San Francisco Cafe May Never Reopen. Owners Blame Empty Offices

[Leroy N. Soetoro]

https://sfstandard.com/2023/12/29/san-francisco-cafe-may-never-reopen-
owners-blame-empty-
offices/?utm_source=newsshowcase&utm_medium=gnews&utm_campaign=CDAqEAgAKgc
ICjDWi6sLMNOWwwMwq4LfAQ&utm_content=rundown

Days after filing for bankruptcy, the co-owner of San Francisco's Blue
Front Cafe said he has no plans to reopen his Haight Street restaurant
after running it for more than 30 years.

Located at 1430 Haight St., the cafe is known for dishing out
Mediterranean fare, including shawarma, gyros and kebabs. The cafe has
been operating at the same location since it first opened in 1961,
according to co-owner Issam Khoury.

Khoury confirmed he filed for bankruptcy when reached by phone and said
the restaurant has been closed since November and that he has no plans to
reopen.

"I don't think we can reopen," he said. "We don't know what's going to
happen."

Khoury said sales took a nosedive during Covid, with remote work and empty
Downtown offices killing the catering arm of his restaurant, which he said
generated $10,000 a day in revenue.

Co-owner Hani Khoury also confirmed the business' indefinite closure.

"We are out of Blue Front Cafe indefinitely due to the lack of enough
business and the diminishing corporate lunches which we depended on to
supplement our business income," Hani Khoury said in an email.

The cafe's rent has dropped from its pre-pandemic rate of $12,400 a month
to $6,500, but the Khourys still can't afford to keep the doors open.

"Until March 17, 2020, we had orders like crazy," Issam Khoury said. "We
stayed open until November, but there were no orders—not enough to pay the
rent."

Worse still, poor sales have made it hard for Khoury to pay off a non-
forgivable business loan from the Small Business Administration he took
out during the pandemic to stay afloat. Khoury declined to share the loan
amount, only saying it is "a lot."

Khoury blamed the pandemic for bad business, saying it killed the catering
portion of his business and meant he could no longer afford to pay off his
loan and pay rent.

"This is what's going on in San Francisco right now," he said. "Those of
us who were depending on catering, we're suffering right now."

The restaurant's financial woes are apparent beyond the bankruptcy filing.
When The Standard visited Blue Front Cafe, a Nov. 29 eviction notice
showed they owned two months in back rent totaling $13,000. Khoury said he
had not yet seen the eviction notice.

Blue Front Cafe has also faced financial woes, even before the pandemic.
In 2019, the cafe cut back its hours, blaming construction along the upper
Haight Street corridor and increasingly popular food delivery apps, which
they said cut into profits.

Pausing in front of the Blue Front Cafe, Brian Kingan gazed inside. He had
ordered and paid for a chicken shawarma wrap online but only found the
restaurant shuttered.

"I'll have to see if I can get reimbursed," Kingan said.

Standing in the rain, still hungry and at a loss, Kingan reminisced about
Blue Front's cuisine.

"It was really good," Kingan said.

The Blue Front Cafe's landlord, Shukri Hanhan, did not respond to requests
for comment.


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