Castro Restaurant Beso has Served its Last Tapas

Castro District diners are kissing off 18th Street Spanish restaurant Beso, which is closed after five years in business, Hoodline reports. It’s the second area restaurant from duo Nick Ronan and Damien Chabaud-Arnault to shutter in the last year, as French-influenced sibling Bisou closed on Market Street in August. Eater SF has reached out to the team and awaits comment.

Located in a garage-level space at 2058 18th Street, Beso served tapas like pan con tomate, Spanish tortilla, gambas, and bombas, as well as a popular paella. Fans aren’t completely out of luck: Some of those dishes have migrated with Chabaud-Arnault to a new restaurant, the Pawn Shop in SoMa (and employees have, too, according to Hoodline).

A partnership with Monarch, the Pawn Shop’s next door neighbor on 6th Street, the new restaurant serves tapas in a rather different environment than Beso: Behind an intentionally tacky facade of a pawn shop, which customers pass through to enter a more flattering dining room. The restaurant just started serving a bottomless mimosa brunch, harkening back to the one served in the Castro at Bisou before that spot closed.

• Castro Spanish restaurant Beso closes after 5 years [Hoodline]
• Hidden Tapas Restaurant Behind Fake Pawn Shop Opens in SoMa [ESF]
• Infamous Castro Bottomless Brunch Returns Behind a Fake Pawn Shop in SoMa [ESF]