For 117 years, the building long known as the Hotel Utah has provided lodging and drink to people at the corner of 4th and Bryant streets.
A four story Edwardian with distinct rounded bays and a flat top roof—today painted in a distinct bright green—it is cemented in the city’s cultural history as a comfortable way station at the nexus of ongoing redevelopment.
A lodging house
In 1908, a San Francisco Chronicle article reported that “the city has gone far enough with office buildings for the present and the real needs of the down-town district are lodging-houses and hotels.” The article noted that prior to the 1906 earthquake and fire, several downtown streets were lined with “hotels and lodging houses above stores” and that the same type of building would “prove a profitable investment as compared with other buildings.” John F. Deininger, from a family of brewers in Vallejo, was one such person that invested in this type of new construction in the earthquake-devastated “South of the Slot.”
Once Deininger built his new residential hotel at 500-504 4th Street, it operated initially under the name Hotel Aberdeen, with 43 lodging rooms and three ground-floor storefronts including a Greek restaurant. The hotel was located in an ideal location for the itinerant and seasonal workers of the ever-expanding number of factories and warehouses in the area—a 1914 survey found that forty thousand single men lived in the neighborhood, and only one third were permanent residents.
According to Andrea Chochran, co-owner of today’s Hotel Utah Saloon, the “FB” carved into the antique bar stood for Fredericksburg, one of the most popular beers sold at the time the building started first operating as a saloon. In High Spirits: The Legacy Bars of San Francisco (2015), author JK Dineen goes further to say that Deininger had an exclusive agreement with Fredericksburg, which used to deliver its beer to the building by horse and cart.
Evolution of a watering hole
By 1916 it was known as the Hotel Carnot and by 1945 the name had been changed to the Hotel Utah. Beginning in the late 1930s, Ernest Pelli opened a restaurant and saloon in one of the storefronts called the Transbay Café, a reference to the nearby ramps to the recently constructed Bay Bridge. After World War II, Al Opatz purchased the restaurant and it became the well-known Al’s Trans-Bay. Among the tavern’s regular clientele was the Delta Club, a duck-hunting men’s group whose members included Joe Dimaggio. The baseball player would frequently bring his wife Marylin Monroe to the Trans-Bay when they were in town.
Bringing in the entertainment
The late 1970s represented a major turning point for the ground floor establishment when the bar transformed into the entertainment space we know it as today. After purchasing the building from Opatz in 1977, Hollywood producer and screenwriter Paul Gaer renamed the bar Hotel Utah and expanded into the building’s two other ground floor spaces. With this larger footprint, Gaer added an intimate performance area, complete with a small stage.
On its humble stage the Hotel Utah has attracted some big-name acts over the decades, including comedians Robin Williams and Whoopi Goldberg and the band Guns N’ Roses, who would stop by the bar for impromptu performances after wrapping up their sets at larger venues downtown. But the heartbeat of its performance space are the hundreds of local acts of all genres that grace its stage every night; on days this month you can find punk rockers the Filthy Traitors (October 16), blues pianist Mike Miamone (October 25), and “empowering hip hop” with Thot Squad (October 26). In addition to these musical acts, what is today called the Hotel Utah Saloon continues to host the longest-running open mic night in the city.
Chili and a hotel
The Utah also distinguishes itself as being a bar and music venue with very good food: all food is made in house, including a very flavorful and spicy chili and elevated potato skins with pickled shallots. Chochran mentioned how the Utah even enters their food in chower and chili cookoff contests around the Bay Area.
Happy hour is extensive and stretches into the weekends, including San Francisco Giants-themed specials and $1 wing Wednesdays.
Today, the Utah is a conspicuous survivor of the large-scale redevelopment of South of Market during the mid-twentieth century which resulted in the razing of nearly all the residential hotels from the neighborhood’s early industrial and manufacturing past. After more than a century, the upper floors continue to serve as lodgings and operates under the name the Utah Inn featuring a range of standard and deluxe double rooms. The building itself was recognized for its significance in 2018, when it became San Francisco’s 282nd landmark.
However, the Hotel Utah Saloon has not yet been added to the Legacy Business Registry, which it more than qualifies for. We hope that you will visit this historic spot as part of SF Heritage’s SOMA month and encourage them to apply!
Visit the Hotel Utah’s website for their calendar of upcoming acts.
For our Heritage in the Neighborhoods: South of Market month, we are spotlighting the history and heritage of this “South of the Slot” neighborhood.
Sources:
Dineen, J.K. The Legacy Bars of San Francisco. Berkeley: Heydey, 2015, 72.
Eastern Money for the City, San Francisco Chronicle, April 4, 1908, 4.
South of Market Street, A Brief Guide to its Architecture, San Francisco Architectural Heritage, August 1985, 4.
Hotel Utah Landmark Designation Report, San Francisco Planning Department, March 21, 2018.
