Reports have been trickling in that Shotwell’s, the Central Mission’s favorite neighborhood bar, has been a bit too … neighborly during the shelter-in-place order, which prohibits the consumption of alcohol on site at bars.
So we stopped by the bar this Friday to check it out. And, well, a small neighborhood happy hour did appear to be taking place, with around eight customers drinking beers and chatting it up. To be sure, there were far fewer people than on an ordinary Friday evening — a crowd more befitting of a weekday happy hour.
So we asked owner Tom Nadonna, who was there with his business partner, David Hall, what was happening.
He said he’s been doing alcohol to-go. “And because we’re a regulars local bar, people will come in and will linger for a few minutes and say hi, will get a beer to go …. “
“They’re not hanging out, necessarily,” he said.
What about the people standing by the pool table, holding beers, and others at the bar with partially consumed beers?
“Those are neighbors catching up,” he said.
And then he agreed: They were hanging out.
Like most businesses, Shotwell’s finds itself in a tough spot. Almost every business we’ve spoken to in the Mission is deeply suffering: watching revenue plummet, laying off employees, and not knowing whether government aid will come through. Everyone, save grocery stores, is going through it.
“It’s so devastating,” Nadonna said. “A lot of people are not gonna come back from this.”
Added co-owner Hall: “If we don’t do this, we’re fuckin’ done. Literally. We have two mortgages. We’re done.”
Other bars, however, have been making it work while abiding by the order. Many have set up tables at the doorway that prevent customers from coming inside. While neighbors may come up and chat with the bartenders, they take their drinks back home. When asked, Nadonna said he would consider something similar. At present, his “to-go” system has had customers walk through the front and out the back.
“All right, guys, you gotta go,” he said, after admitting he was “a little bit” worried that he might be violating the order, which says bars must be closed for gatherings.
“No more catching up,” he said.
[clear]
Every single person in these photos appears to be white. The owners admitted ON THE RECORD that they were violating the shelter-in-place order. Did the owners and patrons violate the order because their racial privilege makes them feel safe from police enforcement? Or because they know they are at lower risk of COVID than Black, Brown, and Indigenous people?
So many calls for censorship! Thanks for continuing to write articles during this.
So you can dispatch a reporter to check out a bar where maybe people are lingering … but you still haven’t posted any story about the suspected arson related murder that happened on Natoma yesterday? One is clickbait bs the other is news. Maybe just maybe. Stick to the news.
Girl, Joe just read you for filth.
Dear sir —
Thanks for the tip. We heard about the Natoma situation only late yesterday. Yesterday, you’ll recall, was Easter Sunday. And we have a staff small enough to fit in a Toyota Tercel.
As for the rest of it, your description of a business openly and admittedly flouting a multi-county public health order during a pandemic as not newsworthy reveals an interesting sense of news judgment.
Your comparison of the two events as somehow two halves of a whole and an either-or — and your belief that we’re in this for the clicks — are ill-advised and don’t reflect much in the way of knowledge about this or most any publication.
If you want us to “stick to the news,” why don’t you become a member and fund our efforts, which you have read for free.
https://missionlocal.org/mission-local-membership/
Best,
JE
Dear Sir,
Respectfully, I am not stupid enough to fall for that. Of course your article on the shotwell bar is not about a major flouting of the public health order, that is just what the headline makes it appear. Definitionally, that is clickbait journalism. There are huge gatherings of homeless ppl who are not social distancing. With public restrooms closed the streets are open sewers. There was the secret club busted over the weekend involving hundreds of people. With lots of recreational areas closed or their parking lots closed the remaining areas have gotten more crowded. Meanwhile, you showed up to Shotwell and found a few people lingering. Then you wrote an article anyway. Don’t kid yourself or your readers that the article was newsworthy.
I am not comparing the importance of covering a murder vs public health emergencies. I am only comparing a nothing burger to a major crime story. If you want to report on public health issues in a serious way, perhaps focus on the major vectors of infection. Shotwell by your own reporting is clearly not that.
I love Shotwell’s (Kostritzer!) but I am also high risk and freaked out by all the people not staying home. I just wanted to say I appreciate how this comment area is heated but not going to the dregs like on nextdoor.
As a confirmed atheist I can promise you that my disgust with Shotwell’s has nothing to do with Easter or the myth surrounding it with. As a human being interested in surviving this pandemic, as well as my famIly and friends surviving, I can promise you my disgust and anger is genuine. No one has the right to put others in jeopardy. Neither the owner nor the customers. Personally I question any bar being essential when it’s simple enough to go to the store and pick up your alcohol. Sorry if it’s such a hardship but no one is that special. We all have tour do our share.
If this bar can’t follow pandemic rules, why would they follow regular health rules when this is over? And the people hanging out in the bar determined to keep their regular routine, you need to get over your image of yourself – it is the opposite of cool. You know there is no good reason to hang out at bar right now.
Well, I guess I can’t make a call here. I haven’t seen the hanging out being reported, but if that’s happened, that’s not fair to everyone else.
.000054 of Californians have the virus. Stop kidding yourselves.
The Mission District has the highest rate of coronavirus in the City as reported by SF General and UCSF on Wednesday. Also reported was that there is a 30 to 40% false negative in testing. Knowing all this there should be NO exception to these businesses operating under the radar. This is irresponsible and these owners have no moral or ethics. STOP SPREADING THE VIRUS IN MY NEIGHBORHOOD AND DO YOUR PART. YOUR BUSINESS IS NOT THE ONLY ONE AND WILL NOT BE THE EXCEPTION DO IT THE RIGHT WAY OR SEIZE OPERATIONS
Hi, do you have a link or more info about the stats for the Mission? I haven’t seen it broken down by neighborhood before.
Well, I am not surprised. Wherever and whenever there is alcohol the people will come. I know of several places in the neighborhood that are still open…but only if your either a regular or vetted for by that person. It’s the 2020 version of speakeasies. History repeats itself, there is no music and no loud talking. It is quite a site. Lol.
Do I agree? No. But it seems to me law enforcement needs to step up and get it together and enforce.
I agree also that it is hard to pay bills, sustain oneself and family. It’s really a tough call on both sides.
Are you all so high and mighty because it’s Easter!? Jesus!
And Mission Local, save your narc pieces for real violators like the nightly Covid casino at Garfield Park.
Sound alike those are both real violations
Also I like how you use the epitaph ‘narc’ for shining a spotlight on Shotwells but have no problem ‘narcing’ on the brown people at Grafield
Bitch, please, not everything is about race.
COVID Casino! I’m not going to forget that one 😀 I wonder how the park guys are getting on. The social distancing signs don’t seem to be making an impact there…
As someone who has lived in the neighborhood for 25 years, I have a lot of sympathy for cafés and restaurants that have seen sharp declines in business and may have a hard time surviving an extended shelter-in-place order. But what Shotwell’s is doing is foolish and selfish and downright dangerous. When I pass by, I don’t see people picking up takeout food. I see both the front and back doors wide open, with 10 or 12 people inside, many of them standing shoulder-to-shoulder at the bar; others playing pool or standing around the pool table; others sitting at a table—all of them enjoying a leisurely and clearly non-takeout alcoholic beverage. Signs posted on the front and back doors say something like, “If you feel unwell, don’t come in.” Don’t the owners understand that people can spread this virus while they are asymptomatic or presymptomatic? That’s why it’s so contagious, that’s why a worldwide pandemic rages on, and that’s why both the state and city governments have ordered all bars to close.
How many extra people are going to get sick and die because the owners of Shotwell’s choose to ignore both the science and the legal orders? We all have a responsibility to keep each other safe; nothing is more important than that. Shame on you, Tom Nadonna and David Hall. Shame shame shame.
As a neighbor, wow, this is really disappointing, entitled, unacceptable behavior from Shotwell’s.
A longtime business like theirs closing would be unfortunate, but a business closure is obviously not comparable to hundreds of people dying every day. We’ve been able to avoid that outcome so far in San Francisco only because *everyone* is taking this seriously and *everyone* is making major sacrifices – everyone except, apparently, Shotwell’s, which sees itself as an exception.
This is hard for us all, but Mission Local has covered numerous neighborhood businesses that are following the rules and offering takeout only, like The Liberties over on Guerrero that came up with the idea to let customers donate a meal to a person who lost their job – generating more business and also supporting the community. And then Shotwell’s comes along and decides to cheat, putting us all at risk? The neighborhood deserves an apology.
If you truly see Shotwell’s as a neighborhood gem, you might have written a more nuanced and thoroughly reported piece, though that would likely have lessened the click bait punch. As it happens, I stopped by Shotwell’s moments after you on Friday to pick up take-out food and wine—you failed to mention that they’re partnering with a restaurant to offer sandwiches and salads for hungry neighbors. What I saw was 3 cohabitating couples (including the owners) standing a proper distance from each other, checking in while picking up their provisions.
I get that small businesses everywhere, driven by the desire to keep people and bills paid, may not all be doing it perfectly along the way. And yes, Shotwell’s might want to consider setting up a table at the entrance moving forward. But after this gotcha piece, I wonder if you’ve just shut down the possibility of them moving forward at all.
Actually, setting up a one way path from entry to exit might work better than a table at the front door–you avoid the clusters of people waiting on the sidewalk for their orders.
Even the owners reluctantly admitted that people were hanging out in the bar, in violation of the shelter in place rules. The comment about needing to be open because of two mortgages tells us this wasn’t a momentary breaking of the ordnance but rather a practice they are following to make money.
I call BS. The author clearly stated that individuals were consuming beer on premises rather than just picking up liquor. This is illegal, negligent, and affects us all. In addition, one noble act does not negate their wrong doing. It doesn’t change my opinion of the situation and highly doubt that others who are angry and upset would feel differently because they are being charitable. I suggest you look at statistical models which demonstrate what precisely happens to the curve when we don’t follow direction and choose to interact with “only” 1-2 people. It’s a disaster.
I call BS on your reactionary overfrothing.
Rather than hurl insults, why don’t you go look at some science and then come back to the table to discuss.
I bet none of them lived here through the AIDS epidemic. And if they did, and they’re behaving like this… shame on them. They may end up losing the bar because people wont want to support a bar that was cheated while everyone else did their part.
For people who get so butthurt when called “entitled” – they sure seem intent on proving the stereotype.
Typical San Francisco. The rules apply to everybody but us.
Alcohol isn’t necessary, nor are bars being open during a pandemic. I don’t think the rates of alcoholism in SF, esp. in Mission, really need to increase during a medical emergency. Such entitlement.
What is failing us is our system. Stop the witch hunt against small business owners that are hurting. You all should be mad at your government policies and yourselves. There are people experiencing homelessness clustering when hotel beds are open. We don’t have enough tests or PPEs. The CDC employees weren’t even distancing in their own tweets of their office. The failure is the system that supports our ticker symbols and greed instead of our people, not small businesses.
“Drinking is not needed“ is not the answer either. Did you buy ice cream at the store? Have you ordered crap on amazon you don’t need? You are just as bad. So look at yourself. Better yet, have you supported small businesses lately? Have you donated to your local nonprofit? Have you helped a neighbor? If you are free of any of these sins good for you, you’re a damn saint, and I’ll never be you. If not, look to better yourself instead of blasting your neighborhood businesses that are providing food and trying to make it through this horrible mess.
Oh come on. A bar barely open for takeout and we’re subjected to a rise in alcoholism? Stop with the overreaction.
I was reminded that hospitals want to avoid drinkers in withdrawal coming through. That’s the reason behind facilitating access to alcohol.
You said it SF Doc. If we are unable to sustain this level of relatively moderate inconvenience we will see a longer period of increasingly stringent enforcement. Thus more businesses going under. More illness and death.
To these “neighborly” folk I say, grow up! You are endangering the whole community with your stupidity and selfishness.
To the owners of the bar I say, you should be fined and put under strict house arrest an ankle bracelet GPS. Your bar should be shuttered.
Relatively moderate? We’ve been shut down for over a month, with many peoples livelihoods affected drastically.
Moderate? Just stop.
I feel for the owners but, wow, what entitlement and arrogance.
Oh give me a break. There’s less than a handful of people keeping their distance. Stop with the overreaction.
Seriously. What the hell?!?
DEPORT THEM!
Reporting and enforcement! Journalism with an immediate impact.