In order to make way for a new ferry terminal on Pier 2, longtime Embarcadero institution Sinbad's will be calling it quits, possibly as soon as next month but definitely within a year. As the Examiner reports, despite its long history on the waterfront dating back to 1975, "Sinbad's has also been a thorn in the Port's side," with multiple health violations and late rent, as well as reports of some sewage dumping into the Bay.

If you've ever set foot in the restaurant you'll know that it's like stepping back in time to the early 1980s, complete with starched tablecloths, lobster Thermidor, and a waitstaff who have clearly stuck it out through thick and thin and aged right along with the place. As Michael Bauer put it in this piece from 2013, "Whenever blackened red snapper (or blackened anything) is on the menu, it's a good bet that innovation halted in the 1980s." He also describes seeing an elderly woman in a booth by herself, "bundled up as if it were January in Alaska," sipping a Manhattan and enjoying dinner followed by a sundae, after which she paid by check.

The place does, however, have stunning views of the Bay Bridge, a kitschy wax statue of Sinbad complete with hairy chest, and can offer you a fair to middling seafood pasta entree to go with your stiff drink.

Owner Duane Stinson, who's owned the place with his brothers Tom and Charles all these 40 years tells Inside Scoop "We’ll be here for quite a while," despite the fact that the Port, per a letter sent last week, is insisting that Sinbad's vacate by March 21. The restaurant has already gotten an extension after originally promising to vacate on December 31, 2014. They're now pushing to stay until next spring, which is when construction on the new ferry terminal is set to begin, and it's unclear how firm the Port will be in getting them out as planned next month, or if they'll be sending in the sheriff. Says Tom Stinson to the Ex, "They don't need it until spring of next year. No harm, no foul." But we shall see.

(Sidenote: The restaurant's website, oddly, puts its inception in 1983, but 1975 is the year they gave to Bauer when narrating their history.)