The days of elaborate, multicourse takeout meals from the Bay Area’s top restaurants may be coming to an end.
As more restaurants open indoors, many are ditching their takeout menus in order to once again focus on in-person diners.
Often, these are more upscale restaurants, like elegant Thai destination Nari, tiny Japanese skewers spot Hina Yakitori and three Michelin-starred Benu. All stopped serving takeout in recent days. These are places that never imagined boxing up their food before the pandemic — and generally, they’re excited to never look back.
“All in all, I’m just worried about quality — it’s never the same,” said Francis Ang, who stopped offering takeout for his inventive Filipino pop-up, Pinoy Heritage, last week.
Many chefs say the demand for takeout has fallen since March, when indoor dining returned to the Bay Area. Some say it has dipped more drastically in recent weeks as more people get vaccinated and diners eagerly wait for tables at the region’s hottest restaurants. Reservations at highly anticipated newcomers like Ernest in the Mission or Ju-Ni’s new outdoor omakase bar are tough to get. The wait for a table at buzzy spots like the Tailor’s Son on Fillmore Street easily tops an hour.
The rush for in-person dining coincides with more restaurants reopening: Only 15% of San Francisco restaurants were taking reservations in January, according to OpenTable. That number jumped to 50% in April.
Some fine-dining restaurants actually enjoyed offering takeout but said they can’t logistically handle takeout and indoor dining at the same time.
Butter-poached oysters with caviar and Champagne was a special takeout Valentine’s Day course from San Francisco’s Acquerello during the pandemic. The restaurant recently stopped offering takeout to get ready for indoor dining.
Giancarlo PaterliniMichelin-starred Italian spot Acquerello turned its San Francisco banquet room into a packing room, full of boxes, liners, labels, paper bags and stickers to prepare elaborate meal kits. Despite its popularity, the operation simply takes up too much real estate, although Acquerello plans to continue its at-home wine-tasting experience.
“If we never had the pandemic, we never would have tried it,” said chef Suzette Gresham. “I think we picked up new clientele — a younger clientele, people who had never thought of Acquerello previously.”
While some fans are booking reservations for the restaurant’s return in May, others are already asking about their favorite takeout options. They still want access to Acquerello’s lasagna and duck confit — and they want to pick them up when they come in for a sit-down tasting menu. Gresham said Acquerello will evaluate whether they can handle limited takeout options.
Space is the big question for many midrange and more casual restaurants as well.
“As we start to expand indoors, there’s no way we can keep up” with takeout, said Laurence Jossel, owner of San Francisco staple Nopa.
He’s seen a natural waning of demand for takeout and expects it will dissipate further soon. Takeout was 80% of the restaurant’s business when it began offering outdoor dining in February. It soon dropped to 50%, and on one recent night, it fell to 20%. Eventually, he expects the restaurant will remove its online takeout menu — but if a hungry diner at the door wants to order a meal to go, Nopa will oblige, which the restaurant wouldn’t have done pre-pandemic.
Some restaurants that want to maintain some form of takeout aren’t certain a limited kitchen staff can handle it. Nelson German, who has watched reservations book up months in advance at his Oakland bar Sobre Mesa while takeout orders dip by 20% at his more casual alaMar, is considering expanding alaMar’s dine-in menu to feel more special while limiting takeout to a few staples.
Pomella’s lavash wrap is only available in takeout boxes for now, but the Oakland restaurant wants to open for indoor dining — with real plates — soon.
Lydia DanillerEven fast-casual restaurants like Oakland’s Pomella are at a loss. Owner Mica Talmor didn’t intend her Israeli restaurant to be a takeout machine pre-pandemic, yet Pomella’s to-go business keeps growing. She, too, wants to open indoors in the next few weeks, but the dining room is currently used for storage.
“It’s a nightmare. I don’t know where we’re going to put all the boxes,” she said. “Also, on the line, the cooks have all to-go containers, and we’ll have to add plates. Where are we going to put it all? We have no idea.”
Some higher-end restaurants say they are going to continue putting fancy dishes like smoked duck in boxes. Paul Einbund of classy San Francisco wine bar the Morris understands why so many restaurateurs are excited to ditch takeout, but he’s disappointed to see dwindling to-go options from his favorite restaurants. He doesn’t feel ready to dine indoors yet, and he thinks many others aren’t ready either. He’s come to view takeout as its own form of safety-minded hospitality.
“I know restaurants, but I don’t know pandemics, and I have no idea what’s happening in the future,” he said. “I’m just trying to do the highest quality, but more importantly, take care of the guest.”
Janelle Bitker is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: janelle.bitker@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @janellebitker