch. In her review, Mission Local critic Maria C. Ascarrunz singled out the smoked local trout toast — "Loved the smokiness and the kick of the horseradish" — and the caviar pie, "a 'tower' (in truth, more of a 'disk') of chopped hard-boiled eggs, creme fraiche, cream cheese and chives" topped with American caviar and served with Ritz crackers.

Not everything landed. Ascarrunz called the vegan spiced chickpea stew "nourishing, but not very exciting," her least favorite dish of the night. But she was won over on balance, writing that "neighborhoods need new blood every once in a while" and calling Grand Lake Kitchen "a grand addition to Noe Valley."

Pricing skews neighborhood-restaurant rather than special-occasion: per the review, no main dish tops $36. The space carries a full bar — classic and house cocktails, boozy slushies, a short wine list, draft and canned beer, and non-alcoholic options — along with the hanging plants, copper lamps and corner TV that Ascarrunz described.

The opening has drawn unusually wide coverage for a single restaurant. Grand Lake Kitchen's press page links write-ups from Eater SF, the San Francisco Examiner, the East Bay Express, 7x7, San Francisco Magazine and the Noe Valley Voice — a media footprint that reflects both the brand's East Bay loyalty and San Francisco's appetite for a reliably busy brunch address.

For Noe Valley, the more durable story may be the corner itself. The stretch of Church has seen tenants come and go, and a filled, bustling storefront where a bar recently shuttered is its own small piece of neighborhood news. Grand Lake Kitchen Noe Valley is open now at 1199 Church St.