Woods Beer & Wine Co. expands to Fisherman's Wharf taproom-cafe

Woods Beer & Wine Co. has staked its next move on one of San Francisco’s most watched corridors, locking in a lease for about 2,000 square feet at 2875 Taylor Street in the former Fisherman’s Grotto No. 9 space. The planned taproom-cafe puts the brand into Fisherman’s Wharf, where foot traffic is heavy, competition is constant, and lasting loyalty is harder to earn than a walk-in sale.

The Port of San Francisco’s executive summary for Lease No. L-17424, dated June 5, 2026, describes the deal as a proposed lease with Surface Area, LLC for ground-floor space at the old Grotto #9 restaurant. The term runs two years, with one option to extend for one additional year. Public filings also say the project is expected to include indoor seating, outdoor patio space facing a new public plaza, and an adjacent trailer kitchen to expand food production beyond the main kitchen.

The Wharf location is being folded into Fisherman’s Wharf Forward, the Port’s activation effort introduced in June 2025 to fill vacant space on Taylor and Jefferson Streets while larger resiliency planning continues. A new Taylor Street public plaza is slated for summer 2026, and the short-term lease is meant to support Phase I in 2026 while preserving flexibility for future Phase II work. That makes the Woods project part of a broader push to turn a famous waterfront district into a more usable dining and drinking destination, not just a sightseeing stop.

The scale of the bet is clear in the neighborhood numbers. The Fisherman’s Wharf Community Benefit District says the area includes more than 250 retail establishments, 3,200 hotel rooms and 20 attractions within a 30-block radius. Its 2018 retail strategy, a year-long collaboration with Seifel Consulting and a 15-member Retail Strategy Task Force, was designed to strengthen that commercial mix. The former Fisherman’s Grotto No. 9 space had been vacant since 2023, after earlier reporting said Grotto No. 9 and Tarantino’s were facing eviction over unpaid rent.

Woods is not entering the Wharf as a newcomer to San Francisco, either. The company says it now operates five locations around the Bay and has a coming San Anselmo outpost. Its Community Club costs $49 plus tax every two months and includes small-batch beer and wine, member events, cellar access and 15% off purchases. Founder Jim Woods went pro in 2006 after starting with clandestine homebrewing, later released MateVeza, the world’s first yerba mate beer, and moved into wine production on Treasure Island in 2018 with winemaker Kyle Jeffrey joining in 2019.

At Fisherman’s Wharf, Woods is betting that a taproom-cafe built for beer, wine and food can do more than catch passing tourists. The real test will be whether it can turn a high-visibility waterfront lease into a place people come back to.