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Kozy Kar & Cordon Bleu Have Reopened!

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Time for a little good news!

A BAS reader named Sebastian Luke emailed to let us know that two Polk Street businesses with cult like followings have reopened.

Kozy Kar now open. Pic from Sebastian Luke.

If you recall, just before the pandemic, the porn themed bar Kozy Kar shut down because the owner wanted to run off and become an exotic dancer. While that was almost certainly a prank, it was a good one! That said, the pandemic happened shortly afterwards and the bar closed again. Now, according to our tipster, the bar has just reopened. As Sebastian says in his email, “According to the bar tenders, the bar reopened for the first time last Saturday. This evening, Thursday (Aug.26) was their second night.”

He sent along pics to prove it.

Kozy Kar’s new hours. Pic from Sebastian Luke.

Kozy Kar’s Instagram says they opened back in mid-July, but then again, you can never tell what’s real and what’s “a joke” with Kozy Kar.

As for Cordon Bleu, the delicious Vietnamese hole in the wall,  it appears they reopened on July 30th, according to their FB announcement:

Honestly Cordon Bleu is an absolute treasure and I can see why Sebastian is so excited about it reopening. He sent some photos of it too.

Hooray! People inside Cordon Bleu! Pic from Sebastian Luke.

Wanna know how good Cordon Bleu is? Here’s the review of it from my book Broke-Ass Stuart’s Guide to Living Cheaply in San Francisco:

I popped into this tiny hole in the wall for lunch the other day and walked away very pleased, very full and slightly less hung-over than when I had entered. For five bucks I got a giant piece of 5-spice chicken, country salad (a fancy-pants name for coleslaw), and meat sauce over rice. The menu claims that the 5-spice chicken is “Possibly the best chicken you will ever have outside of Vietnam” and while I may not necessarily agree (I’ve never been to Vietnam), it is damn good. For me though, the real kicker was the meat sauce. The only way I could properly describe it is, fortifying. I think that shit could cure cancer.

While the prices have obviously gone up since the book came out in 2007 (holy shit that’s a long time ago), it’s still bomb as fuck and I’m so glad they still exist!

Pic from Sebastian Luke.

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Broke-Ass Stuart - Editor In Cheap

Broke-Ass Stuart - Editor In Cheap

Stuart Schuffman, aka Broke-Ass Stuart, is a travel writer, poet, TV host, activist, and general shit-stirrer. His website BrokeAssStuart.com is one of the most influential arts & culture sites in the San Francisco Bay Area and his freelance writing has been featured in Lonely Planet, Conde Nast Traveler, The Bold Italic, Geek.com and too many other outlets to remember. His weekly column, Broke-Ass City, appears every other Thursday in the San Francisco Examiner. Stuart’s writing has been translated into four languages. In 2011 Stuart created and hosted the travel show Young, Broke, and Beautiful on IFC and in 2015 he ran for Mayor of San Francisco and got nearly 20k votes.

He's been called "an Underground legend": SF Chronicle, "an SF cult hero":SF Bay Guardian, and "the chief of cheap": Time Out New York.