Giants fans can officially add another feather to their World Champion ballcaps: the team's new hangout complex, The Yard, officially opens tomorrow, and it's a doozy. Located just across the Lefty O'Doul Bridge in a carved-out chunk of Parking Lot A and built entirely from shipping containers, it's set to become pregame party central after the MLB season kicks off next month, but it's also an amenity for the neighborhood even when the team isn't in town.
The complex's right side is Off the Grid's first-ever static food truck park, featuring permanently parked outposts of Proposition Chicken, Señor Sisig, and Peet's Coffee and Tea, as well as a Humphry Slocombe ice-cream cart. It also houses an Off the Grid bus with local wine and Anchor beer on tap, in which the food-truck titans will also serve oysters at happy hour and host rotating pop-ups curated by The Bold Italic's food writer, Tamara Palmer. As if that wasn't enough, game days will bring a rotating selection of four more trucks, which will park on the street outside the complex. There's also plans to offer a Saturday-morning farmer's market, which should come online in a few weeks.
Over to the left, there's a sizable beer garden put together by Anchor Brewing (fitting, since they're planning to move to the area and open a brewery on Pier 48), featuring all of their locally-brewed creations on tap. 4505 Meats was originally set to do a barbecue offering within the beer garden, but after they pulled out, The Whole Beast (which also has an outpost in The Hall) took their place, installing a smoker to do brisket, ribs, and pulled pork, as well as burgers and their famous lamb gyros and lamb poutine.
Between the two eating and drinking areas, there's a North Face shop and an SF Made outpost selling locally made jewelry and T-shirts, as well as bleacher seating that the Giants hope to use for performances and movie nights when the team is away. It's a pretty impressive setup, but fans should note a couple of major bummers: due to permitting restrictions, there are no heat lamps (Anchor is considering renting out blankets to beer garden visitors), and booze can't be carried through the complex, which means that if you buy a beer from Anchor's beer garden or wine from Off the Grid, it has to stay on its side of the proceedings. (You can take food anywhere, though.)
The Yard debuts in its entirety tomorrow, with the exception of Off the Grid's booze bus, which will only be softly open this Saturday and Sunday (11 am-5 pm). The Off the Grid segment will run daily from 11 am-8 pm (10 pm for Giants night games), while the beer garden will be open daily from 11 am-9 pm (11 pm for Giants night games). And do note that the complex isn't permanent: by 2017 or 2018, the Giants will turn its current space into a mixed-use housing development and park, though there's a possibility that it could be packed up and moved elsewhere.
