The Duggan family's planned West Portal counter-service restaurant has a late-2027 target and a named address, but San Francisco business-registration records do not yet show the new DBA.

Original Joe's Cable Car has a name, an address and a long runway. The missing piece, at least in the public record The Dissent checked, is the San Francisco business-registration match that usually marks the shift from announced restaurant to buildout candidate.

Elena and John Duggan, the siblings behind the Original Joe's group, are planning the counter-service project for 385 West Portal Ave., according to a Chronicle story republished by Yahoo (external source, opens in a new tab). That report gives the target as late 2027 and says the menu will lean on burgers, chicken tenders, fries and milkshakes. SFGATE also surfaced the plan (external source, opens in a new tab), while SFist's local write-up (external source, opens in a new tab) identifies the same former Clay Oven storefront and late-2027 schedule.

By the reported numbers, this is not a large room. The Chronicle/Yahoo account describes about 2,000 square feet, 20 to 25 indoor seats, outdoor seating beside Little Original Joe's and beer and wine planned. Price point has not been publicly released.

The address is why the lead matters. Cable Car would sit next to Little Original Joe's at 393 West Portal Ave., where the family already has a takeout rhythm and a neighborhood audience. The Dissent searched DataSF registered-business records (external source, opens in a new tab) on Aug. 19, 2026, for “Original Joe's Cable Car,” “Cable Car” and “Little Original Joe.” The exact project name returned zero matches. “Cable Car” returned older or unrelated businesses, including Joe's Cable Car Resturant at 4620 Mission St. “Little Original Joe” returned Tre Rosso LP at 393 West Portal Ave., with an Oct. 15, 2019 DBA start date.

So the story is not that Cable Car is open. It is that the Duggans have named a third West Portal commitment after Little Original Joe's in 2020 and Elena's in 2024, and the civic machinery has not yet caught up to the announcement. Between now and late 2027, the next tells are registration, licensing, permits and then the expensive part: a compact room that can carry its rent.