One Market, a Michelin-starred restaurant in San Francisco’s financial district that operated from 2008 to 2012, has been forced to close due to the retirement of its owner.
During its long run as a trendy hotspot, its glittering clientele included Presidents Bill Clinton and Joe Biden, as well as San Francisco Mayors London Breed and Daniel Lurie.
Co-owner Michael Dellar, 80, announced the restaurant’s closure on June 11 after “failing to find the right suitor” to buy it before retirement.
“We tried to find the right suitor,” according to Dellar. “We actually had a number of opportunities to sell the restaurant, but the situation just did not work out.”
Dellar began considering selling One Market during the pandemic, when business took a significant hit.
Foot traffic and revenue dropped dramatically overnight, forcing a temporary closure in early 2020.
That autumn, it relaunched as a successful in-house pop-up, serving up poppable pastrami sandwiches.
It was the first company to serve Boichik Bagels in the Bay Area before a mini-chain opened three San Francisco locations and expanded nationwide.
However, due to the continuation of hybrid working after the pandemic, sales remained “significantly lower than pre-pandemic,” Dellar complained.
Despite a 2022 resurgence in the financial district, One Market was forced to switch to a weekday-only operation.
“Some neighbourhoods prospered during the pandemic,” Dellar told the BBC. “The Financial District had a harder time.”
When Dellar and then-business partner, chef Bradley Ogden, opened the swanky restaurant One Market in 1993, it caused a stir and received rave reviews.
The 170-seat restaurant, located on the corner of Market and Steuart streets, boasted an enormous kitchen and stellar wine cellar, and was said to have cost $1.8 million, or roughly $4 million today.
“We created a very special restaurant,” Dellar explained to SFGATE.
He added, “We did everything top drawer, including the millwork package.” Because of the catering and special event opportunities, the kitchen resembled that of a hotel.”
At its grand opening, renowned Examiner food critic Jim Wood ordered spicy shellfish risotto and shrimp cakes, describing them as “one of the best meals I ever ate in San Francisco.”
One of the highlights of the estimated 3 million meals served was hosting the NFL during Super Bowl 50 in 2016.
Diners responded to the news on social media, taking a trip down memory lane.
Someone else commented: “Takes me back, my very first job out of college in San Francisco in the mid-90s was working at Accenture (Andersen Consulting way back then) in the tower and One Market was where your boss took you to lunch if they really liked you.”
Another commented, “So said, Another Business Closes Under President Trump.”