A legendary bar prepares to reopen. A 91-year-old restaurant narrowly escapes eviction. And a familiar Washington Square restaurant goes dark. Welcome to the complicated business of keeping San Francisco interesting.
San Francisco has a particular talent for falling madly in love with places we don't visit nearly enough.
We adore our historic bars. Our old Italian restaurants. Our little neighborhood institutions with the crooked floors, cranky bartenders, and bathrooms that haven't been remodeled since the Nixon administration.
We tell everybody how wonderful they are.
We get nostalgic about them.
We become positively indignant when one closes.
And then somebody asks when we last went there.
Well.
That's awkward.
Which brings me to North Beach, where three familiar establishments have had three very different experiences this year.
One is preparing a comeback. One nearly didn't survive. And one has already turned out the lights.
15 Romolo: The Comeback Kid
Tucked into a little alley off Broadway, 15 Romolo is one of those places that makes you feel like you're in on a San Francisco secret.
Except everybody knows about it.
It's been around in one form or another for 115 years, and it occupies that wonderful middle ground between dive bar and cocktail lounge.
Too stylish to be a dive. Too eccentric to be fancy.
My kind of place.
Owners Jon and Kelly Anne Gasparini bought it in 1998, and after more than two years of renovations, they're hoping to reopen in mid-October, according to the SF Standard.
The work included refinishing the old mahogany walls and upgrading the plumbing.
Which, admittedly, doesn't sound particularly sexy.
But if you've ever owned an old San Francisco building, you know that plumbing is where romance goes to die.
You fall in love with the historic woodwork.
Then you discover what 115 years of pipes have been doing behind it.
The reopening has already been delayed. Earlier this year, the expectation was spring. Now it's mid-October, with no confirmed opening date in the latest reporting.
So don't go marching down the alley expecting a celebratory cocktail just yet.
But when those doors do open, I hope people show up.
And then show up again.
Because a fabulous reopening party is one thing.
A profitable Tuesday in February is another.
Tommaso's: Ninety-One Years and a Very Scary July
Now for the one that makes my stomach hurt a little.
Tommaso's Ristorante Italiano has been serving North Beach since 1935.
Nineteen thirty-five!
Franklin Roosevelt was president. The Golden Gate Bridge wasn't finished. And somebody in North Beach was already making pizza in a wood-fired brick oven.
That oven is legendary, by the way. It's said to have inspired the one at Chez Panisse.
Francis Ford Coppola is among the restaurant's famous admirers.
But apparently, even a legendary oven and a Hollywood fan club can't pay the rent.
In July, Tommaso's received a notice demanding $40,800 in back rent.
Four months' worth.
The deadline was July 22.
The money was paid July 23, according to the San Francisco Chronicle, and the restaurant stayed open.
That's a close call.
And here's what really struck me about the Chronicle's reporting.
Owner Maureen Donegan described the restaurant's business as wildly unpredictable. One Wednesday might be terrific. Thursday could be dead. Friday might be okay. Saturday is usually busy. Sunday? Who knows.
Think about that.
Ninety-one years of history, generations of loyal customers, famous visitors, a beloved brick oven, and you're still wondering whether enough people will come in on Thursday. (2026 is hard!)
The Crotti family operated Tommaso's for 51 years before selling it in 2024.
That's a remarkable run.
And it makes me think about how easily we confuse historic with secure.
They're not the same thing.
A restaurant can be beloved and still struggle.
A place can be famous and still need customers.
And if you've been meaning to go back to Tommaso's for years?
Maybe stop meaning to.
Go have dinner.
Preferably on a Thursday.
Park Tavern: The Lights Went Out on Washington Square
And then there's Park Tavern, across from Washington Square.
This one isn't nearly as old as the others. It opened in 2011, which in North Beach years makes it practically a toddler.
But it became a recognizable part of the neighborhood. (I thought it was delicious!)
Great location. Big windows. A front-row seat to one of San Francisco's most wonderful public spaces.
It closed for a major remodel, reopened in November 2024, and then closed again on June 21, 2026.
Less than two years after the reopening.
No public reason was given for the closure in the reporting, and no replacement tenant had been announced as of the latest available information.
And now there's an empty restaurant space facing Washington Square.
I hate those.
Not because every vacant storefront is a catastrophe. Businesses come and go. New things happen.
But a restaurant facing a neighborhood square is more than a place to eat.
It's part of the scenery of daily life.
The people sitting by the windows. The servers moving between tables. The lights on at night.
You may not even go inside very often.
But you notice when it goes dark.
North Beach Doesn't Need Another Museum. It Needs Customers.
Here's what I find so interesting about these three stories.
15 Romolo is 115 years old and investing in its future.
Tommaso's is 91 and fighting to stay open.
Park Tavern was only 15 and couldn't make it through this latest chapter.
There's no tidy lesson here about old businesses being better than new ones.
And I don't think we can blame every closure on rent, or tourism, or the economy, or whatever San Francisco happens to be arguing about this week.
Every business has its own circumstances.
But I do think there's a lesson about what it takes to keep a neighborhood alive.
We cannot preserve our favorite places entirely through nostalgia.
We have to actually use them.
Not just when friends visit from out of town.
Not just on a beautiful Saturday afternoon when Washington Square is packed.
On a random Wednesday.
On a rainy Thursday.
When we're tired and could just order something delivered.
The Italian Heritage Parade brought crowds through North Beach on October 11, and I love that the neighborhood still throws itself a proper celebration.
But the parade is one day.
The businesses have to survive the other 364.
And Let's Not Forget Caffe Trieste
Speaking of institutions, Caffe Trieste celebrated its 70th anniversary this April.
Seventy years of espresso, conversation, neighborhood gossip, the old-guy morning coffee klatch, artists, writers, and people who probably should have gone home three hours ago.
That's the kind of place that helps make North Beach North Beach.
And it reminds me why I love this neighborhood so much.
It's not just the restaurants or the bars.
It's the layers.
The old Italian history. The Beat Generation. The literary crowd. The tourists. The regulars who've been occupying the same café tables since approximately 1974.
It's a neighborhood with a memory.
And a pretty strong personality.
Which is exactly how I like my neighborhoods.
The Real Estate Connection? It's Bigger Than You Think.
I spend a lot of time talking to buyers about square footage, disclosures, inspections, and the actual condition of a property.
Important stuff.
But there's another part of buying a home that doesn't appear on an inspection report.
What does your life look like when you walk out the front door?
Can you wander down the street for coffee?
Do you have a favorite restaurant within walking distance?
Is there a bar where somebody recognizes you?
A bookstore? A park? A bakery that's been there longer than you've been alive?
Those things matter.
They're not guaranteed to last forever, of course. And they don't replace the financial and practical considerations of buying a home.
But they are part of what makes a place feel like home.
When you're buying in North Beach, you're not just buying the condo, TCI or the house.
You're buying into a neighborhood with a hundred years of stories happening right outside.
And the opportunity to become part of the next chapter.
So here's my unsolicited advice for the week.
If 15 Romolo reopens, go have a drink.
If you love Tommaso's, go have dinner.
If you're passing Caffe Trieste, stop for an espresso.
And if somebody eventually opens something wonderful in the old Park Tavern space, give it a chance.
Because the thing that makes North Beach special isn't that everything stays the same.
It's that people keep finding reasons to show up.
Even on a Wednesday.
Thinking about living in North Beach? Take a look at my North Beach neighborhood guide. And if you want to talk about buying or selling in San Francisco, let's connect. I love a good conversation about real estate almost as much as I love a neighborhood with a little history and a lot of character.
