Kezar Pub among Bay Area sports bars struggling to stay open

fjenkins  millar70 you guys ever been here?



www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/Kezar-Pub-among-Bay-Area-sports-bars-struggling-15754378.php

The Kezar Pub, the venerable San Francisco sports bar, is trying to avoid last call.



This past Sunday afternoon, about 30 people sat at the Kezar’s outdoor setup on Stanyan Street, a dozen tables under a makeshift wooden structure adorned with strings of flags and lights. With the 49ers off for the weekend, half watched a Liverpool F.C. soccer match playing on two of six TVs mounted to the pub and building next door. In normal times, owner Cyril Hackett said, the pub would be so packed inside on an NFL Sunday you could hardly walk through it.



“I hate to think about the future, because as it is right now, we’re going day to day, not even week to week,” Hackett said, standing outside the pub. “It’s not sustainable really. We’re going to do the best we can for as long as we can in order to be here for our customers and our staff.”



As winter looms and the state tightens restrictions with coronavirus cases rising again, several Bay Area sports bar owners echoed Hackett’s concerns and uncertainty about what lies ahead.



Bars with meal service can be open outdoors right now in all nine Bay Area counties, with San Mateo County also allowing indoor dining at limited capacity. Six counties are under a state curfew order requiring outdoor dining and bars to close at 10 p.m.



The Kezar Pub, a fixture that predates the 49ers playing at nearby Kezar Stadium from the 1946-70 seasons, is drawing maybe 25% of pre-pandemic traffic, Hackett said. It’s down to a skeleton staff and trimmed its hours. But pivoting to the outdoor setup, especially with heating now involved, proved costly, and rent and insurance payments persist.



KEZAR STADIUM