Chile relleno burritos served on pale-pink plates. A wall painted in a gold coin pattern. Gaudy, conical brass ceiling fixtures arranged in threes. This is not the interior of some recently excavated greasy spoon from the “Mad Men” era — it’s the interior at Goldenette (opens in new tab), a gleaming, week-old diner on Polk Street that radiates the color of sunshine.
Along with Chicken Fried Palace (opens in new tab) in the Mission and Hamburguesa Bar in SoMa, it’s part of a trio of retro-inspired food and beverage spots that have opened in San Francisco in the past three months, all of which sport decor that harkens back to the era of blue plate specials and endless cups of coffee in a vinyl booth. They join a handful of other nostalgia-inducing projects that have debuted in the past five years, including Midwestern-style Crocker-Amazon bar The Halfway Club and the whimsical, Michelin-starred North Beach restaurant Hilda and Jesse (opens in new tab). A wave of nosh-talgia is washing over San Francisco, and these new arrivals are feeding the city’s sudden appetite for the past.
All offer approachable, broadly similar food. Hamburguesa Bar is a burger joint with a full liquor license, while Goldenette is largely Tex-Mex. Chicken Fried Palace’s culinary ambitions run to salt cod pancakes and smoked trout. As it happens, all serve milkshakes. But what really ties them together is the kitschy vibes — the feeling of stepping into the 20th century for a leisurely breakfast. Unlike many old-school diners, none is open 24 hours, but each is comfortable and spacious, with booth and counter seating. Above all, they reject the trend toward depersonalized, QR-code-driven service, favoring an atmosphere where patrons might want to linger a bit.
“It’s all face-to-face,” Goldenette co-owner Eddie Naser says. “You get to talk to the repeats. People love that about a diner.”
‘We had to adapt’
The recent arrivals mark a reversal of fortune for the city’s diner culture, which had fallen into the doldrums. Yes, HBO’s gay hockey show “Heated Rivalry” sent a new generation flocking to St. Francis Fountain to discover the tuna melt. But the Embarcadero’s Fog City and Bayshore Boulevard’s 24-hour Silver Crest have closed, while Louis’ Restaurant near Lands End never reopened after the pandemic. In Mission-Bernal, Al’s Good Food is struggling to make its existence known. And over in the Castro, Orphan Andy’s was put up for sale for a song, its hours drastically pared back…