{"id":232692,"date":"2026-03-23T15:33:16","date_gmt":"2026-03-23T15:33:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/232692\/"},"modified":"2026-03-23T15:33:16","modified_gmt":"2026-03-23T15:33:16","slug":"shuggies-in-sf-serves-complimentary-snacks-at-its-new-happy-hour","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/232692\/","title":{"rendered":"Shuggie\u2019s in SF serves complimentary snacks at its new happy hour"},"content":{"rendered":"

The dishes arrive like little presents. Plates of mini focaccia showered with grana padano and black pepper. Seaweed-draped brandade fritters dotted with herbed cream. Stuffed and battered gypsy peppers with broccoli flowers, a farmers\u2019 market answer to jalape\u00f1o poppers.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In fact, they literally are gifts.<\/p>\n

But business was slow much of last year and has been almost nonexistent since Valentine\u2019s Day, said Kayla Abe, who owns the vibrantly decorated restaurant with her partner, David Murphy, Shuggie\u2019s cowboy-hat wearing chef. Even in the face of high inflation, the dip in visitors pushed them to try the happy hour, which they also see as a way to extend hospitality to regulars and newcomers, encouraging them to leave the house and \u201cengage with San Francisco,\u201d Abe said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cDefinitely people are coming out less, and it\u2019s understandable as to why. For us, we\u2019d rather eat a little bit of that margin and have a little bit of business than have zero people coming out,\u201d Abe said. \u201cThe barrier to entry is not that much.\u201d<\/p>\n

The happy hour runs Tuesday to Friday from 5 p.m. to 6 p.m. Depending on when customers arrive, they might receive up to four free snacks with the order of one drink \u2014 mostly smaller versions of what is already on the menu, such as Funyuns-like\u00a0onion peel crisps ($9), crunchy tubes that poke out from bowls of maitake dip.\u00a0<\/p>\n

A few happy-hour traditions sputtered back to life after the pandemic, like the decades-long \u201cfree oyster Fridays\u201d at El Rio, the Mission District bar and dance club. But as people spend less money on alcohol<\/a> when they go out to eat, the majority of restaurants and bars only offer discounts on food during happy hour \u2014 nothing like Shuggie\u2019s generous parade of small plates.<\/p>\n

Abe said the happy hour fits into their generally positive approach toward big challenges like climate change, such as the ways the restaurant incorporates food into its menus that might otherwise go to waste with climate consequences, like invasive boar and salmon collars. \u201cRather than thinking of climate as a doom-and-gloom situation, let\u2019s turn all this constraint into something beautiful,\u201d she said. \u201cHow do we take this s\u2014y economic situation and tendency not to go out and turn that into something worth celebrating as well?\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Abe also cites the happy hour into an aperitivo or tapas tradition in parts of Italy and Spain, where people stop for a drink and small snack offered by the bar. \u201cIt\u2019s that idea of being able to enjoy a little bite before dinner,\u201d she said. \u201cHave a drink. Relax.\u201d<\/p>\n

At Shuggie\u2019s, so far about half of the customers have stayed on for a full meal, Abe said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt remains to be seen how it will shake out,\u201d she said. But there are promising signs. \u201cWhether it\u2019s more food or a second drink, people are hanging out a little longer.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The dishes arrive like little presents. Plates of mini focaccia showered with grana padano and black pepper. Seaweed-draped…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":232693,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[7,413,412,101,103,102,104,106,105],"class_list":{"0":"post-232692","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-francisco","8":"tag-california","9":"tag-food","10":"tag-restaurants","11":"tag-san-francisco","12":"tag-san-francisco-headlines","13":"tag-san-francisco-news","14":"tag-sf","15":"tag-sf-headlines","16":"tag-sf-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/232692","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=232692"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/232692\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/232693"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=232692"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=232692"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=232692"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}