I think a lot of these SF-based food startups are filling a need that exists because of SF's fairly bad model of urbanization. Things are kinda dense, but not really, and it's very hard to get around.
If SF was a more spread out city like Sacramento or Houston, driving to a grocery store or a Chipotle or an inexpensive eatery would be trivial to get your food. If it was much more dense (and easy to get around) like Manhattan or Bangkok or Tokyo, it would be trivial to get prepared food at any price since restaurants and street side cooks of all kinds can effectively get to dense districts to sell food.
Yeah, that's true. Parking is really a pain for most restaurants. Basically... good luck.
But grocery stores (at least Safeway / Trader Joes / Whole Foods) generally have attached parking and aren't too bad to park at. Though I still try to go during off-peak hours.
If SF was a more spread out city like Sacramento or Houston, driving to a grocery store or a Chipotle or an inexpensive eatery would be trivial to get your food. If it was much more dense (and easy to get around) like Manhattan or Bangkok or Tokyo, it would be trivial to get prepared food at any price since restaurants and street side cooks of all kinds can effectively get to dense districts to sell food.