Charles Phan’s Whiskey Bar Hard Water Hit with Eviction Notice for $400,000 in Unpaid Rent

The Slanted Door sister bar, Hard Water, has been served an eviction notice by the property owner at Pier 3 over an alleged $400,000 in unpaid rent. The SF Business Times reports that SF Piers Owner, Inc., the company that owns and manages the location, is seeking $424,535.27 in back rent, plus attorney fees and a forfeiture of the oyster and whiskey bar’s sublease agreement, according to a complaint filed Thursday in San Francisco Superior Court.

Eater SF reached out to a spokesperson with Slanted Door Group and was told Phan has no comment about the eviction as this time.

Charles Phan, the James Beard award-winning chef and owner of Slanted Door and Hard Water, has produced a flurry of opening and closing news in the last few years. Phan signed a 10-year sublease for Hard Water in 2012, a contract that would have been set to expire in 2023. At the end of 2021, Phan also signed a 10-year lease extension for the Slanted Door location at the Ferry Building with landlord Hudson Pacific Properties. Most recently he opened Chuck’s Takeaway in the Mission and secured a lease in Napa for another locaiton of Slanted Door, which is set to open in late Spring 2022.

Phan’s bar, which hosted more than 400 whiskeys and complementary dishes, had yet to reopen since the pandemic arrived in March 2020. Phan’s Slanted Door has also been closed since March 2020, though the chef confirmed in March that the restaurant is undergoing renovations but will reopen.