Two well-established San Francisco Fisherman’s Wharf restaurants permanently shuttered their doors

Two neighboring restaurants at Fisherman’s Wharf will officially not reopen since going dark back in March 2020. Pompei’s Grotto and Lou’s Fish Shack will terminate their leases with the Port of San Francisco early, according to the San Francisco Chronicle (the Chronicle and SFGATE are both owned by Hearst but have separate newsrooms).

At a meeting on Tuesday, July 25, San Francisco’s Board of Supervisors passed mutual agreements to terminate the leases and licenses of both restaurants. Next, Mayor London Breed must approve the agreements. 

Both seafood restaurants are on Jefferson Street and have long histories: Pompei’s Grotto first opened in 1946, while Lou’s Fish Shack opened in 1988. The two spots stopped paying rent back in March 2020 due to financial impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the Chronicle. They now collectively owe the Port more than $1 million in rent and interest. Under the termination agreements, Pompei’s Grotto must pay a fee of $150,000 and Lou’s must pay one of $200,000, but will not be on the hook for the remaining rent balance and late fees.

SFGATE could not reach Pompei’s Grotto or Lou’s Fish Shack for comment in time for publication. 

“We’ve had 15 people calling this morning, we are not closed,” Carden told SFGATE at the time. “We’re trying to get open soon.”

Unfortunately, Pompei’s Grotto never did reopen, and two years later, those rumors finally came to fruition. In April 2022, Fisherman’s Wharf also lost another historic restaurant to the pandemic: Alioto’s, a Sicilian seafood establishment that was nearly 100 years old.