Rent Hikes & Losing Baseball Force Amici’s Pizza, Pete’s Tavern, Pedro’s Cantina to Shutter
It’s rough being a Giants fan these days. With the organization’s legendary Manager Bruce Bochy retiring, and the team working on its 3rd consecutive losing season, things aren’t as bright as they were during the Championship years of 2010, 2012 and 2014, when San Francisco dominated all of baseball.
Giants won their 3rd World Series in 2014.
Businesses around the ballpark have seen a significant loss in foot traffic since the losing streak began, fewer fans are coming to see games, Giants game attendance is at a 10 year low, and that hurts business around the ballpark.
But that’s not the only reason four different established restaurants have closed around Giant’s Stadium this month, recent low game attendance was just the nail in the coffin. Rent hikes in the area have been obscene. With the new Warriors Stadium going up just blocks from Giants stadium, big corporate players have been clamoring to get a toe hold in the area, landlords are salivating, rents are surging.
Pete’s Tavern RIP
Amici’s Pizza (2004-2019), Pete’s Tavern (2007-2019 & Pedro’s Cantina 2010-2019) all closed on King St. this week. Tony Gemignani’s Slice House on 2nd St. (2015-2019) also closed in August. You can still order Amici’s pizza, they operate a delivery only spot in an undisclosed address in SoMa. Tony Gemignani still has its spot in North Beach but the SoMa adventure is over. Pete & Pedro were both owned by Peter Osborne’s Golden Bear Restaurant Company, they also own MoMo’s down the street (which is still open). They’re also the ones who bought Kelley’s Mission Rock and turned it into the yacht-tastic ‘Mission Rock Resort’.
Tony Gemignani slice house RIP
Last year Mission Bay and South Beach became the priciest places to rent an apartment in San Francisco on average, both areas were averaging more than $4,000/month for an apartment. Mind you, these areas are not just new, boxy, and devoid of personality, they have nowhere near the municipal transportation needed to support their growing population. With two sports stadiums, a children’s hospital, and hundreds of new apartments within blocks of each other, this area is going to be an insane clusterfuck of traffic for years to come. The two sports teams combined have 120+ home games each year (not including postseason) there will be problems getting ambulances through the traffic, carrying sick children to the ER. The thought of which is stomach-turning.
While billionaires are carving up massive swaths of our city’s waterfront to build stadiums and corporate towers, with coporate suites and luxury condominiums to match, the city had to fight a lawsuit by wealthy residents to open just a 200 bed navigation center on the Embarcadero. Small business owners, especially in the service industry are being priced out and kicked aside, you can bet that the corporate partners of the Chase Stadium people will move right in to take their place. This week restaurant owners held a meeting at City Hall to voice their concerns with the obsene cost of doing buisness in SF, which is driving away the service industry in droves. Thankfully we do have politicians still who care about small business.
Let’s hope going forward that common sense, wins over greed.
