John's Grill is a historic restaurant located in the downtown area of San Francisco, California. It is a traditional meeting place for power brokers and politicians, and offers a free lunch on election day. In Dashiell Hammett's 1930 novel The Maltese Falcon, the basis for the 1941 film, detective Sam Spade dines there; the Dashiell Hammett Society is based at the restaurant, and the building houses related memorabilia.
History
John's Grill opened in 1908,[1][2] reportedly the first restaurant to open in downtown San Francisco after the 1906 earthquake and fire.[3] The founding John is said to have died the same year after being hit by a cable car. In 1983, the restaurant was damaged by fire and was closed for approximately nine months.[1] Gus Konstin, a former waiter and maitre d' at Jack's Restaurant, bought the restaurant and the building in 1969 with his wife, Sydna;[2][4] she was the manager and was responsible for expanding the dinner business and adding Hammett and Maltese Falcon memorabilia.[5] The Konstins retired in 1990 and their son John Konstin became the owner.[4]
In September 2020, the restaurant reopened for indoor dining on the first day that city COVID-19 restrictions forbidding it were lifted;[11][12][13] in August 2021, the restaurant began requiring patrons to show proof of vaccination for both indoor and outdoor seating, the first in the Bay Area to impose such a requirement.[14] In December 2022, after a lawsuit, it was one of the first businesses to obtain compensation from an insurer for the loss of business caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.[15]
Since the 2010s, John's Grill has offered annual free lunches on election day, presided over by former mayor Willie Brown.[16][17][18][19] It celebrated its 115th anniversary in 2023 with a free block party with wine.[3][19] In 2024, it was open for the first time on Thanksgiving Day.[20][21][22]
Restaurant
John's Grill serves steakhouse food[23] and seafood, and the owners have avoided change.[2] In 2020, a San Francisco Chronicle columnist characterized it as "filled with wood and leather surfaces, white tablecloths and old-school vibes";[11] in 2021 another described the wood paneling as "dark like Havana cigars" and wrote that the restaurant seemed to have been "preserved in enamel" despite some additions to the menu: "Dinner here is a parade of meat and potatoes, splashed with Francophile butter sauces in infinite configurations."[9] Numerous photos on the walls of past and present celebrities and politicians document its importance as a "power lunch" spot.[1][7][24][25]Jack LaLanne, who was a regular patron, has a salad on the menu named for him.[7]
On the floor above is an exhibition of Maltese Falcon memorabilia, including translated versions of the novel and stills from the film,[1] and a 17-inch (43 cm) lead and bronze falcon statue weighing 150 pounds (68 kg).[26][27] The falcon is by sculptor Peter Schifrin and students at the Academy of Art San Francisco and was a 2007 replacement for a smaller plaster falcon, a replica of that in the film and signed by the last surviving cast member, Elisha Cook Jr., which was stolen earlier that year together with some books from the collection.[7][28][29][30] The replacement is filled with lead and fishing weights to discourage theft.[7] The Dashiell Hammett Society is based at John's Grill.[22]
^Former mayor Willie Brown described exuberant outdoor dining there the preious week: Brown, Willie (September 27, 2020). "Democrats need to forget about the court and concentrate on November". San Francisco Chronicle. John's Grill has taken outside dining to a new level. Carlos Reyes, the violinist with the enhanced sound system, turned Ellis Street between Stockton and Powell into a dance hall last Sunday, with everybody in masks and 6 feet apart, shaking it like it was the Summer of Love on Haight Street.
