The former space of Senegalese food and live music venue Bissap Baobab may soon be home to a new wine and dancing bar from San Francisco’s popular Bar Part Time.
The owners of the natural wine bar and dance club filed applications with San Francisco’s planning department in April to take over the expansive space at 2243 Mission St., which Bissap Baobab left vacant last year. Bar Part Time co-owner Jeremy Castillo told SFGATE that the new outpost will be called Downtime.
“I was born in the Mission and grew up around the corner [from Bissap Baobab],” Castillo told SFGATE. “I’m most excited about giving back to the neighborhood that has given so much to me.”
Castillo said he expects to open Downtime sometime this fall, and he plans to keep Bar Part Time open at 496 14th St.
The new addition comes after Bar Part Time was awarded $100,000 as part of the Office of Economic and Workforce Development’s small-business grant program to help fill vacant spaces. In February, the office announced $6.3 million in city funds to help small businesses open in vacant storefronts or make critical upgrades to existing storefronts.
“It’s no secret that opening a small business in this city requires an enormous amount of upfront capital between permits, licensing, tenant improvements, ADA compliance, legal fees, and more,” Castillo said. “The grant goes directly toward these costs as we navigate the process of opening a major hospitality project.”
Current city planning documents show that the forthcoming space will include a DJ booth, a dance floor and a dining area. No structural or exterior work is expected.
Fellow Mission business Chicken Fried Palace also received $100,000 from the city’s new grant program. Chef and co-owner Seth Stowaway told SFGATE that he was surprised to learn his restaurant was recently awarded $100,000, which he intends to use to launch a cocktail program at Chicken Fried Palace. Stowaway said he plans to transfer the liquor license from his former Michelin-starred restaurant Osito for the new project.
In November, Chicken Fried Palace took over the former WesBurger space at 2240 Mission St., which happens to be directly across the street from the former Bissap Baobab location. That means the city is investing $200,000 in this challenged stretch of Mission Street. Stowaway said that foot traffic has been slow, especially during the day. He hopes that the forthcoming cocktail program will help attract a livelier evening crowd.
“We wanted to be able to do late-night stuff because we want to cater to young folks,” Stowaway said. “We wanna bring people to the street — it’s an important street.”
The small-business grant also came at an uncertain time for Chicken Fried Palace with the restaurant seeing sluggish sales. Stowaway believes the grant will help keep his business afloat.
“We would only be able to do this because of it,” Stowaway said of the cocktail program. “I don’t think we would have been able to keep going. It would have been a real struggle, so it feels like a huge blessing to have gotten that.”