Should You Open a Restaurant in San Francisco Right Now?

This guide is for founders who want to understand real risk before committing capital to a brick-and-mortar restaurant in San Francisco.

It does not offer inspiration, templates, or guarantees. Instead, it focuses on structural exposure, timing, and the failure patterns that most often derail projects before they ever open.

Based on lived experience opening, operating, and closing restaurants in San Francisco, the guide is meant to support clear decision-making. Its purpose is not to encourage opening, but to make risk legible so you can decide how, or whether, to proceed.

Inside the guide:

• Common pre-opening failure patterns in San Francisco restaurant projects
• How risk accumulates before opening, even when plans appear viable
• Lease assumptions that increase exposure and limit exit options
• Runway and cash-flow pressure during permitting and construction
• Where projects most often stall, overrun, or become difficult to reverse
• Practical evaluation worksheets to assess readiness before signing a lease or filing permits

This is not a how-to manual, a business plan template, or legal, financial, or permitting advice.