After 92 years in business, San Francisco bar the Final Final is putting the final, final touch on its sports bar accoutrements: food. As of Monday, January 26, the Cow Hollow favorite will offer a tight menu of sports-watching favorites, just in time for Super Bowl LX in nearby Santa Clara.
It’s the end cap to a season of change at the long-running bar. Owners Arnold and Linda Prien had run the Final Final since 1978, later joined by their sons Michael, Elliott, and Corey. Then in July 2024, Arnold Prien decided it was time to retire and move out of state, selling the bar to Joseph Wallace and Robert Lemons, the duo who own Bus Stop Saloon and Left Door, just blocks away. Any bar with the staying power of 90 years (at the time of sale), will of course be a little rough around the edges, so Wallace and Lemons set about making improvements without changing too much of the character. Among the things they refreshed in September 2025 were the bathrooms. They also added new banquette seating and 18 new TVs, and moved the bar back six feet to create more space for patrons. The sports paraphernalia remains, the pool tables are still playable, and yes — there is, once again, complimentary popcorn. “With Bus Stop and now Final Final, these are San Francisco institutions that you really are trying to keep around for generations to come,” Wallace says. “So we got in there and did a bunch of work to the space while trying to keep it feeling like the Final Final of old.”
One other addition to the bar that isn’t quite evident from the main area is a brand-new kitchen, Wallace shares. There wasn’t much food to speak of, prior to this. There was the aforementioned popcorn, but also corn dogs and frozen Papa Murphy’s pizzas. Chef Paul Toxqui, who previously worked at Michelin-starred Acquerello and Saison, leads the kitchen at the partners’ other property, Left Door, so Wallace and Lemons tapped him to create high-quality, “classic sports bar food” for the Final Final, Wallace says. “What we are attracted to is, can we create a sports bar where I can go watch the game, I could be with friends, I could be on a date,” he says. “I can have a nice cocktail or a beer and I can also enjoy some food and it doesn’t necessarily need to have an exhaustive menu. Our thought is, let’s try to do a few things really, really well.”
Wallace’s first item of business was to offer a “a great wing-sports bar experience.” Toxqui serves classic Buffalo wings with ranch and blue cheese dip, plus fries, of course, in this case, curly. For more heartier bites, there’s a smash burger made with grass-fed beef, house sauce, plus fixins (American cheese, lettuce, pickles, and onions), on a potato bun. Two styles of beef hot dogs gives diners a choice between a dog with ketchup and mustard on the side, or a more dressed-up version with house pickle relish, onions, and Dijonnaise. Rounding things out for dessert is organic vanilla soft serve in a cone, and everything is priced at $13 or less (well, barring any diners placing a double order of wings, that is).
But it’s not just the food menu and interior that got an upgrade. The team also looked at the cocktails, tapping Scott Baird (previously of Trick Dog, 15 Romolo, and Starlite Room) to create some drinks. Expect classics like a bloody mary and a Manhattan, but with some zhuzhes, such as an orange syrup made by the team that is deployed in the margarita. But there are a few deviations from the classics, such as a lesser-seen Colorado bulldog made with vodka, coffee liqueur, Mexican Coca-Cola, and cascara cream. There’s also the fun AMF Jell-O shot made with vodka, rum, gin, tequila, blue Curaçao, sour mix, and Sprite (the ingredients are the dead giveaway to what AMF stands for)…