Joe’s Crab Shack has Cracked its Last Crab in Fisherman’s Wharf

The tide is turning in Fisherman’s Wharf. Earlier this week, we received news that animatronic tourist trap Rainforest Cafe had abruptly shuttered for good, just weeks after longstanding novelty restaurant Forbes Island set sail back in August. Today, another titan of kitsch has followed in their wake.

As Hoodline reports, faux-folksy megachain Joe’s Crab Shack has ended its roughly 12-year run in San Francisco. According to Hoodline’s tipster, the gate on Jefferson street is locked up and the light bulbs have been removed from the neon sign out front. A quick check on Yelp, where reviews for the charitably 2.5-star-rated restaurant stopped coming in around the end of August and described the management as “nonexistent,” confirms the closure. The location is no longer listed on Joe’s corporate website.

Poor Yelp ratings aside, the location in Fisherman’s Wharf — one of 60 nationwide — has seen its share of problems over the years. In 2013, the restaurant was sued for labor violations after management allegedly failed to give back of house employees their legally mandated breaks, forced them to purchase their own uniforms and refused to give them access to their health insurance accounts. On top of it all, the management was accused of harassing employees and firing anyone who spoke up about the violations. Earlier that year, in a presumably unrelated incident, an employee found “maybe 50 pounds” of marijuana that had been mysteriously disposed of in the restaurant’s dumpster the day after 4/20.

For anyone dying to have boiled shrimp in a tin bucket, you’ll have to head inland to the Sacramento location to get your fix. For everyone else, there are plenty of places in Fisherman’s Wharf to eat and drink without hating life.