Owner of longstanding Fisherman’s Wharf restaurants slaps SF with multimillion dollar lawsuit
SAN FRANCISCO (KRON) — A controversy at San Francisco’s Fisherman’s Wharf is hitting a boiling point. The owner of two longstanding restaurants is now suing the City of San Francisco, alleging that it failed in its job of maintaining the wharf as a tourist spot, causing harm to businesses.
Now shuttered, Fishermen’s Grotto and Tarantino’s were long-popular tourist hotspots at Fisherman’s Wharf that are now in the middle of a contentious legal battle. The restaurants’ ownership group, Herringbone Tavern, Inc., has slapped the city with a multimillion-dollar lawsuit.
In the lengthy, 144-page complaint, the owner said the city allowed the wharf to fall apart with severe erosion and did not bring it up to earthquake standards. In addition, homelessness and crime has plagued the area, the owner alleges.
As a result of the City of San Francisco’s and the Port Authority’s willful failure to safeguard the historic Fisherman’s Wharf against out of control unhoused population, criminal activity in and around the Fisherman’s Wharf, and unsafe structural conditions, Herringbone Tavern, Inc., a once thriving local business operating Fisherman’s Grotto and Tarantino’s, was irreparably harmed. The City of San Francisco, by way of its own Lease language, was committed to:
“[M]aintain the character of Fisherman’s Wharf in the same general manner as it exists at the date of this lease. In this connection, the parties recognize that the area of Fisherman’s Wharf is a major tourist attraction and that it is to the benefit of both the Port and Tenant that such condition be maintained throughout the term of this lease.”
Both the City of San Francisco and the Port Authority failed to deliver on its contractual promise. As a result, Herringbone Tavern Inc.’s businesses, and those of many others, have been tragically lost. The City has looked the other way and expected business owners and citizens alike to fend for themselves.
Herringbone Tavern, Inc.
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Despite spending millions in upgrades at the two restaurants, the owner maintains they were unable to succeed, due to the wharf’s neglect. For decades, tourists flocked to Fisherman’s Wharf for the sun, food and sites.
However, Fishermen’s Grotto and Tarantino’s both closed during the pandemic and never reopened. KRON4.com reached out to the City of San Francisco, which owns and manages the property. The city said the lawsuit is a shame.
In a statement to KRON4, the city said in part:
“Over the last year, Herringbone has attempted a number of maneuvers to get out of paying the $1.7 million dollars it owes the city in back rent. This appears to be yet another attempt. However, once we are served with the lawsuit, we will review it and respond in court.”
Fishermen’s Grotto opened in 1935, Tarantino’s in 1946. Herringbone bought both restaurants in 2016.
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