SoMa’s Kinky Cafe Wicked Grounds Announces Closure

Wicked Grounds, a combination cafe, fetish boutique, and kink community hub at 289 8th Street in SoMa, has closed. A note posted on Wicked Grounds’ website revealed that the cafe’s last regular day of business was Saturday. Going forward, several planned community events will continue, and a going out of business sale will be held, with bargain basement — bargain dungeon? — prices on Wicked Grounds merchandise and toys.

The closure of Wicked Grounds, which boasted a cozy atmosphere, good coffee, and food optionally served in a dog bowl for you or your sub, leaves a gaping hole in the local kink community. The friendly space was known as a welcoming daytime hangout, hosting pre-play munches, teaching events, and more, where new initiates could ask their questions about everything from knots to clamps. Non-kinky customers were welcome to enjoy a vanilla latte and a voyeuristic thrill for just being there.

From Wicked Grounds:

Wicked Grounds Community –

It is with heavy hearts that we announce Wicked Grounds Café & Boutique is going out of business. We are truly grateful for the years that we’ve been a community hub, and thank you deeply for your support, your engagement, and your vibrant community building. We are particularly grateful to our Patreon subscribers, VIPs, street teams, and munch leaders, who made it possible for us to keep operations going this long.

Our last day of full café operations was yesterday [January 6]. We will be keeping the doors open for all scheduled events as well as a going out of business sale through this Tuesday evening, January 9th. We will have very limited food and drink options during this time. We are very grateful to our team and community for making this soft landing possible.

Our team WILL still be holding our play party Saturday night from 8pm – 1am at the SF Citadel. We hope that you will join us for this celebration of Wicked Grounds.

Wicked Grounds is not just a place. It is a movement and a community. Please know that the team formerly known as Wicked Grounds will continue to play a strong role creating safe spaces and education for the local kink community. If you are interested in keeping up on future KINK 101 classes, events, podcasts, etc., please like the page Kinky Queer Revolution on Facebook.

We will keep you posted as things evolve.

With love, and deepest gratitude for community –Mir and the Wicked Grounds team

Wicked Grounds’ closure follows that of another quirky SoMa cafe, the laundromat/ performance space BrainWash, as well as the shuttering of another popular bawdy dining establishment, the Red Door Cafe, which ended its 10-year run of naughty brunch theatrics in Pac Heights at the end of December. It also coincides with the rumored sale of the San Francisco Armory, owned by kink and fetish porn production studio Kink.com, to a network of upscale private clubs, Soho House.

But Wicked grounds, which first opened in 2009, has closed and reopened before. It first shuttered in 2011, despite a successful $50,000 fundraising effort to continue on. Then, seemingly all of a sudden, the business came roaring back to life in 2012. This time around, some patrons have already expressed interest in attempting to resurrect Wicked Grounds.

For now, a Wicked Grounds celebration event is scheduled for next Saturday, January 13, at SF Citadel. Eater has reached out to Wicked Grounds for details on the closure, and will update accordingly.

• An important announcement from Wicked Grounds [Official]