

Despite some protestations earlier this month claiming that they would continue to run beloved late-night diner The Grubstake "as is," new almost-owners Nick Pigott and Johnny "Love" Metheny have just quietly engaged design firm D-Scheme Studio to design a seven-story, 28-unit condo project that would obviously mean the death of the Grubstake as we know it, though probably not for a couple of years. As Socketsite reports, Pigott has also authorized D-Scheme to act as his agent in seeking Planning approvals for the project.

Business partners Pigott and Metheny are currently in escrow on the property, and are expected to close soon.

Metheny had, somewhat suspiciously, told Hoodline in early August, said, "We're just keeping our options open," but "The next step is to get in there and operate The Grubstake."

And Pigott, who also owns Mayes Oyster House, earlier told Inside Scoop, "We’re going to take over and run it as is. Nobody is going to notice a difference." That may in fact be the truth for the immediate future only, given that approvals for the project could stretch for well over a year, but at that point it looks clear that The Grubstake will meet its end  replaced, only maybe, by a simulacrum of it in the brand new retail space on the ground floor of the new building.

Given the value of the land this is, sadly, inevitable for a place like The Grubstake, which has long outlived the days when Polk Gulch was the seedy stomping ground of hustlers and johns. But we'll have to wait and see what kind of a fight the neighborhood could put up to destroying the iconic, 40+-year-old business  or the building, partially constructed out of an old rail car, which has been a diner since 1927.

Previously: Seven-Story Condo Building Could Destroy Late-Night Staple The Grubstake