A San Francisco wine bar that aimed to be a community gathering spot for South of Market residents is closing.
Following a string of challenges with its location, including construction and theft, Decant SF, the queer-owned, bottle shop-bar hybrid that opened in 2019 in SoMa, will close on June 20. “It’s definitely very disappointing,” Decant co-founder Simi Grewal said, noting that the final straw was the months of construction in front of the store. The city’s $54 million Folsom-Howard Streetscape Project, which was designed to improve traffic safety, has significantly impacted foot traffic to Decant. This made it difficult to pay their rent, and Grewal said her landlord was only willing to make minor concessions. “We’ve been trying very hard to find a middle ground with our landlord. We offered all kinds of different workarounds.”
Decant, a partnership between sommeliers and friends Grewal and Cara Patricia, sold wines exclusively from sustainably-farmed vineyards and prioritized ones from women-, LGBTQ+- and BIPOC-owned wineries. The space, at 1168 Folsom Street, stood out from other Bay Area wine shops and bars with its focus on accessibility and wine education, offering frequent events and classes; five different wine clubs (plus a tinned fish club); and a wide selection of affordable bottles. “It’s not about drinking what wines are trending on Instagram, what someone at the cool new restaurant says you’re supposed to be drinking,” Patricia told the Chronicle in 2019. “It’s about you deciding what you love.”…