Long-lived and long-loved Mission dive the 500 Club, a necessary fixture on SFist's Best Dive Bars list, is hitting the market, according to a real estate source who prefers to remain anonymous. And this may suggest that the bar may not remain the same dusty, cheap, down-home neighborhood gathering spot that it's been for decades. But maybe it will! So, don't panic just yet.
A buyer would be loath to want to fight the neighborhood about shutting this place down, but I should note that its owners haven't applied for Legacy Business protection, so there's that.
But then you have the issue of a new owner needing to come in and bring everything up to code if they want to make any improvements something which, we should note, recently happened with Mr. Bing's, necessitating a pretty full gut-job. So, even if the 500 Club stays the 500 Club, it may not look anything like the 500 Club many now know and love.
But like I said, let's not get ahead of ourselves! The listing, which includes the bar's Type 48 liquor license, doesn't name the bar, but refers to it as a "popular iconic Mission Dolores bar with giant neon martini glass [sign] on Guerrero at 17th." So, yeah, it's the 500 Club.
They want $1,250,000 for it.
This is one of those bars that for many is so deeply embedded in their experience of The Mission, that if it changes or god forbid becomes a craft cocktail haven like Wildhawk there may be riots.
I'm unclear how old the bar is exactly, and it's surely changed hands more than once. As Bay Area A-List describes it, "The 500 Club has quenched the thirst of SF natives, transients, and interesting ne'er-do-wells for many generations. A neighborhood dive that has seen 'The Mission' through the beatnik, hippy, hipster, and dotcom growing pains; it still remains everyone's favorite corner bar."
More on this as it develops, or if it sells quickly.
