The interior of Schroeder's as seen in 2018, following a remodel of the longstanding hofbrau which has existed in various locations around San Francis

'A disaster': How San Francisco's office mask mandate is impacting restaurants, bars

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2021-09-25 07:00:04

The interior of Schroeder's as seen in 2018, following a remodel of the longstanding hofbrau which has existed in various locations around San Francisco since 1893.

At Schroeder's, the hofbrau and beer hall in San Francisco's Financial District, the typical lunch crowd mostly consists of office workers on lunch breaks, and the evening crowd usually consists of the same workers in search of post-work drinks.

"We get people from all the banks, a bunch of law firms, real estate firms, and Salesforce is just three or four blocks away," said owner Andy Chun. "They've been great customers. Anyone you can think of who's working downtown would visit us. It’s all an ecosystem."

But offices have mostly remained closed since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. And restaurants and bars in the Financial District and SoMa areas are barely hanging on.

"We finally reopened in June when the [COVID] numbers looked good and when we looked at return-to-office plans for Salesforce and other companies," Chun said. "In July, things picked up, but then delta hit, plans got delayed and August was just a disaster."