Help Frank's Floral Shop Recover from Fire

On Monday, September 6th, a fire broke out at Frank’s Floral Shop, a neighborhood florist that has been serving San Francisco’s Sunset and Richmond Districts and beyond since 1934. While we are blessed no one was hurt, the damage from the fire is devastating. The financial impacts are even more painful when it is compounded on top of the negative impacts from the COVID-19 pandemic.

Located at 1825 Irving Street, Frank's Florals has arranged flowers and plants and provided gifts for many of our weddings, parties, and other special occasions for years. The owner, Sona Pehlivanian, has been an active and beloved merchant along Irving Street for over 35 years. 


Please help support Sona and Frank’s Floral Shop by donating to this GoFundMe and sharing this fundraiser with your network.

Thank you to Bill Barnickel and the Outer Sunset Merchants and Professionals Association (OSMPA), Dennis Wu and Drew Min from SFCAUSE, and others who helped make this GoFundMe possible.

For more information, please contact Bill Barnickel at [email redacted] or at [phone redacted] or Drew Min at [email redacted] or at [phone redacted].

Thank you for your support in advance. 


Sona's story:

Sona Pehlivanian has been the owner of Frank’s Floral Shop for the past 36 years, after having bought over the small family business from its original owners, Frank and Gladys.  Frank’s Floral was established since 1934 on Irving Street in the Sunset district of San Francisco, nestled between a pizza parlor and a deli.  It’s easy to miss this small “hole in the wall” and the business has survived over the years from loyal repeat customers and through word of mouth.  Around midnight, on September 6th, a burglar broke into the flower shop, stole $8 in cash and then torched the 87-year-old flower shop, setting fire to the second floor, burning through the roof and spreading to the first floor.  All the flowers, pots of orchids, vases, ribbons, supplies, cards, teddy bears burned to ashes.  

For over eight decades, this flower shop has served the neighborhood’s floral needs and has been a happy place and brought joy to everyone that entered the shop.  Sona had first entered the shop when she was planning her wedding at the time.  Nine years later, when Sona became a single mother of a young toddler, she left the banking business to become the owner of Frank’s Floral and ran the shop with Glady’s, after Frank has passed away.  Since then, this shop has meant everything to Sona and a place where Sona spread connection, love, and joy through flowers for every occasion, from birthdays celebrations to graduations, retirement parties, memorials, and weddings, or a simple thank you gift.  She often worked long hours (16-17 hours per day) to single handedly raise her son.  In the beginning, there were late nights when Sona would put together floral arrangements while her three-year-old son slept in a sleeping bag on the floor and then she would carry her son back to the car after finishing the arrangements.  Sona’s loyal commitment to all her customers is unfaltering, continuing to fulfill her promises no matter what, even surviving through cancer the past several years.  There were days when Sona would head back to the shop after chemotherapy to finish floral arrangements.  She always delivers the most stunning bouquets and pots of orchids with just the right touches and going the extra mile.  Sona would help us send sweet messages with a precious little heart in a nest telling someone we loved them, or a colorful bird sending "get well" wishes or words of gratitude.  With hard work and determination, her business had flourished over the years, providing for her and her son.  

Sona is a kind, thoughtful, and loving grandmother, mother, a compassionate friend, and an active citizen  in her community, often donating floral arrangements and centerpieces at charity events.  It is shocking that a stranger would commit such an atrocious act to burn down this shop and everything inside.  This burglar’s act of monstrosity has not only destroyed the history of a beloved neighborhood shop, but also Sona’s very livelihood.  Let’s come together as a community to send Sona some love and help rebuild her livelihood and keep this 87-year old shop history alive.