Bad news for San Francisco bar hopping patron like this blogger. The famous Johnny Rockets which sits prominently on the corner of Chestnut and Pierce in the Marina District has, for 25 years, been the temporary one-hour home for drunks, bachelors and bachelorettes, hook-ups, frat boys, sorority girls, late-night workers, and everyone else, has closed.
According to the store manager, the owner feared competition from a planned “Super Burger” restaurant to be located right next door at what was once the bar “Windows,” then another establishment, the name of which I can’t remember, and now sits totally dark and empty.
Even though Johnny Rockets stays open until 4 AM, or used to, the fear was that “everyone would go over to the new place, and that would be it for us,” the manager told me Sunday night.
Last Night, Little Fanfare
The news of the closure didn’t bring more than the normal number of people to eat at the Johnny Rockets On Chestnut. In fact, I was at The Grove just down the street when I got the news from one of the clerks there, ordered a Berkeley Bowl salad, then rushed down to the burger joint to get some interviews on video.
But I couldn’t walk into that Johnny Rockets without ordering my usual: a double-burger, no cheese, fries, and a chocolate shake with extra chocolate!
Sad to say it was for the last time in the Marina.
Today, that corner looks bad: two store fronts empty and right next to each other. Not a good sign overall. That Super Burger’s a long way from being open, so that’s going to be the condition of that part of Chestnut for a while.
Stay tuned.
Bill Carroll