San Francisco Chronicle - (Sunday)
2020’ s most significant restaurant closures
How do you sum up the frustration and heartache of 2020 for the Bay Area’s restaurant community? There’s no real way to quantify the loss of livelihoods, gathering spaces and businesses into which people put so much sweat and creativity.
Since it’s impossible to capture them all, we put together a list of the restaurant closures we feel are most significant this year. Not all were a result of the pandemic. A couple were planned before it hit, while one was a shocking casualty of the summer wildfires.
But the vast majority of restaurant losses over the year occurred because of restrictions on dining related to COVID19. Since shelterinplace started in midMarch, Chronicle restaurant critic Soleil Ho has tracked permanent closures of Bay Area restaurants as well as coffeehouses, bars and brew pubs. The list is around 140 and counting, not including individual locations. As of July, Yelp had already counted the closure of 300 restaurants in the region, and there have been thousands of layoffs in the foodservice sector.
In addition to the restaurants commemorated on this list, there are so many others that were beloved in their communities after putting in decades of service. In Novato, it was the 20yearold American restaurant Wildfox. In Berkeley, 35yearold Mediterranean Lalime’s. Clarke’s Charcoal Burger made meals for Mountain View families for 75 years.
In San Francisco, Alfred’s Steakhouse, a clubby downtown restaurant that had been through many changes of ownership in its 90 years, closed, as did 83yearold Louis’ Restaurant, popular for breakfast with a view of the Sutro Baths. Asianfusion innovator the House, which had been in North Beach since 1994, also shut down. Far East Cafe, S. F. Chinatown’s 100yearold banquet restaurant, is expected to close at the end of the month, though local leaders are still trying to save it.
For diners, the loss of these beloved community spaces is hard to fathom. Here is a tribute to some of the best that closed their kitchens for good this year.
Dopo
A favorite on Oakland’s Piedmont Avenue, Jon and Kayta Smulewitz’s Siciliantheme restaurant was known for its pizza, housemade salumi and fresh pasta and was once a regular on The Chronicle’s Top 100 list. In its early days, the restaurant drew diners from all over the Bay Area to Oakland at a time when that was by no means guaranteed — and inspired other ambitious destinations to open in the city. It closed in early October, shortly after its 17th anniversary, after making a go with takeout.
Francisca’s
Despite its popularity for its affordable finedining tasting menu, this ItalianVenezeulan restaurant from Katerina and Manny Torres Gimenez closed in October after running out of federal funding. Its fourcourse $ 39 menu, served in a nofrills dining room on Mission Street near the border of Bernal Heights, earned it a spot on The Chronicle’s 2020 Top Restaurants. The Gimenezes defied traditional ideas about atmosphere and decor in order to make finedininglevel food accessible to a wider audience. Manny said he plans to reopen in a new location.
Fringale
Chefowner JeanMarie Legendre closed his 28yearold French restaurant in SoMa in late January, well before shelterinplace. Fringale helped put SoMa on the map as a dining destination and popularized the concept of serving regional French food in a casual setting. But he struggled with other factors, including declining lunch business and construction in the neighborhood. Especially during its heyday under Gerald Hirigoyen, who later moved on to Piperade, the restaurant’s classic bistro fare such as frisee lardons and some Basque specialties put it on The Chronicle’s Top 100 and Michelin’s Bib Gourmand lists.
Ichi Sushi
Ichi was a San Francisco neighborhood sushi restaurant so popular that it expanded to a new location, only to go back to its original spot when owners Tim and Erin Archuleta realized the smaller size suited them better. First opened in Bernal Heights in 2006, the business was listed on the Top 100 and received other accolades due to the care its chefs put into highquality fish and housemade condiments. While the quality of the sushi was high and creative in its presentations, it became a favorite thanks to the warmth of the Archuletas and their staff and the coziness of the original location. It closed in June.
La Folie
Roland Passot’s flagship restaurant, which earned Michelin stars and continued to be a favorite among local critics through its 32 years, closed in March, right before shelterinplace, as Passot approached his 65th birthday. Former Chronicle critic Michael Bauer gave the cozy yet elegant restaurant a coveted four stars for dishes like duck breast with Tokyo turnips, duck liver panna cotta and huckleberry gastrique. The restaurant represented the pinnacle of French fine dining in San Francisco, and its closure marks the end of an era for white tablecloths, poached lobster and foie gras.