26-YEAR-OLD HAIGHT STREET RUM SPECIALIST HOBSON’S CHOICE IS CLOSING

Hobson’s Choice, a decades-old bar on San Francisco’s world-famous Haight Street, will be closing its doors for good. The word comes via local news blog Broke-Ass Stuart, which reports that Hobson’s Choice owner Chris Dickerson shared plans to close the bar over the weekend. Dickerson reportedly blamed the bar’s closure on decreased foot traffic on Haight Street, which became famous in the 1960s as a hotbed for the era’s hippie movement. Dickerson says despite the bar’s landlord lowering the rent, the changing demographics of the neighborhood make remaining open untenable.

The bar, located on the corner of Haight and Clayton streets, bills itself as a Victorian rum house and serves a few varieties of batched rum-based punches. The Upper Haight watering hole sports sticky wooden floors, dangling chandeliers, and a mirrored back bar stocked with plenty of rums. Its closure comes about five months after the closure of long-running Haight Street restaurant Blue Front Cafe, which shuttered in January after an impressive 63-year run. In April 2023, Haight Street jazz bar Club Deluxe also closed its doors for good, ending 30 years of live music and cold drinks.

Revolving sushi bar heads to Sacramento

Kura Revolving Sushi, the Japanese sushi chain with locations throughout the Bay Area including in San Francisco and San Jose, will open its next restaurant outside Sacramento. The Bee reports that Kura will open at 250 Gibson Drive, Suite 140, in Roseville, joining a first Sacramento-area outpost at 1600 Ethan Way, Suite 10, in the Arden Arcade neighborhood.

Downtown listening bar opens for lunch

Yokai, the downtown San Francisco Japanese listening bar from the team behind Michelin Guide-listed Gozu, has expanded its hours to include lunch. The restaurant and bar is now open Tuesday through Friday from 11:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. with reservations available via Tock. Walk-in guests are welcome, too.

Catch the Grandma Series at Burdell

On Sunday, May 19, James Beard Award-nominated Oakland restaurant Burdell will host the next installment of its Grandma Series dinners. Chef Anthony Salguero of Popoca in Oakland will join forces with Burdell’s own Geoff Davis. The dinner will showcase Salguero’s Puerto Rican and Salvadoran heritage. Tickets, which are available via Resy, cost $95 and include a four-course menu. Seatings start at 5:30 p.m. and run through 8:45 p.m.

2024-05-07T16:09:44Z dg43tfdfdgfd