News

Aug 06, 2023

SF restaurants hope to 'recover the loss' after flooding

Pink Onion owner Matthew Coric, upper right, checks on storm barricades erected

Pink Onion owner Matthew Coric, upper right, checks on storm barricades erected at the entrance to his restaurant on Tuesday, Jan. 3, 2023, less than a week after the San Francisco restaurant suffered major flooding.

Matthew Coric found himself standing in 2 feet of murky water at his restaurant Pink Onion following Saturday's record rainfall, which flooded multiple businesses throughout the Bay Area.

The flooding has kept Pink Onion closed through the week while electricians and plumbers make repairs and fix broken pipes that were damaged in the storm. After assessing the space, Coric told SFGATE that he believed the flood will set him back about $50,000.

"We’re trying to deal with the aftermath of the flooding," Coric said. "We had 24 inches of water all the way through our building and up to 7 or 8 feet in the backyard — it was like a swimming pool. We would love to open Friday, but it depends on how the next storm goes and if our water heater works."

The Pink Onion restaurant, located at 64 14th Street, was flooded after record showers on Saturday, Dec. 31, 2022. (Photo: Matthew Coric)

The Pink Onion restaurant, located at 64 14th Street, was flooded after record showers on Saturday, Dec. 31, 2022. (Photo: Matthew Coric)

Coric's team and family members have been working around the clock to try to get the restaurant back open. His father and uncle installed a metal barrier outside Pink Onion earlier this week to prevent additional water from entering the restaurant with more showers in the forecast.

Other Mission District businesses were hit hard by San Francisco's second wettest day on record. Izakaya Rintaro, which is a neighbor to Pink Onion, faced substantial damages.

Owner Sylvan Mishima Brackett shared a video on an Instagram post that revealed his flooded patio on Sunday. In the clip, restaurant equipment is seen submerged within shadowed water that reached the top of outdoor dining tables. By late Wednesday evening, Brackett informed customers that the flood had been cleared out but that his restaurant would remain closed through the end of next week.

Sylvan Mishima Brackett, owner of Rintaro, points to the remnants of water levels during flooding on New Year's Day in San Francisco, Sunday, Jan. 1, 2023.

A GoFundMe page with a goal of $150,000 has been set up on behalf of Izakaya Rintaro and surpassed its goal by a few thousand dollars as of Wednesday evening. Bay Area businesses, like Ramen Shop in Oakland and Neon in San Francisco, have widely shared the crowdsourcing page on social media, urging locals to assist with donations. Zuni Café also announced that proceeds from two special dishes on its menu this week would go toward aiding Izakaya Rintaro.

Just around the block from Pink Onion and Izakaya Rintaro is Rainbow Grocery, which lost hundreds of thousands of dollars in products during Saturday's storm. It took the crew several days to clean and move products to higher shelves before they were able to reopen the grocery store on Tuesday.

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"Losing this amount of product during two historically busy days of operation was major for Rainbow," Rainbow Grocery's public relations team told SFGATE via email. "We are hoping to recover the loss but being a small independent business, we don't have the backing of a large chain like other businesses."

Laurie Thomas, executive director of the Golden Gate Restaurant Agency, told SFGATE that she decided to close early Wednesday afternoon and canceled reservations at her two Marina restaurants, Rose's Café and Terzo, due to heightened concerns about the atmospheric river. With about 1 to 3 inches of rainfall expected in San Francisco, Thomas said that she didn't want to put her staff at risk trying to get home after their shift.

A view of storm preparations at the entrance to Rintaro in San Francisco on Tuesday, Jan. 3, 2023, less than a week after the restaurant suffered major flooding.

Ahead of Wednesday's storm, San Francisco Public Works tweeted that it had distributed about 8,500 sandbags since Saturday and that it had limited supplies to five per household. Some parts of the Mission District, along with other San Francisco neighborhoods, pose a greater risk of flooding due to low-lying areas that are former creeks, according to the San Francisco Chronicle. (The Chronicle and SFGATE are both owned by Hearst but have separate newsrooms.)

Coric was frustrated with the city's response time in clearing out debris and garbage outside his business following Saturday showers. He said that Pink Onion staff and Rainbow Grocery crews were busy clearing street rubbish on Sunday to aid storm drains. A representative at Rainbow Grocery added that its maintenance department continued to clear refuse at 4 a.m. Wednesday.

"The street was so flooded," Coric said Tuesday. "We called the city and nobody came. How am I supposed to ask my workers to deal with that on top of everything?"

Joseph Sweiss, spokesperson for the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission, said that the agency was doing its best to respond to all service and catch basin requests. He confirmed that the SFPUC had received Coric's calls and said that sewer operations crews were prioritizing cleanup around that neighborhood as of Wednesday.

Debris in the area around Rainbow Grocery in San Francisco is seen on Tuesday, Jan. 3, 2023, a few days after major flooding hit the area.

"We have responded to over 185 service requests today as well as about 60 catch basin requests and counting," Sweiss told SFGATE via email. "Additionally, flood barriers were deployed [Tuesday] afternoon in the 17th and Folsom [Street] area. SFPUC crews are onsite 24/7 to monitor them."

Thomas said that several members at GGRA were frustrated with the lack of information they received from the city about the New Year's Eve storm. To prepare for showers this week, GGRA shared guidance with its members on storm preparedness recommended by San Francisco Office of Small Business. Still, the already existing floods and closures have created a rocky start to 2023.

"We’re all trying to do the best we can," Thomas said.

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