T&T Supermarket's Millbrae store will open in summer or fall 2027 at the earliest. CEO Tina Lee gave that date to the San Francisco Chronicle in October, and she put it down to construction delays. When the company first announced the store a year ago, it promised Millbrae a "Winter 2026" opening. That season starts in a few weeks, and the old Lucky building at Murchison Drive and El Camino Real is still waiting for its new grocer.

Meanwhile, T&T's San Francisco store at 2675 Geary Boulevard had its opening set for 9 a.m. on Thursday, November 5. The company's own pitch for Millbrae was that it sits between San Francisco and San Jose. Instead, Millbrae will be the last of the three to open.

The Corner, Then and Now

The Lucky at 45 Murchison Drive ran from 1966 to 2023, according to the San Mateo Daily Journal. KRON4 reported that it closed in November 2023, after about 60 years on the corner. In its notice on T&T's application, the City of Millbrae called the building a vacant former Lucky. The proposal covered interior improvements and an outdoor dining area.

T&T's announcement places the store in Friendship Plaza, at 95 Murchison Drive and 135–143 South El Camino Real. If Lee's new estimate holds, the corner will have gone well over three years without a full grocery store. Late 2027 would make it closer to four.

How "Winter 2026" Turned Into 2027

In June, KRON4 reported spring 2027 as the Millbrae target, and four months later the date moved again.

The city side of the process is done. The commission approved the permit at its April 6, 2026 meeting, as the Daily Journal reported. The delays since then have come from construction, which is how Lee described them in the Chronicle. The October estimate of summer or fall 2027 is a forecast with "at the earliest" attached, and the two dates before it both slipped.

Why Millbrae Was on the Map at All

T&T explained the choice in its own words. "I have had my eye on Millbrae for awhile – it's a great spot to serve families living in the peninsula and well spaced between our San Francisco and San Jose locations," Lee said in the company's November 2025 announcement. The same release says the store will serve Millbrae, San Bruno, San Mateo and Palo Alto, and notes it is minutes from SFO.

Senior marketing manager Rachel Lin told the Chronicle the company picked its Bay Area sites for "strong surrounding neighborhoods, good parking and supportive city teams helping us through the process." She also cited customer demand on social media. Millbrae was chosen as the store linking the other two, and the timeline has turned it into the last one built.

The chain is moving fast elsewhere. Lee's parents, Cindy and Jack, founded T&T in Vancouver in 1993. It grew into Canada's largest Asian supermarket chain, with 37 stores, and opened its first U.S. store in Bellevue, Washington, in 2024, according to the Chronicle. SFist reported that the San Jose store drew 60,000 visitors over its opening weekend in June. Newark, in a former Macy's, is now due in winter 2027 and will be California's largest T&T at 72,600 square feet. Newark slipped too, but its target is still ahead of Millbrae's.

What Is Planned for Murchison Drive

The city's planning agenda describes a 27,987-square-foot supermarket for the Millbrae site. The Geary store is 50,000 square feet, per SFist. The approved Millbrae plans include a bakery, an indoor café, outdoor seating and refreshed branding on the building.

T&T's announcement lists what it intends to bring:

• A self-serve hot food bar, with kitchen specialties such as Peking duck and Crispy Papa Chicken
• A BBQ station and a sushi counter
• Made-to-order Chinese crepes and Taiwanese-style rice rolls
• A bakery with more than 150 breads and 50-plus desserts, including Napoleon Portuguese egg tarts, mango pomelo Swiss rolls and lava mochi puffs
• Wines and spirits, with a focus on Korean soju and Japanese sake
• More than 200 T&T private-label products, from soup dumplings to Korean kalbi marinade

The café matters because it's new for the chain. SFist reported that the Geary store is the first T&T in the U.S. with a café, serving black sesame and ube lattes alongside housemade pastries. The Millbrae plans also include an indoor café, so Geary is the closest preview of what is coming to the old Lucky. San Jose sells a mango mousse cake shaped like its city hall rotunda, and the San Francisco store planned its own city hall cake, Lee told the Chronicle. Millbrae will find out in 2027 whether it gets a local version.

T&T also points California shoppers to its app while stores are being built. The app sells dried goods, snacks and Asian beauty products online.

The Grocery and Bakery Counters Millbrae Has Now

T&T's pitch is about a bakery case and prepared food, and a good share of that already exists along Broadway. Here is what is open on publish day:

1. Trader Joe's, 765 Broadway, with store hours posted through November 2026.
2. Sun's Market, a Millbrae grocer that takes online orders for one-hour pickup Monday through Saturday.
3. Suzanne's Cake & Pastry, 320 Broadway, which takes online orders and posts weekly hours.
4. Binka Bites Bakery Cafe, 979 Broadway #106, open daily from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m.

The planned T&T would add one large grocery anchor at the south end of El Camino Real. The bakery counters on Broadway are already open and keep posted hours. Since the latest estimate puts T&T's opening in summer or fall 2027 at the earliest, these four stay Millbrae's nearest grocery and bakery counters until the old Lucky reopens.

The empty Lucky has been part of everyday life in Millbrae for three years, and it affects how the whole block around Friendship Plaza feels. Stephanie Nash has been following Peninsula corners like this one since 1991, and she's glad to talk about what changes on Murchison Drive could mean for your part of town. Let's Connect.