Swells Sourdough Bakery is taking over the former RakiRaki/The Yasai restaurant space on India Street in San Diego's Little Italy neighborhood for its first brick-and-mortar bakery. The move will give the homegrown business a permanent presence in the same neighborhood where customers can currently find its booth every Saturday at the bustling Little Italy Mercato.
Founded in 2022 by Pamela and Erik, Swells describes itself as a San Diego "coastal micro bakery" devoted to heritage-grain sourdough bread and baked goods made through traditional techniques. The company emphasizes organic, non-GMO ingredients and long fermentation rather than the shortcuts and additives common in mass-produced bread.
At the center of Swells' approach is organic flour sourced from Central Milling, including California stone-milled flour. According to the bakery, stone milling helps retain more of the grain's natural oils, nutrients and flavor, while its flour is free of bleaching and bromate.
Although artisan sourdough loaves are the foundation of the company, Swells has developed a broader following for baked goods including sourdough bagels and cookies. The official Little Italy Mercato vendor directory currently describes Swells' offerings as "sourdough breads and cookies, bagels."
Its bagels have become a particularly prominent part of the business. Swells describes them as hand-rolled and slow-fermented for 48 hours, with varieties including plain, everything, sesame and poppy, complemented by small-batch whipped artisan cream cheeses.
The bakery has so far built its business largely without a conventional retail shop. Swells currently operates weekly stands at the Little Italy Mercato on Saturdays from 8am to 2pm and the La Jolla Open Aire Market on Sundays from 9am to 1pm, giving the company direct access to customers while maintaining its small-batch production model.
Little Italy is especially familiar territory for Swells. The bakery's Saturday booth is a regular fixture at the neighborhood's sprawling farmers market, which stretches through the Piazza della Famiglia and surrounding streets, and the current market map places Swells among the vendors in the Piazza area.
That makes the forthcoming storefront something of a homecoming rather than an introduction to the neighborhood. Swells will go from selling bread to Little Italy shoppers one day each week beneath a market tent to operating a permanent bakery along India Street, the neighborhood's primary restaurant and retail corridor.
There are also signs that Swells has been preparing for a substantial expansion. Recent job postings describe the company as a "growing local bakery with a loyal following," while a separate listing seeks a full-time production baker specializing in sourdough and viennoiserie and specifically states that the employee will begin at Swells' current production kitchen before moving to its retail location once it opens.
The mention of viennoiserie suggests the brick-and-mortar operation could eventually extend beyond the breads, bagels and cookies most closely associated with Swells' farmers market stands. The term generally encompasses laminated and enriched French-style baked goods such as croissants and related pastries, although Swells has not yet publicly released a complete menu for the Little Italy bakery.
The company has also taken steps to formalize its growing brand. Swells Sourdough Bakery's federal trademark, owned by E&P Boulangerie LLC, was registered with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office in October 2025 for bakery products, bread, baked goods and desserts.
Its new home has its own lengthy restaurant history. The India Street space was previously occupied by concepts from San Diego restaurateur and chef Junya Watanabe, whose RakiRaki Ramen + Tsukemen became one of the restaurants that helped propel San Diego's modern ramen boom after the original opened on Convoy Street in 2012.
RakiRaki expanded into Little Italy in 2016 alongside Watanabe's Pokirrito concept, bringing ramen, poke bowls and oversized sushi burritos to India Street. By 2019, however, Watanabe was preparing to transform the Little Italy operation into The Yasai, an entirely plant-based Japanese restaurant built around vegan ramen, sushi rolls and izakaya-style dishes.
The Yasai opened in the former RakiRaki/Pokirrito space in 2020, with Eater reporting at the time that the high-ceilinged restaurant had been reworked into a vegan sushi bar and Japanese dining concept. The restaurant subsequently operated from 2254 India Street, but online ordering records indicate that the Little Italy location had closed by March 2026.
Swells' arrival represents a significant change of direction for the property, replacing years of ramen, sushi and Japanese cuisine with naturally leavened bread and pastry. It also puts the bakery directly into one of San Diego County's most competitive food neighborhoods, where artisan bakeries and specialty food businesses coexist with some of the city's busiest restaurants.
For Swells, that existing market presence could make the transition unusually organic. Rather than opening in Little Italy as an unknown newcomer, the bakery will be establishing a permanent home within walking distance of the farmers market where it has already been putting its bread directly into customers' hands.
An opening date and complete menu for the forthcoming Swells Sourdough Bakery have not yet been announced. Until the brick-and-mortar location arrives, customers can continue finding Swells at the Little Italy Mercato on Saturdays and the La Jolla Open Aire Market on Sundays.
For more information, visit swellssourdough.com.
Originally published on September 15, 2026.