In recent weeks, customers have lined up for hours, even longer than the usual wait, for a table at Pacific Café in San Francisco, hoping for one last bite of crab-stuffed petrale sole and a final complimentary pour of wine before the Richmond District mainstay closed.
Co-owners Frank Gundry and Ross Warren recently announced that Sunday, Aug. 30, will be their last day of service, after putting the restaurant up for sale for $195,000 this spring so they can retire. At least one potential buyer is interested in preserving the business as Pacific Café, said Gundry, who started as a waiter soon after it opened in 1974 and became co-owner in 2014. But Gundry, 78, and Warren, 80, aren’t willing to wait for negotiations to go through to retire — nor are longtime staff members, host Roy Manabat, 80, and cooks Jian Huang and Roger Li, who are both in their late 60s, Gundry said. Without a buyer in place, the future of the restaurant as regulars know it remains unclear.
“We’ve been so busy and swamped you hardly have time to get your bearings,” Gundry said. “We didn’t realize how popular we were.”
Known more to locals than tourists, the 52-year-old restaurant at 7000 Geary Blvd. is a place where old-school seafood dishes like Parmesan-crusted halibut and salad tossed in shrimp Louie dressing have been on the menu almost from the beginning, always served with plentiful baskets of sourdough. Nostalgic food and enduring traditions, like its famous free wine for people waiting for a table, are a large part of Pacific Café’s appeal…