History
John's Grill opened in 1908, [1] [2] reportedly the first restaurant to open in downtown San Francisco after the 1906 earthquake and fire. [3] The founding John is said to have died the same year after being hit by a cable car. In 1983, the restaurant was damaged by fire and was closed for approximately nine months. [1] Gus Konstin, a former waiter and maitre d' at Jack's Restaurant, bought the restaurant and the building in 1969 with his wife, Sydna; [2] [4] she was the manager and was responsible for expanding the dinner business and adding Hammett and Maltese Falcon memorabilia. [5] The Konstins retired in 1990 and their son John Konstin became the owner. [4]
Dashiell Hammett worked for the Pinkerton Detective Agency in the next-door Flood Building and was a regular at John's Grill; in his 1930 novel The Maltese Falcon (adapted in 1941 into the film starring Humphrey Bogart), detective Sam Spade orders "chops, baked potatoes, [and] sliced tomatoes" there. [1] [6] [7] [8] [9] In 1997, the restaurant was declared a literary landmark by the American Library Association. [7] [10]
In September 2020, the restaurant reopened for indoor dining on the first day that city COVID-19 restrictions forbidding it were lifted; [11] [12] [13] in August 2021, the restaurant began requiring patrons to show proof of vaccination for both indoor and outdoor seating, the first in the Bay Area to impose such a requirement. [14] In December 2022, after a lawsuit, it was one of the first businesses to obtain compensation from an insurer for the loss of business caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. [15]
Since the 2010s, John's Grill has offered annual free lunches on election day, presided over by former mayor Willie Brown. [16] [17] [18] [19] It celebrated its 115th anniversary in 2023 with a free block party with wine. [3] [19] In 2024, it was open for the first time on Thanksgiving Day. [20] [21] [22]
Restaurant
John's Grill serves steakhouse food [23] and seafood, and the owners have avoided change. [2] In 2020, a San Francisco Chronicle columnist characterized it as "filled with wood and leather surfaces, white tablecloths and old-school vibes"; [11] in 2021 another described the wood paneling as "dark like Havana cigars" and wrote that the restaurant seemed to have been "preserved in enamel" despite some additions to the menu: "Dinner here is a parade of meat and potatoes, splashed with Francophile butter sauces in infinite configurations." [9] Numerous photos on the walls of past and present celebrities and politicians document its importance as a "power lunch" spot. [1] [7] [24] [25] Jack LaLanne, who was a regular patron, has a salad on the menu named for him. [7]
On the floor above is an exhibition of Maltese Falcon memorabilia, including translated versions of the novel and stills from the film, [1] and a 17-inch (43 cm) lead and bronze falcon statue weighing 150 pounds (68 kg). [26] [27] The falcon is by sculptor Peter Schifrin and students at the Academy of Art San Francisco and was a 2007 replacement for a smaller plaster falcon, a replica of that in the film and signed by the last surviving cast member, Elisha Cook Jr., which was stolen earlier that year together with some books from the collection. [7] [28] [29] [30] The replacement is filled with lead and fishing weights to discourage theft. [7] The Dashiell Hammett Society is based at John's Grill. [22]
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