B.A.R.: The Cafe to Add a Cafe
In this week's Bay Area Reporter "Business Briefs" column there is an interesting entry about The Cafe (2367 Market Street), one of the few bars with a dance floor and lesbians in the Castro:
Tom Hutachinda, the owner of The Cafe, is shopping around plans to expand the Castro dance club to make it handicap accessible. The modern design with plenty of windows calls for a three-story addition on the 17th Street side of the building, currently used for parking.
The build out includes a basement level, a ground floor cafe with mezzanine level, a second floor expansion to the club with ADA compliant bathrooms, and a third floor for offices. An elevator and staircase would be built to provide ADA access as well as an emergency exit. A pool table adjacent to the dance floor would be moved to the new space in order to install a wheelchair lift for access to the raised back bar area.
... Construction would not start for at least another year and take an estimated nine months to complete.
This will be an interesting story to watch develop. It's difficult to tell from this report, but if the addition actually faces out onto 17th Street it could help to increase the connectedness between Castro Street and Market Street, and also give a boost to 17th Street businesses.
The story also indicates that Hutachinda is the owner of restaurants Malacca and Crave as well. Are there any bars or restaurants in the Castro that aren't part of a mini-empire?
Comments
Expanding this would be good. It does get pretty crowded and is usually a really good time for me. Must be cause I stay so close by too.
Maybe when I come back out next year the completion will done?
The part of the BAR quote that I cut out also mentions that he painted The Cafe recently.
As for the construction being done by November 2007, the quote above says that constructions wouldn't even start for another year, and then would take 9 months after that for completion. So assuming that they are applying for permits now, this would give an estimated date of completion of July 2008.
However, as someone who has been going through construction issues with the city for a couple of years now, I can confidently say that nothing happens quite as quickly as you would hope. In this case, there will be lots of neighborhood meetings and multiple city offices will have to give their OK. So even November 2008 might be optimistic.