San Francisco’s loss of beer and fried chicken sandwiches appears to be Oakland’s gain.
Monk’s Kettle, the Mission neighborhood pub, is closing its original location at 16th and Albion streets in June and moving to the Rockridge neighborhood in Oakland this fall, owner Christian Albertson said.
The lauded beer bar has served as a home for craft beer in the Mission since it opened in December 2007. The reason for the move? “A larger space in an excellent neighborhood,” the owner said, plus the “drastically changed customer behavior San Francisco is experiencing.”
In case negotiations didn’t pan out, Albertson started searching for other leases in February, when his 16th Street lease expired. Even though things went well, “in the end, the move to Rockridge proved the better option,” Albertson said in a statement.
The new space, at 5484 College Ave., just two blocks south of the Rockridge BART station, will provide a more spacious floor plan with more seats, a covered back deck with a lemon tree, and parklets in the front.
In its 16-year tenure, the gastropub has witnessed big change in its clientele: In the early years, its owner said, “the Mission was filled with restaurant staff, artists, working people: our people.”
For its first nine years, the Monk’s Kettle’s kitchen operated until 1 a.m. every night, and the gastropub got a second dinner rush at 10 or 11 p.m. when restaurant industry workers dropped by for a post-shift drink and meal.
“Nowadays, an 11 p.m. closing often feels too late,” the owner said.
A lot can happen in 16 years, and a lot did happen: The influx of tech workers, the rise of food-delivery services, the shift of socialization from in-person to online.
As more and more tech shuttles come through the Mission, Albertson said, workers who are offered free food in their workplace are less likely to show up to visit neighborhood restaurants.
Deliveries at Monk’s Kettle now sometimes make up a third of its total sales, the owner said. In the past, someone would have sat at the bar with a friend, had a couple drinks and shared a meal. Today, they order one entree, delivered to their door by the services that take 20 percent of that revenue.
“The entire experience of The Monk’s Kettle has now been transformed from a welcoming place where you hang out with friends in a fun atmosphere, to eating a lukewarm burger and fries in your apartment,” the owner said.
During its last months in San Francisco, the bar will bring back weekly special dishes from old menus, paired with vintage beers from its cellar from the same year. Closer to its last San Francisco days, Monk’s Kettle will have a final cellar sale, featuring rare beers dating back to 2008.
And, just like that, the Monk’s Kettle will pack up and move its lionhead backbar across the Bay.
“We are seeking a return to the beginning, to the time when we were surrounded by our community,” Albertson said, “to a time when that community was more stable and, in particular, to a time when that community was more given to going out and experiencing the world through its restaurants, bars and shops.”
Monk’s Kettle is located at 3141 16th St. It is open Sunday to Thursday from noon to 11 p.m. and Friday to Saturday from noon to midnight.
I have lived near Valencia Street for many years. Pre-pandemic it was lively almost every night. Now it’s crickets most nights.
You can’t just blame “tech.” We have been relentless with anti-business policies. I have voted for some myself. But now we’re seeing the cost. And we also haven’t done anywhere near enough to make the city feel safe.
If we want the area to rebound, we have to be willing to support businesses, and to make people feel safe going out. Philosophically it all starts there. Mission Local is the right place to have this discussion.
I live right at 16th and Valencia where a new sandwich and a new pizza shop just opened the last two weeks.
That proves you wrong about Valencia dying.
“A lot can happen in 16 years, and a lot did happen: The influx of tech workers, the rise of food delivery services, the shift of socialization from in-person to online.”
Something else that changed a lot since the early teens – street conditions around 16th & Mission.
^So true. We could have had the new market rate housing at 16/Mission, which would have really helped the node of this neighborhood feel safer and look better, but the loony-far-left faught it off and now we get crappy tiny homes, illegal street vendors, stolen goods, a shuttered Walgreens, and stupid Supervisor Ronan who just seems to hide from all the problems she supports.
No more craziness this next election. We need incentives for small businesses to keep the hood safe, and a Sup that can fight for basic needs not ideology. Ronan has cost this neighborhood dearly.
This sucks. No sugarcoating it. 16th Street is losing an institution.
Bring back something simpler ala Kelly’s (Khaldoun’s) Burgers, then. Monk’s Kettle and ABV have always been a bit too precious for that block. Rockridge is perfect for both.
The neighborhood has changed quite a bit since the pandemic. In the late teens, it was filled with tourists of various stripes, like from the weekend teeny day trippers/night trippers from the South and East Bay, to the tech tourists visiting friends, or doing a free lance gig, networking etc. Weekends were packed and wild. The kids are coming back, but the tech tourists not so much, or so it seems. Au revoir Kettle. Good burgers and fried chicken sandwiches headed to Rockridge.
I was the original chef during the opening of Monks in 2007. I have mixed feelings about the move but we used to live near Rockridge. It’s a charming hood.
I work in tech and I was thrilled when this place opened on what was a cursed corner for several years prior with several business failing out quickly. I had a meal and beers here at least once every 2-3 weeks (frequently more) for its entire existence, and brought friends, and ate in, and sat at the bar, etc etc. It’s sad to homogenize and vilify an entire group of people (the techies are ruining the world!) and blame them for problems that are clearly driven by the horrible choices and priorities of our local politicians over the past 25 years. Completely agree with PanchoVilla, Ronen has self-aggrandized herself into national and global issues for years, screaming pointlessly into her own progressive bubble at people who already agree with her, and doing no good for anyone. She should have been laser focused block by block on making this neighborhood better, cleaner, and safer for her constituents. The sidewalk on mission street in front of the old walgreens has essentially been blocked for years now by encampments and people setting up daytime living rooms, getting drunk and doing drugs, forcing kids on their way to school and commuters on their way to work into the street to avoid it, and nothing is done.
Staff said it was based on lease renewal negotiations that went south fast. But by all means, don’t let that disrupt your agenda to blame it on tech and gentrification and the “wrong” people.
Big loss for the area. Stellar establishment that will very very much be missed. Hope they come back to SF in some other location eventually.
Everyone always wants to go back to the glory days, you never can.