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The owners of 14-year-old Hayes Valley comfort food restaurant Sauce and upstairs hotel Sleep Over Sauce are saying goodbye to 131 Gough Street: They’ve sold the building, and will deliver the space vacant to a new owner, who will lease the restaurant space to a new TBD restaurant tenant. Sauce’s four owners will decamp to other businesses, including a second, newer FiDi outpost of Sauce at 56 Belden place.
“It’s not the typical SF narrative,” says chef/partner Ben Paula: They aren’t being forced out by a greedy landlord, he means. “We were lucky enough to buy the building six years back, and we’ve had a great run here.”
In 14 years, Hayes Valley has completely changed around Sauce, transforming from a sketchy extension of Mid-Market to a veritable dining hub where top retailers and restaurant owners are jockeying for space.
“It’s just blowing up,” Paula says. “I’m excited for the neighborhood — we’re leaving on a great note and our terms.” Many of Sauces’s employees on Gough Street will find work with Sauce on Belden, and Paula says he’s using his connections to get interviews for cooks and dishwashers elsewhere, too.
Sauce’s last service on Gough will be Friday, September 28th, with a “thank you/goodbye/drink it dry party” on Saturday September 29th. One more time to get Sauced — then on to the future.
