Miyako Old Fashioned Ice Cream has been scooping at 1470 Fillmore St since 1993, in the same storefront where it started. It is one of the Fillmore’s true neighborhood institutions: a small, family-run shop with generous scoops, low prices and a loyal following that spans generations.
A Philadelphia transplant and a Japanese name
Owner Tom Bennett came to San Francisco from Philadelphia, where he had worked as a model and run a seafood restaurant. He arrived with a plan to open an ice cream shop and took one of the first spaces he found on Fillmore. When he opened, the block was nearly empty, with only his shop and a Pizza Hut.
He chose the Japanese name Miyako to welcome the Asian families he hoped to attract. The Fillmore had been home to many Japanese families until they were forced out during World War II internment, and in the early 1990s few Asian residents had returned. Today the neighborhood is multicultural again, and Miyako has served all of it.
Family run, on purpose
Bennett runs Miyako with his daughter Teresa, who has worked in the shop since she was a child, and his daughter Bonita helps out when it gets busy. He has never expanded or moved. Keeping it small and in the family, he says, makes for better customer service, and it lets him greet people and ask how they found the shop. Regulars credit that personal touch and the low prices for the shop’s staying power.
What to order
Heaping scoops of old-time flavors, with caramel praline and peanut butter chocolate among the best sellers, plus candy, cookies, Coney Island hot dogs and sandwiches. The window signs and the old-fashioned lettering out front are part of the experience.
A Fillmore survivor
Miyako is one of the few remaining Black-owned businesses on Fillmore Street, and it has outlasted recessions, rising rents and a pandemic. After a 2020 break-in and a broken freezer cost the shop thousands of dollars in merchandise, neighbors rallied through a fundraiser organized by the New Community Leadership Foundation and raised nearly $20,000 to keep it open. Bennett’s advice to customers is simple: buy a soda, tell a friend, and come back.
Read more
- Notable Humans: Thomas Bennett’s dedication to Miyako Ice Cream and the Fillmore community (SFist, 2025)
- Meet Tom Bennett, owner of Fillmore’s Miyako Old Fashion Ice Cream shop (Hoodline, 2016)
- Miyako: one of the few Black-owned businesses left in the Fillmore District (Fillmore Movement, 2018)
- Miyako Ice Cream (USF Gellert Family Business Center, 2020)
