Power lunch scene powers down in S.F.
Dining during pandemic is slower, more casual
When John Konstin Jr. looked out of the secondfloor window of his Union Square restaurant, John’s Grill, at around 2 p.m. on Tuesday, he could see a bustling lunch crowd gathering outside, and in the middle of it was former San Francisco mayor, Chronicle columnist and manabouttown Willie Brown.
Brown’s presence is emblematic of how for the last 112 years John’s Grill has been a staple in San Francisco’s business lunch scene, a noir, woodpaneled haunt for highpowered lawyers, real estate moguls and wellknown city officials. But when it reopened last week, it had palm trees, space heaters and a new name: the Oasis on Ellis. And though some of the city’s movers and shakers have shown up, Konstin said they’re more casual too, trading dress shirts and slacks for jeans and Tshirts.
“It’s just so funny because all of us are used to the fastpaced hustle of it all, but I think we’re also getting used to the slower pace,” Konstin said. “It’s giving the team a breather.”
What’s happening at John’s a microcosm of what’s happening across San Francisco’s business lunch
scene: Previously frenetic restaurants are still open, but slowing down — and dressing down. The Vault, located at the bottom of a Financial District building that once housed Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley traders and bankers, has switched out its $50 steaks and $19 shrimp cocktails for plastic cups and lobster boil. At Waterbar, Managing Partner Pete Sittnick has gone from wearing a suit and rubbing elbows with city officials to wearing jeans and sometimes a Hawaiian shirt and serving young families and Millennial diners.
Sittnick, who has replaced threecourse meals with fish and chips, lobster rolls, and burgers, said he doesn’t mind the new, more quiet lunch landscape.
“I had a couple of big real estate guys who came in to Waterbar (last week), and they basically said it was the first time in months that they had been out for lunch,” Sittnick said. “I asked them what was happening in the real estate market, and they just shrugged. They just wanted to relax. Business wasn’t something they were even thinking about.”
It’s worth noting that being able to accept, even to find enjoyment, in having smaller crowds and lower revenue is a luxury afforded to wellfunded restaurants in the city. The margins are sometimes wider for these places than the city’s momandpop shops functioning on shoestring budgets.
That isn’t to say these places aren’t hustling to court the new casual midday diner. Another example of the city’s business lunch transition, in terms of aesthetics and clientele, can be found at the Vault. The luxury space known as a business meal destination was opened last year by the Hi Neighbor Hospitality Group, a team that also runs Trestle and Corridor in San Francisco.
What gave the the Vault its credibility as a power player destination was its location in a 52story building that, before the pandemic, was home to about 7,000 financial workers.
In June, the Vault became the Vault Garden, an outdoor restaurant, with about 100 seats and a decidedly more casual style than its predecessor. The new venture’s cups are made from a hard plastic to keep them from breaking if a gust of wind sweeps them from a table. Blankets, which are washed daily, are available to diners when the weather is chilly. And one of the Vault Garden’s more popular themed meals recently has been a lobster boil.
Ryan Cole of Hi Neighbor said the Vault Garden is a reflection of the demeanor of the city’s diners, as offices are shut down in the city and people are looking for a mental reprieve from the ongoing pandemic.
“Right now, the bar is so low for people when they come to a restaurant, if you just bring them a plate of food that they didn’t have to do anything for, they’re like ‘OK, you win.’ It’s just a different experience now,” Cole said.
But as many operators are adjusting to life devoid of a highpressure business lunch scenes, some are still chasing, and trying to recreate, that former buzzy scene.
Like John’s Grill, One Market restaurant has been a stalwart in San Francisco’s business lunch scene for several decades. Even with indoor operations currently unavailable, the restaurant is still offering multicourse, upscale meals to office workers, many of whom were previously regulars, but in the form of togo orders.
Eventually, the city’s business lunch scene will come back, said Michael Deller, a managing partner at One Market, and there will be a need.
“It’s the whole conviviality of (the business lunch). That’s what gives the city its cosmopolitan flavor,” Dellar said. “New York has it, and San Francisco has it, and there’s a good reason to bring it back.”
Still, even restaurateurs who are lucky enough to relax a little bit as workday crowds disappear acknowledge that it’s in part because they have few other options but to make their restaurants more casual right now.
Michael Mina, who has a restaurant empire spanning the country, said he has been able to slow down and spend more time with his hobbies, such as riding motorcycles, due to reduced crowds at business lunch destinations like Pabu and International Smoke. Pabu, his popular Japanese izakaya, has reopened more casually with an expanded patio and boxed meals.
But part of his more relaxed attitude, he said, is that what happens next is largely out of his control.
“There’s nothing really we can do about the business side of things except try new options,” Mina said. “Outside of that, I’m just trying to enjoy the things that I can.”
“If food you that just they bring didn’t (people) have to a plate do of anything for, they’re like ‘OK, you win.’ It’s just a different experience now.”
Ryan Cole, Hi Neighbor Hospitality Group