Customers eat at tables outside Original Joes in the North Beach neighborhood of San Francisco, California on July 30, 2020.
Douglas Zimmerman/SFGATEOriginal Joe’s, perhaps San Francisco’s most legendary Italian American restaurant, is expanding to the East Bay.
The 85-year-old institution has plans to open a new restaurant in Walnut Creek, reported the San Francisco Chronicle. (SFGATE and the San Francisco Chronicle are both owned by Hearst but operate independently of one another.)
Co-owners John and Elena Duggan already have a few Original Joe’s spin-offs: Original Joe’s Westlake in Daly City and Little Original Joe’s in West Portal, with plans to open two more. One will be an Italian spot in the Marina District and the other will be a Mexican restaurant in West Portal, according to Eater. The Walnut Creek location, however, will be the Duggans’ first foray into the East Bay.
The Duggans told the Chronicle that they plan to open the restaurant at 1300 S. Main St. in Walnut Creek, the former Stanford’s Restaurant and Bar, which closed in 2019 after 23 years. They aim to open the new 9,000-square-foot space by 2024, although a full remodel and obtaining a liquor license must happen first. SFGATE reached out to Original Joe’s for comment but did not hear back in time for publication.
The original Original Joe’s first opened in 1937 as a 14-stool counter in the Tenderloin, until the restaurant burned down in a fire in 2007. The Duggans, who are the grandchildren of the original owner, reopened Original Joe’s in North Beach in 2012, serving steaks, seafood and pastas out of cushy red booths.
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