After four years of being closed and variously boarded over, the former Cafe Flore space at Market and Noe streets comes alive again tonight as Fisch & Flore.
The new sustainable seafood restaurant and bar will be softly open Wednesday starting at 4 pm, and owner Serhat Zorlu told Hoodline that there will be an opening reception with light bites and a cash bar. This is timed to coincide with the return of the Wednesday Castro Farmers' Market, which was on its winter hiatus the last few months.
"I'm happy we're opening," Zorlu tells Hoodline. "I'm happy when I hear people say they can't wait for Fisch & Flore to open."
The front patio at Fisch & Flore now features a fire pit, as well as glass windbreaks all around the exterior fence. The kitchen has also been expanded, an ADA-compliant bathroom has been added, and the bar and dining room spaces have been remodeled, as Hoodline reported.
The temporary mural of the late Heklina, who died one year ago today, came down with the shoring wall around the building on Monday.
Fisch & Flore will be open for dinner only, to start, and no menu has yet been put online. Daytime and brunch service will follow at some point.
Tablehopper has some menu details, which sound pretty good! In addition to staples like fried calamari and fried smelt, there will be $5 oysters on the half-shell, raw or grilled (6 for $23); baked clams with lime, pistachio, orange, vanilla beans, cardamom, and tarragon vinegar; smoked tuna tartare; and branzino ceviche with cucumber gazpacho and plantain chips.
The consulting chef is Tim Luym, who was the chef at long-gone Poleng Lounge in NoPa, and then at Attic in San Mateo. He's working with Turkish-born chef Efe Topçuoğlu on the menu.
The well loved Cafe Flore first opened in the space in 1973, and Zorlu had intended to have Fisch & Flore open last year, in time for the restaurant's 50th anniversary. As Hoodline reported last summer, the start of construction was delayed by permitting issues.
Cafe Flore closed in late 2019 as former owners Terrance Alan and Luke Bruner focused their attention on opening Flore Dispensary, a cannabis store across the street. A prep kitchen behind the dispensary, that had long been used by Cafe Flore to supplement its limited kitchen space, will continue to be used by Fisch & Flore, per Hoodline.
There was an aborted plan to reopen Cafe Flore during the pandemic, for outdoor dining, in mid-2020. And then new owner Zorlu took over the space in 2022.
The arrival of this new seafood option in the neighborhood comes just after longtime neighborhood spot Catch closed its doors last month.
Like Cafe Flore before it, Fisch & Flore will offer cocktails and a full bar.
