San Francisco Food Blog

We're no fans of the optimistic predictions that the recession is over. But October saw the fewest closures of San Francisco restaurants in the past six months. And for the ones that did close, new tenants were generally already in line.

yuichi.sakuraba/Flickr

You still got roughly two months to get to Two.

​After changing Hawthorne Lane to the more casual Two a couple of years ago, David Gingrass announced that, along with the end of his lease at the close of this year, he'd be vacating the premises while pondering his next move. French Laundry vet Corey Lee has already secured the space for the upcoming Benu. Two (22 Hawthorne at Howard) remains open through December.

Meanwhile, the erstwhile San Francisco Brewing Company will become the Comstock Saloon, a new venture from the owners of Absinthe.

No plans have been announced for the next incarnation of the space atop the Embarcadero Center that spent two decades as Chevys. Nor for the storefront next to Lupa, whose owner -- Stefano Coppola -- tried out Bistro 24 for three months (Coppola's City Grill previously occupied the space for only six months). Got a sec? Read the short list of the 86ed (after the jump).

Andy G./Yelp

Blame the locavores?

​We report September's many restaurant closures with mixed emotions. We'd be sadder about Schnitzelhaus if we didn't prefer the schnitzels at Schmidt's. We liked the idea of the Palace Steak House and the sweet couple who ran it more than the reality of the place (must have been quite the joint 30 or more years ago). We once slyly named Baghdad Nights the best Iraqi restaurant in S.F. merely because it was the only Iraqi restaurant in S.F. (and, hey, the food was good). El Raigon, the grass-fed Argentinean-style steakhouse in North Beach, will be missed (a new Mexican place called Don Pisto's is reportedly moving in). Eliza's has shuttered its 16-year-old Potrero Hill stand; the California Street outpost lives on, offering sweet, pricey Chinese fare. Potrero Hill also lost Jay's Deli. Noe Valley lost Andiamo Deli and Mi Lindo Yucatan (but the Mission Mi Lindo Yucatan, no relation, better represents its region). And we hope Tajine resurfaces once again, although we liked its first teensy Tenderloin incarnation more than the second and third (both now closed). We're excited that the Marina Fuzio space will house the third effort from Beretta owners Blum and Paganini, but we wish it'd be more Starbellyish than Berettaesque. Behold September's fallen:

• Schnitzelhaus 294 Ninth St. (at Folsom)
• Palace Steak House 3047 Mission (at 26th St.)
• Andiamo Gourmet Deli 649 Diamond (at Elizabeth)
• Baghdad Nights 682 Haight (at Pierce)
• Café Neon 1801 McAllister (at Baker)
• Chile Lindo Empanadas and Esperpento Wine Bar 3283 22nd St. (at Valencia)
• Eliza's 1457 18th St. (at Connecticut)
• El Raigon 501 Union (at Grant)
• Essencia 401 Gough (at Hayes)
• Fuzio 2175 Chestnut (at Pierce)
• Jay's Deli 501 Connecticut (at 20th St.)
• Made in Japan Teriyaki Experience 536 Kearny (at Sacramento)
• Mi Lindo Yucatan 4042 24th St. (at Noe)
• North Point Café Ghirardelli Square 900 North Point (at Larkin)
• Tajine 2080 Van Ness (at Pacific)

ipodgirl/Flickr

Eighty-sixed.

​There were some major folderoos in the dog days. Pres a Vi, the ambitious small-plates-and-wine-bar spot that occupied major footage in George Lucas' big, bland Letterman Digital Arts Center in the Presidio, closed, leaving its much smaller progenitor, Va de Vi, thriving in downtown Walnut Creek. Hime, the big, stylish, ambitious Japanese purveyor of excellent sushi and small plates not far away on Lombard, likewise departed. Cortez, which opened in the Hotel Adagio to great acclaim for the ambitious small plates of husband-and-wife team Quinn and Karen Hatfield, survived their departure (to a successful eponymous restaurant in L.A.) and several subsequent chef regimes, but finally succumbed. And Chez Panisse vet Christopher Lee's ambitious Eccolo on Fourth Street in Berkeley had a week of standing-room-only farewell dinners before its close; Lee is reportedly looking for space in S.F. or the East Bay for a possible butcher-shop-plus-takeout venue.

Apparently the sterner stuff that ambition is supposed to be made of is no match for the Great Recession. And even the modest Mikaku sushi bar closed after 22 years on Grant, when its owners returned to Japan, apparently.

Many shuttered spaces already have new occupants in sight. The highly anticipated tiki bar Smuggler's Cove from Martin Cate will occupy the three-story premises of the erstwhile Jade Bar, The Parlor is moving into what had been Dirty Martini in the Cannery Building, and a new outpost of La Boulange will occupy what was once Noe Valley Pizza. In slightly confusing news, chef-owner Phillipe Gardelle, who'd been maintaining two French restaurants on Clement, moved Chapeau! into what had been the Clementine space. In the fullness of time, he might turn the old Chapeau! location into a wine bar and/or a French takeout spot. Full list of the shuttered after the jump.

Eating In Translation/Flickr

Take a last look.

​We don't want to be like all those prognosticators proclaiming the recession is over because people are buying more (foreclosed) houses. But look what happened in July. One restaurant restyled and renamed itself (twice!) and reopened within the month. Another place morphed from a trendy lounge with DJs and eclectic small plates to a trendy jazz supper club with eclectic small plates. And a popular French neighborhood bistro closed, but only in order to do a major remodel. It felt like things were looking up. Breakdown after the jump.

brotherfromanothermother/Flickr

Postrio went dark in mid-June.

Yes, restaurants are closing in San Francisco, but it does seem that for every place that closes, another one or two spring open. (And no, they're not all fancy pizza joints.) There are other hopeful signs. Some locations of shuttered restaurants already have plans for new tenants, or the eateries themselves are slated to reopen elsewhere.

June's highest-profile closure was 20-year-old Postrio, Wolgang Puck's S.F. outpost in the Prescott Hotel. Puck has plans to renovate, redecorate, reconceive, and relaunch in 2010. Fans of West Portal's Old Krakow, the city's only white-tablecloth Polish place, might be heartened to know it hopes to find a new location. The space that housed City Grill's American comfort food will soon be French-themed Bistro 24, courtesy of Stefano Coppola, owner of both the defunct City and its next-door neighbor Lupa. In the fall, the space that was Jones Roadhouse will see the rise of yet another upscale sports bar. For those who frequented the Inner Sunset's Café Gratitude, you can still be grateful for the Mission (2400 Harrison at 20th St.) and East Bay outposts (1730 Shattuck at Virginia, Berkeley, and 230 Bay Place at Harrison, Oakland). But corporate owner Hershey's is permanently closing iconic SF chocolatier Joseph Schmidt. Oh, well -- win some, lose some. Complete list after the jump.

After seven years, Jeanty at Jack's folded

The city's highest-profile closures last month were Jack Falstaff and Jeanty at Jack's. PlumpJack Group announced the closure of Falstaff, its SOMA fine-dining outpost, in April -- its Balboa Café (3119 Fillmore at Greenwich) remains open, and the company is focused on reconcepting and remodeling PlumpJack Café (3127 Fillmore at Filbert) by the end of the year or early next (see previous blog entry). The shuttering of Jeanty at Jack's on Friday, May 22, after seven years in operation, was sudden and unexpected. Philippe Jeanty told SFoodie that San Francisco's high cost of doing business helped doom the place after seven years of operating in the iconic location. His Bistro Jeanty in Napa continues on. Bar Crudo closed its downtown location, but moved to a bigger space in Nopa (655 Divisadero at Hayes, 409-0679). A full roster of the 86'd after the jump.

SF institution Jeanty at Jack's closed Friday night

Chef Philippe Jeanty blamed the cost of doing business in San Francisco for Friday's closure of Jeanty at Jack's, one of the city's oldest restaurants. The announcement that the Sacramento Street restaurant would cease operating came late Friday afternoon, surprising many. This morning, Jeanty suggested to SFoodie that the bleak economy -- coupled with city-mandated business expenses -- combined to kill off the eatery.

"I went back and forth on it," said Jeanty, who was not present for Friday night's final dinner service in San Francisco. "Just the way the economy is going, and the specific things that the politicians are doing in San Francisco, just makes it too expensive to do business there." The chef cited Healthy San Francisco, as well as the city's 2007 paid sick leave law, and the minimum wage boost (to $9.79 per hour) that took effect earlier this year. "The politicians seem to come up with something new every week," said Jeanty, who said he plans to focus his attentions on Bistro Jeanty, his brasserie-style restaurant in Yountville. None of the San Francisco staff is transferring to Yountville.

The highest-profile closing announced this month was that of Jack Falstaff (598 2nd Street at Brannan), which shuts after service on May 9th. The restaurant is home to well-regarded chef Jonnatan Leiva, who may be moving over to currently-closed-for-renovations Plumpjack Café - or not. We had a wonderful dinner there once, seated next to Willie Brown, who was eating fried chicken (as we were) and talking about securing stem cell research funds with his companions. Gavin Newsom (whose family co-owns the Plumpjack group of restaurants and related businesses) swept in with a group of attractive young people - he was between marriages at the time. He came over to Brown's table, and we were the inadvertent witnesses to a fascinating exhibition of Good-Old-and-New-Boy mayoral joshing.

Brick, 1085 Sutter (at Larkin) - re-opening as a branch of Fly Bar
Café Majestic, 1500 Sutter (at Gough)
Ginger's Trois, 256 Kearny (at Sutter)
Terrace at the Ritz-Carlton, 600 Stockton (at Pine) - now available for private party rental only
Tortas El Primo, 3242 22nd Street (at Mission)

A mixed bag of San Francisco restaurant closures for March: two neighborhood Thai spots, a vodka bar offering over a hundred different vodkas on Belden Place, a relatively short-lived Hawaiian place in a Japantown mall, and Bong Su, a glamorous upscale Vietnamese restaurant, pictured at right, whose excellent cocktails graced our Best of SF issue in 2007. (Bong Su's sibling, Tamarine, lives on in Palo Alto.) 

Azie

A diverse spectrum of restaurants closed across San Francisco in the first two months of the year, ranging from the celebrated Azie (opened in December of 1999, and now only available as a private event space through its next-door sister restaurant, LuLu) to now-you-see-it-now-you-don't Midpoint, open barely three months in the late-lamented O'Reilly's Holy Grail space on Polk. See's Candies, up the block, not a restaurant but a neighborhood landmark (and nice for stopping off for a sweet treat after snagging a seat at Swan Oyster Depot next door) had been in its tiny space since 1936.