The last remaining Denny’s in San Francisco has shuttered after nearly 25 years. The 24-hour diner chain’s 816 Mission St. location closed Aug. 1, franchise owner Chris Haque told SFGATE. As of Aug. 12, the Denny’s sign has been painted over.
“We’re the only store left, and we operated until the last day that we could,” Haque said. “The cost of doing business is tremendous. There’s vandalism, and people come and eat and walk away, and there’s no one to stop them.”
Haque claimed that dining and dashing was a big issue at the Denny’s near Union Square, which he said cut into the restaurant’s profit margins. He also pointed to the lack of conventions in San Francisco over the past few years, which the restaurant typically depended on for business. Haque used to be the franchise owner of a Denny’s location in San Francisco’s Fisherman’s Wharf as well, which closed in 2019, and still runs a Denny’s in Tacoma, Washington.
“It’s a beautiful city — we love it, we have been there so many years,” Haque said of San Francisco. “But I think [city officials] should make it more business-friendly.”
In December 2022, SFGATE food reporter Nico Madrigal-Yankowski found that the Mission Street location was the most expensive Denny’s in all of California, although he wasn’t disappointed by his breakfast there: “I didn’t quite find God after eating at the most expensive Denny’s in the state, but it was a scrumptious and completely satisfying meal,” he wrote. “And even though this order cost about $20, there was a lot of food.”
The Oakland Denny’s near the Hegenberger Road corridor also closed in January after 54 years, citing the “safety and well-being” of Denny’s customers and employees amid concerns over crime in the area. Denny’s still has many Bay Area locations remaining in the South Bay, East Bay and North Bay.
