Washington Square Bar and Grill

Washington Square Bar and Grill
Interactive map of Washington Square Bar and Grill
Restaurant information
Established1973
ClosedAugust 2010
Previous owners
Ed Moose, Sam Deitsch
Location1707 Powell Street, San Francisco, California, United States

37°48′1.62″N 122°24′39.46″W / 37.8004500°N 122.4109611°W / 37.8004500; -122.4109611 The Washington Square Bar & Grill was a landmark restaurant adjoining Washington Square in San Francisco's North Beach neighborhood (Powell at Union streets). Known widely as the Washbag, so named by columnist Herb Caen as a play on words, it was a favorite gathering place for writers, politicians, musicians, and social elite.

History

In 1973, Rose "Pistola" Evangelisti sold her bar Rose Pistola,[1][2] and that fall the Washington Square Bar & Grill was opened there by Ed Moose, a former dispatcher and reporter for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch,[3] his wife Mary Etta, and partner Sam Deitsch.[4][5] It became a favorite gathering place for writers, politicians, musicians, and social elite.[5][6][7] San Francisco Chronicle columnist Herb Caen coined its nickname, the "Washbag". Caen's decades-long buddy at the Chronicle, Pulitzer prizewinner Stanton Delaplane, wrote many of his columns while sitting by the Washbag's piano, then dispatched them to the paper via messenger.[8]

Ed Moose organized a softball team, the Lapins Sauvages, composed of famous and influential people who were regular patrons, and Caen often wrote of the team's exploits in his columns, describing its travels to play in major stadiums in various locations around the world.[3] In 1989 Ron Fimrite, a sporst writer and one of the team members, wrote The Square: the Story of a Saloon, describing the restaurant's place in San Francisco's cocktail culture.[9]

In 1990 the partners sold the restaurant. With Sam Dietsch as a silent partner, the Mooses opened a larger restaurant, Moose's, on the opposite side of the square.[5][10][11] The new restaurant soon took on the same local cultural significance for San Francisco.[12]

The Washington Square Bar & Grill was sold to new partners in 2000, replaced by a club called Cobalt's and then revived,[5] closed on January 1, 2008, and then reopened under new ownership on March 2, 2009.[6][13][14] It closed permanently in August 2010.[5][12] That same week, on August 12, 2010, Ed Moose died at San Francisco General Hospital.[4] Mary Etta Moose died on December 23, 2023, two days after her 95th birthday.[15] Memorabilia including the restaurant's sign and Delaplane's typewriter were given to the San Francisco History Center at the San Francisco Main Library.[5]

References

  1. ↑ Seth Rosenfeld (September 14, 1998). "Rose Pistola, North Beach bar owner, cook". SFGate. Archived from the original on June 22, 2022. Retrieved June 22, 2022.
  2. ↑ "Fiery Rose Pistola North Beach Barkeep". SFGate. September 15, 1998. Retrieved September 10, 2024.
  3. 1 2 Alan Liddle (August 24, 1987). "Moose and partners put 'Washbag' on the block for $1M". Nation's Restaurant News. Vol. 21.
  4. 1 2 Carl Nolte (August 13, 2010). "Ed Moose dies - S.F. restaurateur, barkeep". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved August 20, 2026 – via SFGate.
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "Native Son: The one, the only Washington Square Bar & Grill". San Francisco Chronicle. September 18, 2011 – via SFGate.
  6. 1 2 C. W. Nevius (January 10, 2008). "Romancing the not-long-gone Washbag". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved January 8, 2008 – via SFGate.
  7. ↑ Rob Morse (April 16, 2003). "Ah, it's just like old times at the old Washbag". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved January 10, 2008 – via SFGate.
  8. ↑ Carl Nolte (December 9, 2005). "Delaplane honored where he ate, drank and finished his columns:Old friends hang his typewriter in North Beach bar". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved July 7, 2024 – via SFGate.
  9. ↑ Ron Fimrite (1989). The Square: the Story of a Saloon. Dallas: Taylor Publishing Company. ISBN 978-0-87833-631-9.
  10. ↑ C.W. Nevius (June 16, 1998). "Welcome, Stranger: Golfers have never had to look hard to find a good time in Baghdad by the Bay". Sports Illustrated. Archived from the original on November 23, 2001.
  11. ↑ Alan Liddle (October 20, 1997). "Executive chef-partner, new menu breathe life into SF's Moose's". Nation's Restaurant News. Vol. 31, no. 42.
  12. 1 2 Paulo Lucchesi (August 12, 2010). "Washington Square Bar & Grill closed indefinitely, again". San Francisco Chronicle – via SFGate.
  13. ↑ Phil Matier; Andrew Ross (March 11, 2009). "M&R: Coin toss settles Oakland city parking war". San Francisco Chronicle – via SFGate. Should be some reunion down at the newly reopened Washington Square Bar and Grill in North Beach tonight when Board of Supervisors President David Chiu, the Residential Builders Association and the politically juiced development firm Platinum Advisors host a cocktail bash for 'Aaron Peskin and the Class of 2000.'
  14. ↑ "Reopened: Washington Street Bar and Grill". San Francisco Chronicle. March 8, 2009 – via SFGate.
  15. ↑ "Mary Moose obituary". Legacy.com. January 11, 2024. Retrieved July 5, 2024.
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