The sign at Cliff House came down at noon Thursday, marking the permanent end of the San Francisco restaurant and a bitter, if fitting farewell to 2020 — a year full of heart-wrenching closures of beloved institutions.
Dan and Mary Hountalas, who have run the restaurants at the waterfront property since 1973, announced Cliff House’s closure earlier in December. But they have been engaged in contract negotiations since then with the landlord, the National Park Service, and on Wednesday declined the Park Service’s latest offer of a lease extension. Because the Hountalases trademarked the name “Cliff House,” any new operator brought in by the National Park Service would not be able to use the name, which is why the sign must come down.
In 15 minutes, a trio of workers had unbolted and removed all 10 letters while a crowd of several hundred Cliff House supporters booed heartily from the sidewalk and a helicopter circled. Shortly after the letters were unbolted, they were loaded into a white pickup truck and driven off to an undisclosed location for what one of the dismantling crew said was “for safekeeping.”
Some former Cliff House patrons and other onlookers strolled around the restaurant’s exterior, peeking through windows at the empty restaurant, bar and gift shop. Breakers broke on the rocks below and swooping seabirds kept a noisy vigil on the proceedings.
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“It’s a poignant end to a challenging year,” said Elizabeth Kessler, who peeked through the window of the shuttered restaurant at the table where she and her husband, Jim, came regularly to sip Cosmopolitans.
“It sucks,” said Jim. “What’s going to come here next? Who knows. Today is a mark of transition. The question is, what’s on the other side? For the Cliff House and for us.”
Sen. Dianne Feinstein said in a statement that she encouraged “the National Park Service to explore all possible opportunities to maintain the historic role of this building as a restaurant and visitor destination. Our history is too important to set aside so readily.”
The Hountalases say that the 3½-year extension the Park Service offered on their lease wasn’t long enough to make up some of the lost profit from the pandemic.
“It just does not work financially for us and our (financial) partner. We’d be very lucky, quite frankly, if any restaurant can open to any extent in the city of San Francisco before maybe next summer,” Mary Hountalas said, anticipating continued indoor dining restrictions during the pandemic.
Hountalas said it costs $60,000 per month to maintain and secure the building even without operating the three restaurants that are included in the lease — the formal Sutro’s, more casual Bistro and a cafe at nearby Lands End — and she can’t afford to keep that up.
The National Park Service said the federal agency had hoped to continue working with the Hountalases in the coming years, according to a statement.
“This decision, while disappointing for us too, does not mean the Cliff House building will permanently close. The NPS is committed to maintaining this iconic building,” the statement read.
It’s unclear, however, whether the Cliff House building will be a restaurant in the future. In a Dec. 3 letter to the Hountalases, the National Park Service said it was reevaluating “the feasibility of anyone operating” the space as a restaurant in the near future due to the state of the food industry. In a new web page about the Cliff House building’s status, the National Park Service states it “is committed to maintaining and providing public services” at the property, but does not address a possible new restaurant.
The closure of the restaurant comes after the Hountalases’ current contract was supposed to expire in 2018. The National Park Service issued a series of short-term lease extensions as it embarked on its formal solicitation process, which is required by law because it’s a federal agency. The process began in summer 2019 and was scheduled to yield a new operator announcement in summer 2020, but the pandemic brought more delays.
Ultimately, Hountalas said, Cliff House’s permanent closure is a result of all these delays.
“We were left hanging — we’ve been hanging for 2½ years — then COVID came along and that was the final straw,” she said. “We can’t just hang on and wait until they get their act together.”
Another nostalgic window-peeker was Monica Syler, who said she brought an extra face mask because she had been crying over the demise of the restaurant where she and her husband, Greg, held their wedding reception two decades ago. Tears and paper face masks, she said, don’t mix.
The Sylers said they came to say a nostalgic goodbye to the restaurant where they had a monthly brunch for years.
“I knew I might need an extra mask,” she said, patting her coat pocket. “I have it right here.”
Janelle Bitker and Steve Rubenstein are San Francisco Chronicle staff writers. Email: janelle.bitker@sfchronicle.com srubenstein@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @janellebitker @SteveRubeSF
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