826 Valencia

Location

826 Valencia Street, but that should be kind of obvious.

Hours

12 pm to 6 pm daily

Phone

(415) 642-5905

Website

general site and store site

Founded by

Dave Eggers

Established

2002

Behold the pirate's fish!

826 Valencia is a whimsical and unique non-profit writing workshop and tutoring center for kids ages 8 to 18. It's also a pirate supply store! A pirate supply store!

826 Valencia was started by local author Dave Eggers, who wrote A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius and founded McSweeney's, among other things. You can watch Dave Eggers talk about forming 826. Interestingly, the building was zoned for retail, so they came up with the pirate store idea after deciding they wanted to locate their tutoring / writing center there.

The Mission District location was their first of many such children's writing workshops, and they've expanded the 826 empire onward to places like NYC, Los Angeles, Seattle, and other locations through the larger 826 National organization. Each store has a unique theme about it, such as the The Brooklyn Superhero Supply Company!

Drawers open to reveal various pirate necessities. Make tea, not war.

Comments:

2008-03-30 21:37:39   Is it true that they opened the Pirate Store as a front-of-house because the building is zoned for commercial/retail space only? —AnnaCarollo

Yup! Eggers goes over this in his 2008 TED talk.