The Tenderloin’s Edinburgh Castle Pub, a Scottish bar and music venue on Geary Street in San Francisco, has shuttered after being foreclosed on, according to the bar’s owner, Tay Kim.
Sheriff’s deputies “came with shields & batons” to close the business on Aug. 6, according to Kim.
When Mission Local visited the former location of the pub 10 days later, its door was ajar but the outer gate was shut, sealed by a thick chain and padlock. The lights were on and empty beer cases were scattered just inside the entrance.
Kim said that the forced closure was expected, though the deputies that arrived with batons and shields were not.
The pub, which also served as a music venue and filming location for “Venom” and “So I Married an Axe Murderer,” opened on New Year’s Day in 1960 and was taken over by its current owner, Kim, in 1999. Kim listed it for sale in 2019, but it never changed owners.
U.S. Bank filed a foreclosure motion against Kim on Feb. 8, 2024 for $706,000, according to court records. San Francisco Superior Court Judge Charles F. Haines then ordered the pub repossessed on June 27 this year, according to court records.
Broke Ass Stuart first reported on the closure.
In the early 2000s, the venue was known for hosting punk shows on its upstairs stage, where crowds of people would press against each other in a sweaty room. Dance parties were common, as was music so loud that it would leave your ears ringing.
For bands and performers, the closeness made the venue feel intimate and energetic, said Fred Schrunk, the owner of Thrillhouse Records on Mission Street near 30th Street, who performed at the venue on several occasions. Even a small crowd could dominate the space.
“In the early 2000s, it was one of my favorite places to see shows,” said Schrunk. “I seemed to find myself there all the time.”
Over the years, Kim said he hosted bands, writers, weddings, and even an occasional bar mitzvah. Patrons said it was one of the only bars in San Francisco to have a still-active smoking room.
The shows ended around 2010 but resumed in the past two years, revived by Nick Oka and Zack Yackel and their production company, z+n presents. Oka and Yackel put on punk shows, indie shows, raves, poetry nights and open mics for a crowd of regulars who were happy to see the bar return to the energy of its early days, as well as tourists who were attracted to its Scottish-themed decorations, even if its decor was beginning to age.
“It was the last true dive bar in San Francisco,” Oka said. “Smelled awful, lots of issues, but that’s exactly how a dive bar should be. It’s perfect.”
Schrunk recalled many nights spent bouncing between the Edinburgh Castle and the since-closed Hemlock Tavern on Polk Street, on the hunt for cheap beer and a buzzing dive bar scene. In a pre-cell-phone era, if one bar felt dead, he would walk to the other, hoping to run into friends along the way. He almost always did.
“Everyone has some vague memory of it, some story,” Oka said. “It touched a lot of people’s lives.”
No true scotsman would gatekeep the definition of dive bar. Is the true dive bar within?
You could order fish-and-ships from Edinburgh, and a server would leave, go around the corner to the fish-and-chips place, and come back with your order in a basket lined with a newspaper. And the fish-and-chips were great! Does anybody remember the name of the fish-and-chips place, and know whether it’s still there?
Piccadilly Fish & Chips!
It was Piccadilly!
I believe it was named Chelsea. I’m afraid it’s long gone.
Piccadilly Circus!!!!
I remember the fish and chips and still want to know where the secret kitchen was.
R.I.P local punk rock scene.. nowadays, most kids end up following cults like the republican party and get their info on Tiktok, Infowars, etc…and try hard to get in touch with their lack of masculinity through Incel podcasts.. Neurons, questioning authority and things involving using a brain in general, are a thing of the past…for most of them in this country.
In 2002, I had the pleasure of doing a 30 minute set of “country” music and reading sections of my novel, “Boonville” at The Edinburgh Castle. My dearly departed friend, Jay Berry, played guitar and I sang and read to a receptive and raucous crowd. We were opening for Irvine Welsh who read from his novel “Porno” which was the sequel to “Trainspotting.” He was super kind and complementary. And his reading was FANTASTIC! There was a great surge of scottish writers visiting around then, because most knew John Mulligan, also deceased, and his novel “Shopping Cart Soldier” and they would drink their espresso at Caffe Trieste where I jocked espresso. And they drank HARD all over the city. Difficult to believe it was over twenty years ago. To use the title of a James Kelman novel, “How Late It Was, How Late.” I guess it is well whiskey at The Ha-Ra now…
It wasn’t a rose garden before, but the block going to shyte after the pandemic probably didn’t help. I remember how the destitution of sidewalk encampments and thick smell of human waste wafting down the street was too much of a turnoff even for my tested tastes.
This was my favorite saloon in 1977, living here for my semester abroad (from UC Santa Barbara). Bartenders would order you fish and trips from a joint around the corner that delivered. Winston the parrot occupied one end of the bar. Late at night, drunk patrons would attempt conversation with him. Great great place. Damn shame it’s gone.
I am very sorry to hear that. I mostly went there in the 80s and 90s before the music really got going. It had tons of atmosphere. I seem to recall they had some occasional theater and poetry events also. I didn’t mind there wasn’t usually any music. If your interest is meeting with someone and having conversation, music, especially loud music, makes that impossible. I also really regret the loss of one of the very few places where you can get away with smoking. That’s the main reason I quit going to bars in 1998, the smoking prohibition law. Can’t imagine not being able to smoke in a bar. They may as well ban the alcohol too.
Heartbreak sex: So many great memories of the shows done and seen here over the years. Thanks to Kim and to all my fellow DJs Oran, Dr Scot etc. to the staff and to all the patrons.
Yer pal.
<3
Sad to see it go. It seems that Gen Z doesn’t have bar culture, for better (healthier) and worse (no social interaction with strangers). As older people age out of going to bars, we’re going to see more and more of this.
Wednesday night trivia, Sunset SKA-vengers shows, and strong drinks from bartender Alan. You will be missed, Edinburgh Castle.
I spent many many nights playing that old out-of-tune piano in the smoking room, eating hot fish and chips out of a Chinese newspaper, and dancing to the Mo-Town Tuesdays or any of the fun lo-fi punk bands upstairs. Between this, the hemlock, and sfai, it appears that all the anchors of my years in SF have closed down. Thank you for all the hazy, but still excellent memories.
I went there back in the day. I never saw any music, just the bar, but I liked it. The prices weregood and the people, on both sides of the bar, were nice. Plus, being on Geary gave me a semi-safe walk home to Eddy and Taylor.
At O’Keefe’s in the inner Richmond, you could smoke right at the bar into the 2010s. I don’t know current status, but if you were owner operator and had like one employee, the law allowed for it.
A bad omen for future cirrhosis of the liver cases. Not to mention the ‘smoking room’ , why don’t they just set themselves on fire and get it over with faster?
Because WE are made of sterner stuff!