More than 400 restaurants closed throughout San Francisco during 2019

More than 411 restaurants closed in San Francisco during 2019. Click on the slideshow ahead to see some of the most notable closures around the Bay Area. More than 411 restaurants closed in San Francisco during 2019. Click on the slideshow ahead to see some of the most notable closures around the Bay Area. Photo: Karl Tapales/Getty Images Photo: Karl Tapales/Getty Images Image 1 of / 45 Caption Close More than 400 restaurants closed throughout San Francisco during 2019 1 / 45 Back to Gallery

Click on the slideshow above to see notable 2019 restaurant closures around the Bay Area.

During the last decade, chef Bruce Hill has divided his time running the kitchens inside his San Francisco restaurants Bix and Zero Zero. A career that spans 35 years has allowed Hill to work within some of the top restaurants in the city, but now he’s unsure if he wants to continue operating in S.F.

“It’s an amazing community of incredibly talented people who currently work and cook in San Francisco,” Hill said. “[But] personally, I don’t see any great gains coming. I have 10 more years on my lease at Zero Zero, but after that, I’m going to be looking at an exit plan.”

In 2019, many business owners found it too challenging to run their restaurants in a high-priced city. According to data gathered by Yelp, San Francisco had 411 restaurant closures between Jan. 1 and Oct. 31. In that time, some of the notable closures included Plouf, Rosamunde Sausage Grill, Dosa, and Famerbrown, which had 14 to 23 years in service. The elegant Jardinière, which opened in 1997 by chef-owner Traci Des Jardins, also bid farewell after 21 years.

But in September, S.F. restaurateurs decided that enough was enough.

A special hearing at City Hall brought together 41 restaurateurs who shared their complaints to San Francisco supervisors over various issues that have plagued the restaurant industry. The labor shortage, maintenance costs and high rent were among the topics raised.

“Those types of fees have continued to put a lot of strain and pressure on industries where we just don’t have any margin,” Laurie Thomas, owner of restaurants Terzo, Rose’s Café, and a member of the board of directors at the Golden Gate Restaurant Association, told SFGATE. “We’re not like software, restaurants are different. We’re lucky if we keep 3 to 5 percent at the end of the day.”

Thomas, who spoke on behalf of the GGRA at the special hearing, added that the rising cost of wages and employee healthcare have been too difficult to sustain. Both items had contributed to Thomas’ decision to close the beloved North Beach restaurant Rosa Pistola in 2017, after 21 years in business.

“One of the reasons why I had to close Rose Pistola was [that] our cost was so high, our revenues were lowered, and I was losing significant [amounts] of money per year.” Thomas said. “I couldn't afford it [and] I wanted to close it before I couldn't make payroll.”

Hill also agreed that labor costs have been the biggest problem for him as a restaurant owner and one of the main culprits of restaurant closures citywide.

“In the old days, we would have a 30 percent labor cost, a 30 percent food cost, and a 21 percent cost on everything else that would leave us 8 to 9 percent profit,” Hill said. “Nowadays the labor portion of our expenses can be 50 percent.”

At the September City Hall hearing, supervisors expressed a willingness to make some changes to address many of the issues restaurateurs raised.

One of them included making the permit process less stressful on restaurant owners by eliminating redundant fees. Chronicle writer Tara Duggan wrote that this included slashing a requirement that forced restaurant owners to apply for two different permits that included one for an entertainment venue and another as a food venue.

Jorge Rivas Jr., deputy director for San Francisco’s Office of Economic and Workforce Development, also thinks business owners can depend on the city for aid before they make the decision to close for good.

“We encourage restaurant entrepreneurs to reach out to the city for support and access to services and resources to start, stay and succeed,” Rivas said. “The city is committed to supporting businesses be successful in the evolving food scene.”

As Hill looks ahead to the next 10 years, he asserts that sometimes a restaurant closure isn’t always a bad thing because the space they leave behind may bring new possibilities for the next generation of restaurant owners.

“It’s not all bad,” Hill said. “Smart people will come along and jump on these opportunities, and hopefully, we will see new businesses come up.”

Click on the slideshow above to see notable 2019 restaurant closures around the Bay Area.

Susana Guerrero is an SFGATE digital reporter. Email: Susana.Guerrero@sfgate.com | Twitter: @SusyGuerrero3