Serial evictor plans new bar in former Uptown space

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A new bar, owned and operated by a Mission landlord with a history of dozens of evictions, may open in the near future at the space previously occupied by Uptown, the neighborhood dive bar that closed its doors in January after 39 years. 

Four months after Uptown served its last drink, Kaushik Dattani, the owner of the building at 17th and Capp streets, is working on opening a new bar named Kiitos in the same spot, according to planning documents. 

But neighbors and the former owners of Uptown are not extending their welcome to this new venture, citing Dattani’s record of evicting long-time tenants in the Mission, and his charging of “substantially above market rate” during Uptown’s last lease.

The San Francisco Planning Department has also delayed the bar’s opening indefinitely. In an email sent to the landlord, planning staff asked for evidence that Dattani is “conducting thorough outreach to stakeholders and neighborhood groups and responding to community input.”

Because the Uptown was designated a legacy business, a change of ownership requires an authorization that Dattani must seek from the Planning Commission.

Ken Cohen, one of the co-owners of Uptown, said that the bar’s status as a local watering hole was unique. “You can’t replace Uptown for being a community gathering space, and I think his history in the community makes it particularly difficult.”

Dattani, a landlord who owns multiple properties in the Mission and beyond, repeatedly used the Ellis Act to evict dozens of longtime San Franciscans, as documented by the Anti-Eviction Mapping Project. Those tenants included Hilda Lisa Vazquez, an octogenarian known by her neighbors at 19th and Lexington as the lady who woke up at 6 every morning to sweep the sidewalk. 

Now, instead of operating rental properties, Dattani is trying his hand at running a bar himself.

In a five-page letter sent to the planning department last Thursday, Uptown’s owners expressed opposition to the project, blaming the landlord for contributing to the closure of Uptown. 

“He acted irresponsibly and over-aggressively with respect to the rent he demanded at the beginning of 2019,” wrote the owners. “As a result, we were left with insufficient resources to continue in business past the lease expiration date in January 2024.” 

The owners recounted how Dattani charged rent “at least 80 percent above fair market” from 2019 to 2024, about $9,500 a month, with 3 percent annual increase. Toward the end, Uptown was paying about $10,700 per month, its owners said.

Uptown owners were especially bitter about one of Dattani’s tactics in the lease negotiation: Demanding rent for a 622-square-foot storage basement to be calculated as a cocktail lounge space, meaning he charged $3 to $4 per square foot for “usable space,” rather than the $1 per square foot typically charged for storage space.

“If the rent in 2019 was $7,000, he would’ve gotten a fair lease, and we would probably still be in business,” said Cohen. 

Dattani said in a phone call that he had no comment.

In Dattani’s application, filed with the Planning Department in February, the landlord emphasized that the Uptown owners voluntarily left “despite the landlord agreeing to give them a 30 percent rent reduction,” thus asking for “a quick and easy solution to this conundrum.” 

Cohen, for his part, said that even the reduced rent — $7,750 a month with a 4 percent annual increase — was above market rate and too expensive for the business. 

Before the hearing’s delay, Dattani had submitted a petition to the Planning Department in May with 15 signatures from neighbors and businesses supporting his reopening of the corner bar. He also submitted three support letters, including one from Mission Art 415, which had received funding from Dattani for the Dharma Mural at 22nd and Mission. But that has proved to be insufficient for the Planning Department. 

Uptown’s owners are concerned about “the proverbial elephant in the room” — Dattani’s checkered history as a landlord in the Mission. 

“It’s one thing to close the bar after so many years; it’s always gonna be a little traumatic,” Cohen said. “But it’s even harder to take the idea that we’d be replaced by a landlord like this.” 

Jason Nichols, a regular at Uptown from the 1990s to its closing, concurred that a new bar would be appreciated, but not under this owner. 

“When people think about bad landlords, this man is the poster child for that,” he said. “It was the landlord’s strategy to have an untenable rent to drive people out. I’d rather not see this person rewarded for the tactics.”