The North Beach restaurant beloved for putting way too much garlic on everything will head one block up Columbus Avenue, and reopen this coming Monday.
Last year would have been the 30th anniversary of the North Beach garlic-covered-everything eatery the Stinking Rose. But the Stinking Rose was not open for one single day of business in 2021, it’s been closed for the entire pandemic, and Hoodline reported in June that the owners were trying to sell the place off.
Change of plans. The Chronicle reports that the Stinking Rose will reopen at a new North Beach location just one block from its previous Columbus Avenue spot, and under the same ownership. As the screenshot from the Stinking Rose SF website declares,”Reopening Monday, January 24th. We are excited to announce we will be reopening in a new location - 430 Columbus Ave. We look forward to serving you.”
The Stinking Rose, believed to be closed forever, is reopening next week at a new location. Hello, garlic breath! https://t.co/WjXowZSv19
— Janelle Bitker (@JanelleBitker) January 19, 2022
The new 430 Columbus Avenue location is the current location of Calzone’s Restaurant (seen below) which is run by the same ownership group. “We garlic-ized it,” Stinking Rose co-owner Jerry Dal Bozzo told the Chronicle. “We brought some of the decor from the Stinking Rose, so it’s a different garlic restaurant... Hopefully people will like it.”
There is a very obvious outdoor seating advantage to the Calzone’s spot. And with all respect to Calzone's, the Stinking Rose is a more broadly known brand, and enormously popular among both tourists and locals. The Chron says the new Stinking Rose will have a “shorter menu,” but the famed 40-clove garlic chicken will remain.
The reopening is this Monday, January 24, though it sounds like this is more of a soft reopening. According to the Chronicle, “By mid-February, the opening should be official, with a new sign, awning and coat of paint.”
So it sounds like garlic devotees can reunite with their old friend the Stinking Rose this Monday, but it won’t be until next month when ownership starts to really make a big stink about their new location with a grand reopening.
Related: North Beach’s Historic Comstock Saloon Reopening [SFist]
Image: Jennifer B. via Yelp