The kitchen staff of Castagnola's, the 95-year-old fish and pasta joint perched on a pier in Fisherman's Wharf, staged a complete walkout during a busy tourist rush last Saturday. Inside Scoop's Paolo Lucchesi reports that without any staff the restaurant was forced to ask a full dining room of over 200 people to leave, taking an estimated 40 grand or more in revenues with them.

A member of the management told the Inside Scoop that cooks at Castagnola's had been trying to hash out more ideal working conditions after the restaurant started cutting corners with longer shifts and a new menu. While Castagnola struggled to keep the kitchen happy, it seems the tourist-friendly chains in the wharf like Rainforest Café and Bubba Gump's have not had the same problem meeting similar demands.

Anyway, there's no shortage of readily available cooks in this town: Castagnola's managed to open for service the next day and the restaurant has since replaced the entire kitchen staff.

For what it's worth, the latest Yelp review for the place (and the only post-Labor Day weekend review as of this writing) simply reads "Horrible, horrible mangement." Let's hope they get everything sorted out nicely - and soon. As much as San Franciscans like to hate on Fisherman's Wharf, it'd be a shame if the Rainforest Café were the only place to send our tourists for dinner.

[Chron]
[GrubSF]
[CultureBlog]