Popular Lower Haight sausage concern Rosamunde Sausage Grill has closed its original location due to flagging business and other concerns. The place slung its last sausage on Sunday.
Update: Rosamunde may not be returning, but a longtime employee of Rosamunde, Christine Blunck, is reopening the space within a month as Berliner Berliner, a German sausage shop.
Owner Josh Margolis tells Hoodline that Rosamunde's other two locations — on Mission Street near 24th and in Oakland's Swan's Market — are remaining open, and the company is not done for good. Also, one factor that could be at play here is Rosamunde's recent collaboration with Willkommen, the beer hall at Sanchez and Market from Black Hammer Brewing. That location is just a few blocks away from the Lower Haignt location. The kitchen at Willkommen also does more than serve sausages on rolls — the menu includes salads, sausage boards, pretzels, fries, and daily entree specials as well.
According to Margolis, a new business is already moving in on the 545 Haight Street space next door to Toronado, but he could not comment on what it was and he is not affiliated. But it seems that the days of bringing sausages and burgers over to enjoy with beers at Toronado are gone.
Rosamunde has been operating in the Haight Street space since 1998, and so its absence will be sorely missed by longtime denizens of the 'hood.
"Things change and then you change, and that’s the way it has to be in the restaurant business," Margolis tells Hoodline. On the restaurant website it says, "We would like to thank all our loyal Haight St. customers for their years of support."
Photo: zeegoose/Instagram