Woods Beer & Wine Co. opens taproom and cafe in Fisherman’s Wharf

Woods Beer & Wine Co. is moving into one of Fisherman’s Wharf’s most symbolic addresses, taking over the former Fishermen’s Grotto No. 9 at 2847 Taylor Street with a taproom and cafe planned for late summer. The lease puts a familiar San Francisco brand in a space that once defined the waterfront’s old seafood economy, and it raises a bigger question: can the Wharf become a place residents choose, not just a place visitors pass through once?

Fishermen’s Grotto No. 9 was opened in 1935 by Mike Geraldi, an immigrant fisherman from Sicily, and for decades it helped anchor the end of Taylor Street with a sit-down dining room rooted in the city’s fishing history. One account said the restaurant could serve more than 400 Dungeness crabs in a weekend, a reminder of how deeply the site was tied to San Francisco’s working waterfront. Its departure after a rent dispute with the Port of San Francisco left a long-vacant room that the city has been trying to put back into use.

The Woods plan fits squarely into that effort. The Port’s Fisherman’s Wharf Forward program is meant to reinvigorate the heart of the neighborhood by converting empty space into activated areas, and in September 2025 Mayor Daniel Lurie unveiled concepts for a public plaza on Taylor Street meant to reconnect visitors with the inner lagoon. The new Woods location was also expected to carry a full liquor license, a notable shift for a stretch long associated more with seafood counters and souvenir traffic than with neighborhood bars and cafes.

That matters because Woods already has a local following. A recognizable Bay Area operator moving into a former landmark gives the Wharf a different kind of draw, one that depends less on tour buses and more on repeat visits from San Franciscans who might otherwise avoid the waterfront. For a district that has spent years battling the image of being over-touristed, dated and underused by city residents, the brand itself becomes part of the strategy.

The stakes are not small. San Francisco projected more than 23.3 million visitors and nearly $10 billion in tourism spending in 2025, and Fisherman’s Wharf remains the city’s most visited neighborhood. If Woods can help fill a historic seafood space with day-to-night activity, it will be more than another opening at 2847 Taylor Street. It will be a concrete sign that the Wharf’s reinvention is moving from planning documents into daily life.