The pandemic-era shop at 1327 B Ninth Ave. served its last wedge May 2 — undercut by a UCSF center closing, the JFK Drive shutdown, cheaper UK flights, and rising import costs.

Willow on the Green, the British cheese and wine shop at 1327 B Ninth Ave. in the Inner Sunset, sold its last wedge on May 2 and its last bottle on May 3 — closing just under five years after registering with the City in June 2021 under the entity Soares and Sinclair LLC.

Owner Alex J. Sinclair opened the shop for pandemic-era Anglophiles: flights to the UK were grounded or unaffordable, a ready supply of expats lived in the neighborhood, and nobody else was selling properly imported British cheese along the Ninth and Irving corridor. Four of those conditions have since reversed, and the math stopped working.

A UCSF research center that had been drawing workers and foot traffic from the Richmond District has closed, reducing the customer base that crossed into the Sunset. The JFK Drive shutdown further disrupted that route. Post-pandemic, travel to the UK is easy again — the specific homesickness that made the shop viable has largely passed. And the cost of importing British cheese and goods to the United States has risen sharply, squeezing margins on the retail side.

Sinclair had already shifted the shop's model in its final year, concentrating on event catering — fairs, picnics, galas, and Highland Games at the Alameda County Fairgrounds, where he serves as first chieftain of the Caledonian Club — rather than retail walk-ins. He told Mission Local he'll continue selling cheese in those settings. A next project is unannounced. He still lives on the block.

On the same stretch of Ninth, Maggie & Mac's opened at 1326 9th Ave. on June 5 with French dip sandwiches as its signature item, filling one of the neighboring storefronts as the block turns over.

Willow on the Green's closure was first reported by Rosina Boehm at Mission Local.