{"id":36005,"date":"2025-11-03T15:29:22","date_gmt":"2025-11-03T15:29:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/36005\/"},"modified":"2025-11-03T15:29:22","modified_gmt":"2025-11-03T15:29:22","slug":"old-school-restaurants-arent-dying-theyre-having-banner-years","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/36005\/","title":{"rendered":"Old-school restaurants aren\u2019t dying \u2014 they\u2019re having banner years"},"content":{"rendered":"

After several years of struggle, San Francisco\u2019s 2025 dining comeback isn\u2019t about what\u2019s new. It\u2019s not about pop-ups making pizza from bespoke flour, Tokyo-inspired listening bars, or heady prix-fixe menus. It\u2019s about the restaurants that never went away \u2014 the ones without a name-brand chef, ones that lean on martini-and-red-meat menus.<\/p>\n

Places like Bix in Jackson Square, which, according to owner Doug Biederbeck, is having its best year since it opened in 1988. That was during the city\u2019s coke-fueled yuppie days. It was an era of seminal restaurants like Stars, Masa\u2019s, Campton Place, and Fog City Diner (which Biederbeck himself helped open), all of which are gone. But Bix remains. And it\u2019s killing it. <\/p>\n

Inside, there\u2019s a golden hum and the murmur of regulars at the bar. Servers wear jackets and vests. \u201cWe still check coats; we still polish silver,\u201d says Biederbeck. \u201cHospitality is half the job \u2014 maybe more.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"ASource: Minh Connors for The Standard\"ASource: Minh Connors for The Standard\"AThe dining area of Bix. | Source: Minh Connors for The Standard<\/p>\n

All across town, a similar story is playing out at restaurants that, at a glance, appear to be out of step with the times. Brazen Head, which opened in 1980 in Cow Hollow, is also having a banner year. Owner Eddie Savino says sales have doubled since 2020. House of Prime Rib, Tadich Grill, John\u2019s Grill \u2014 all places that once might have seemed disconnected from San Francisco\u2019s progressive culinary scene \u2014 are packed.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The situation flummoxes even the people who are benefitting most. Biederbeck, for one, can\u2019t put his finger on the reasons for Bix\u2019s smashing success this year. Sure, it\u2019s situated on Gold Street, the clandestine, brick-lined alley in the Jonny Ives-revitalized neighborhood Jackson Square<\/a>. But it\u2019s more than that \u2014\u00a0\u201cit\u2019s the largest volume of sales we\u2019ve ever achieved,\u201d he says of his moody, high-ceilinged restaurant with the intentional patina of yesteryear, where a host offers to check your coat or bag \u2014 a once-common nicety, now on the brink of extinction. \u201cI suppose it\u2019s a red herring to try to compare where we started to where we are now,\u201d he says. \u201cAll I know is we are busier and have higher sales.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

That other \u201980s baby, Brazen Head, isn\u2019t doing anything notably different, according to Savino. Yes, the parklet built in 2020 added some seats, allowing the restaurant to turn more tables. But the lights are still set low and red<\/a>; servers still jot orders by hand. Dinner service stretches to midnight \u2014 and, in a town that\u2019s increasingly early-to-bed, people dine there late. On a recent Saturday at nearly 9 p.m., the wait time for a table was nearly two hours. <\/p>\n

Despite the requisite Impossible burger, the Brazen Head menu mostly hews to classics like double-cut pork chops, shrimp scampi, and prime rib with creamed spinach (though the pro move is to substitute a baked potato with a pat of butter). \u201cNext year, you\u2019re going to get what you had last night, and it\u2019ll be the same time, if not better,\u201d Savino says, his Bronx accent still strong. \u201cWe\u2019re not trying to be intimidating. Our food is just a little bit above what you\u2019d get at Grandma\u2019s house.\u201d<\/p>\n

In a restless city that loves to reinvent itself and is proud of its\u00a0 forward culinary thinking, consistency \u2014 that promise of sameness \u2014 is what diners seem to crave. At Brazen Head and Bix, the people who were working behind the bar a decade ago are still there \u2014and sometimes they\u2019re serving the same people in front of it. But surprisingly, the mix of people patronizing these restaurants is one of the only things changing.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"Sam\u2019s Grill is one of the oldest restaurants in the U.S. | Source: Courtesy Michael Garland\/Sam’s Grill<\/p>\n

Sam\u2019s Grill, which opened in 1867, still looks and feels like a lunchroom for bankers: white tablecloths, dark wood paneling, crab Louie, waiters in bow ties. But owner Peter Quartaroli says he has watched the clientele subtly shift. According to him, there are more women, more younger diners, more people who \u201cwant to touch something authentic.\u201d And, though he declined to share specifics, he says business is nearly at its peak. \u201cWe\u2019re as busy as we\u2019ve ever been.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

If the pandemic\u2019s inward looking did anything, it made people nostalgic for the classics. \u201cI think there\u2019s a comfort that happens in places like this,\u201d Quartaroli says. Sam\u2019s provides the warmth of a club without the fee to get in. This is not to say that it doesn\u2019t still attract an older clientele \u2014 including its most famous regular, former Mayor Willie Brown, 91. \u201cWe\u2019re mentioned in more obituaries than any other restaurant in San Francisco,\u201d Quartaroli laughs. \u201cPeople have built their lives around eating here.\u201d<\/p>\n

Indeed, the classics are back in fashion all over the city. At House of Prime Rib, people reserve tables a year in advance; the booths at 176-year-old Tadich Grill are full at lunch; John\u2019s Grill celebrated its 115th birthday a couple of years ago with a block party for 3,000. These aren\u2019t just restaurants anymore; they\u2019re institutions. As Dan O\u2019Neill, the longtime bartender at Brazen Head, says, \u201cI guess if we had some holes in our concept, we\u2019d know by now.\u201d<\/p>\n

A week ago, Mayor Daniel Lurie, \u201ctrying to help build up traffic\u201d in Cow Hollow, stopped by Perry\u2019s, which has been there for 56 years. \u201cBusiness is very good; we\u2019re grateful,\u201d owner Perry Butler said on Lurie\u2019s food-obsessed Instagram<\/a>, speaking of the generations of people who have made it their spot. \u201cIt was slow going coming out of the pandemic, but we came out of it and beyond.\u201d Lurie said he was there to be a booster for Union Street, despite the fact that Perry\u2019s has never needed it.<\/p>\n

\"ABrazen Head. | Source: Minh Connors for The Standard\"ABix. | Source: Minh Connors for The Standard\"TwoBrazen Head. | Source: Minh Connors for The Standard<\/p>\n

Why the retro renaissance? Maybe it\u2019s a reaction to the fatigue of novelty \u2014 the constant churn of openings and closures, the QR codes and counter service. It\u2019s definitely fueled by martinis. Bix sells about 100 a night. There\u2019s also a theatrical element to these places \u2014 the antique cash register from the 1920s still dings through the dining room at Brazen Head; private, curtained booths facilitate clandestine meetings at Sam\u2019s Grill; there\u2019s a pianist at Bix.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But most likely, as Biederbeck suggests, people simply missed being properly taken care of. \u201cThere\u2019s nothing worse than a server saying, \u2018I\u2019ll go grab a spoon for your soup,\u2019\u201d he says. \u201cThat\u2019s just bush league.\u201d Old-school restaurants \u2014 the good ones, at least \u2014 were built for the long game. Their currency isn\u2019t really food or a fancy chef \u2014 it\u2019s connection. \u201cBrazen Head doesn\u2019t have to be the best restaurant,\u201d says Savino. \u201cIt just has to be your favorite.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After several years of struggle, San Francisco\u2019s 2025 dining comeback isn\u2019t about what\u2019s new. It\u2019s not about pop-ups…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":36006,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[15231,25424,20327,412,101,103,102,104,106,105],"class_list":["post-36005","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-francisco","tag-cow-hollow","tag-financial-district","tag-jackson-square","tag-restaurants","tag-san-francisco","tag-san-francisco-headlines","tag-san-francisco-news","tag-sf","tag-sf-headlines","tag-sf-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36005","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=36005"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36005\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/36006"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36005"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36005"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36005"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}