Dirty Water, $4 Million Mid-Market Bar and Restaurant, Throws In the Towel

Today is the last call for ambitious bar/restaurant Dirty Water, which closes for good tomorrow. The 200-seat, 6,252 square foot dining and drinking den opened in June 2015 at 1355 Market Street (on the ground floor of the Twitter building) with a whopping 52 beers and 114 wines on tap plus “paleo friendly” food and lots of whiskey (a spirit nicknamed dirty water in pre-prohibition years, hence the bar’s vaguely unsanitary name).

Dirty Water reportedly took more than two years and $4 million to develop, and for owners, was a labor of love. It arrived just after — and long outlived — its neighbor Bon Marché, which had similarly grand plans but shut down in short order in a slew of area closures (think Cadence and Oro, among others). But, for three years at least, Dirty Water managed to hold on.

“This is easily the most difficult thing I’ve ever gone through and I honestly don’t know where to go from here,” founder and general manager Kristian Cosentino wrote on Facebook, revealing the closure. “I DO know that whatever it is, it will be beautiful,” he adds hopefully.

“San Francisco is still WONDERFUL,” Cosentino also wrote, emphasizing that he’s still all in on the restaurant industry. A former general manager of the Press Club, he also owns Le Plonc in Mountain View, which predates Dirty Water, and Polk Street bar Rusted Mule, which opened last summer.

Eater SF has reached out to Cosentino for comment and details, and will add updates accordingly.