Waxman’s closure leaves questions
Rarely does a restaurant like Waxman’s — a place backed by a celebrity chef and located on a historic piece of San Francisco property — close abruptly without some controversy. Such is the case for Jonathan Waxman’s eponymous Ghirardelli Square restaurant, which closed last month.
According to documents obtained by The Chronicle, the New York chef is accused of leaving town with at least $116,000 in unpaid bills, stemming to back-owed rent and unpaid cleaning bills. Waxman has not responded to inquires.
A rent-related notice of default was present on the door of the Waxman’s space over the weekend. It was from Jamestown Premier GHRSQ, the proprietors of Ghirardelli Square property, and was addressed to Waxman’s.
According to the notice, Waxman’s owed an estimated $71,480.83 in rent to Jamestown, as of Sept. 19.
“The failure to pay these amounts owed constitutes a default breach of the Lease if not cured within (3) days of the date of this Notice,” the document reads.
The restaurant, under the LLC of ATLSFO, is also being sued by San Francisco restaurant janitorial company Cable Car Cleaning for $45,117.97.
In an Aug. 1 filing with the Superior Court of San Francisco, the company alleges that Waxman’s breached a contract that required the restaurant pay $5,500 per month for cleaning services. Waxman’s contract with Cable Car began in April 2016 and was renewed automatically in April 2017. The suit alleges the contract was breached by Waxman’s one month later in May 2017.
The celebrity chef ’s project was envisioned to be an anchor tenant at Ghirardelli Square and a way to breathe new life into one of the city’s most recognizable locations. But a lot can change in two years.
In August, Waxman’s entered a “renovation” phase from which it never returned. Its short-lived spinoff J Bird unexpectedly opened next door in August, but was shuttered by Labor Day.
One for the road: Pacific Coast Brewing (906 Washington St.), Old Oakland’s 29-yearold craft beer spot, known as much for its signature “whale ales” as it burgers and assorted pub snacks, is closing for good in early November.
In a statement, the Pacific Coast Brewing team blamed the decision on a few familiar culprits: lease issues and a rapidly changing Bay Area restaurant scene.
Craft beer is booming in the East Bay, a landscape that Pacific Coast Brewing helped shape almost three decades ago. Unfortunately, the trend has moved away from the traditional beer/restaurant model and on to beer gardens like Arthur Mac’s in North Oakland, a place where foot traffic is high and menus are small.
Pacific Coast Brewing was launched in late 1988 by Steve Wolff, Don Gortemiller and Barry Lazarus. And it didn’t take long for it to become a favorite among locals, thanks in part to music acts and the building’s Gold Rush-era aesthetics.
“After watching Oakland’s economy take two steps forward and one (or two) steps back, more times than we can remember,” the statement reads, “it’s gratifying to see our little Old Oakland neighborhood blooming, as well as Uptown prospering, and now the mushrooming of building cranes throughout the Broadway corridor and beyond.”
For those interested, check out Pacific Coast Brewery’s social media accounts for more intel on when you can grab one last Blue Whale, Gray Whale, Killer Whale Stout or Orca Porter.
But first, Gibson: Robin Song was a few wrist flicks from signing a lease for his passion project, Junju ,afew months ago when he got a random call about Gibson, with an offer to be its chef.
“It was literally pen to paper before that call came in,” he said.
Chance. Luck. A mix of unpredictability and good fortune. Call it what you like, but Song saw it as a sign: Maybe Junju could wait, ferment a bit while he dove into something with more stability and structure.
Gibson opens Oct. 5 in the Tenderloin’s Hotel Bijou (111 Mason St.), adding to the neighborhood’s growing list of new/ remodeled hotels with restaurants run by high-profile chefs. Think Daniel Patterson’s Alta at the Yotel hotel. And Jason Franey’s newly opened Villon in the Proper Hotel.
With a menu based around the use of a hearth, Gibson also fits into the boom of fire-focused cooking, a la Charter Oak in St. Helena.
“The reality is San Francisco is a tough place,” Song says. “It’s hard to stand out. It’s damn near impossible. But I’ve always loved the smoke and fire and being able to manipulate it in a restaurant. It opens up the pantry to a whole new element.”
As per usual with the current generation of live-fire shops, the menu is built around shareable dishes — charred cucumber with uni bagna cauda; larger potato dumplings with broccoli, pine nut and fermented peppers; smoked Sonoma duck with beetroot and blackberry.
Junju is still in Song’s head. The project will come together at some point, he says, but Gibson is his focus now. He says he’s in a good place professionally and Gibson is a new, welcome challenge. It’s a future for Song that started with a chance phone call. An unpredictable moment in an unpredictable industry. Now the chef says he’s just riding the wave.
“I want Junju to be the future of my brand,” Song says. “But Gibson is going to be fun. It would have been foolish to walk away from this and say I was going to just do my own thing.”