San Francisco’s iconic Cliff House closes doors
SAN FRANCISCO —
San Francisco’s iconic Cliff House restaurant that has served tourists and locals for more than a century from atop a hill overlooking the Pacific Ocean is closing its doors at the end of the year.
Dan and Mary Hountalas, the restaurant’s proprietors since 1973, said in a post Sunday on the restaurant’s website they are closing Dec. 31 because of losses brought on by the pandemic and a dispute over renewing their long-term operating contract with the
National Park Service.
Built in 1863, the seaside restaurant has been a San Francisco institution and a top tourist attraction. It has gone through several transformations. The first modest, wood-frame structure was destroyed in a fire in 1894. It was rebuilt and fashioned after a French chateau that survived the 1906 San Francisco earthquake but burned down the following year. The third and present Cliff House, neoclassic in design, was built in 1909.
The National Park Service bought the property in 1977, four years after the Hountalas began leasing it. Their last longterm contract with the Park Service expired in June 2018, and the restaurant had been operating since then under short-term contracts, the couple said.
The Hountalas said the National Park Service should have selected an operator on a long-term basis “to ensure the continued operation of this national treasure.”
The couple said 180 employees will lose their jobs and they encouraged customers to show their support by sending an email to the Golden Gate National Recreation Area’s superintendent.