In January, 15 Romolo was aiming for an early-spring reopening. By late September the target had moved to mid-October. Long Weekend opened at Broadway and Columbus with a promise to change its theme every nine months. More than a year later, its website still welcomes guests to Havana. Barbarossa Lounge planned to stay on Montgomery Street, and that plan ended on September 26.
In North Beach this season, an announced date is a hope. The dates that hold are the ones printed on a ticket.
| Venue | What was announced | Where things stand in late October 2026 |
|---|---|---|
| 15 Romolo | Early-spring reopening, per a January report | Latest public target was mid-October |
| Long Weekend | A new destination theme every nine months | Opened October 23, 2025; still Havana |
| Barbarossa Lounge | An ongoing run on Montgomery Street | Closed September 26 after 11 years |
| Keys Jazz Bistro | Fourth-anniversary show | Ticketed for Thursday, November 19 |
Two Years on a Single Alley Bar
Up a side street off Broadway and Columbus, steep enough that the sidewalk turns into stairs, 15 Romolo has been closed for a renovation of more than two years. Jon and Kelly Anne Gasparini have owned the bar since 1998. The San Francisco Standard calls it a 115-year-old tapas bar and speakeasy, "too fancy to be a dive, but too bohemian to be properly respectable."
Most of those two years went into work no guest will ever see. The Standard reports that the Gasparinis stripped decades of wear from the mahogany-paneled walls and that the plumbing needed a serious upgrade. Tablehopper previewed the space in September and adds more to the list: the refrigerator doors were stripped and re-gasketed, and the sound system and wiring were redone. Kelly Anne designed the women's restroom herself, with floral wallpaper and a dusty pink vintage sink. A restoration at that level of detail tends to move at its own speed.
Even the owner treated the deadline as serious. "We have to open by my mid-October goal, or I'm going to have to start selling my furniture," Jon Gasparini told the Standard, partly in jest. The bar's Instagram is the place to check the door's status before you climb the stairs.
The menu previewed at the Tablehopper event was built for people who come back often. Jon is planning about 11 cocktails covering Martinis, highballs, classics, house drinks and a coffee drink, kept simple on the page. Guests who want something more involved can order off the menu. Martinis come shaken with ice shards, in a chilled glass with a sidecar. The preview drink people talked about was a Caprese Highball: olive oil–washed Fords gin, heirloom tomato water, basil and lemon, force carbonated.
The kitchen belongs to the Gasparinis' son, chef Giovanni Gasparini, who previously cooked at Ansots, a Basque restaurant in Boise. He has spent months on a chophouse steak sandwich: dry-brined New York steak from Golden Gate Meat Company with an herby creamed spinach sauce, on a Starter Bakery ciabatta roll. The bar's longtime meatballs come back in a lamb version inspired by A16's recipe, alongside leek and bacalao croquettes, gildas, and a beer-battered bacalao sandwich with American cheese and tartar sauce.
A Nine-Month Theme in Its Thirteenth Month
Down at the intersection below the alley, a newer bar shows the same pattern on a different clock. Long Weekend opened at 270 Columbus Avenue on October 23, 2025, inside the 1920s Italian American Bank building at the corner of Columbus and Broadway. It comes from Future Bars, the group behind Bourbon and Branch, Local Edition and Pagan Idol, and it was built to change its cultural theme every nine months.
Nine months from opening day fell in July. As this goes live, the bar's own site still names Havana as its first destination, and the daiquiris are still pouring. When it opened, the San Francisco Examiner priced classic daiquiris and mojitos at $14 and flavored versions at $15. They come shaken, blended or over shaved ice.
The building does a lot of the work. Two mezzanines look down on the main bar. Downstairs, an underground room called La Bóveda shows Cuban street art and plays Cuban reggaeton. The bank's original safe-deposit vault is now a members' club, where each member gets a box and key. Cuban composer Alejandro Del Valle curates the live music, which can show up anywhere in the building.
The long Havana run gives the neighborhood one more holiday in Cuba. The bar's site is promoting "La Habana de los Muertos," a Halloween-season night with DJ G-POWR and DAILO MAC, all Latin music, an ofrenda, no cover, from 9 p.m. to 2 a.m. The RSVP page linked from the site has the date.
The end of the Havana run has a planned send-off too. Artist Reynerio Tamayo's work is set to be auctioned when the Cuban edition closes, with proceeds going to his children's art school in Havana. The bar's gallery page still describes that auction as the closing event. Once that auction is on the calendar, the end of the Havana run will be too.
The Clock Set by a Lease
The third clock belongs to neither the owner nor the concept. Barbarossa Lounge closed on September 26 after 11 years of modern and classic cocktails in a Montgomery Street building that survived the 1906 earthquake and once served as a jailhouse. The San Francisco Chronicle reported that the owners could not reach a long-term agreement with their landlord.
The bar's goodbye, quoted by the Chronicle, reads as a summary of the decade: "We made it through the pandemic, the slow recovery of downtown San Francisco and dramatic changes in nightlife and corporate events. Through all of it our team continued to show up and our guests continued to support us. That is what we want to remember."
Put next to 15 Romolo, the contrast is plain. The Gasparinis have owned their bar since 1998, so they could spend two years restoring it on their own timeline. A bar that rents its space works to the lease term, and that date can arrive whether or not the room is still full.
The Dates That Hold
That leaves the venues that sell tickets, and a ticket is the one kind of date North Beach keeps. On Thursday, November 19, Keys Jazz Bistro marks four years with bassist and bandleader Marcus Shelby leading his quartet. There are sets at 7 p.m. and 9 p.m., and tickets are $45 per show. Shelby is the artistic director of Healdsburg Jazz and has served on the San Francisco Arts Commission since 2013. Seating is first come, first served with no reservations, and the club recommends arriving at least 30 minutes early.
The Examiner placed Keys on the same stretch of Broadway as Long Weekend. District 3 Supervisor Danny Sauter described that stretch to the paper as "a historic row that has been home to great jazz venues and groundbreaking LGBTQ+ spaces." He said Long Weekend brings "color and cheer to an important corner of the neighborhood." Uncle Paul's Ceramics, a studio that celebrated its first year in the neighborhood around the time Long Weekend opened, belongs to the same revival.
For the next few weeks, a North Beach evening plan looks like this:
- Any night now: Check 15 Romolo's Instagram, then walk up Romolo Place for a Caprese Highball if the door is open.
- Halloween season: La Habana de los Muertos at Long Weekend, 9 p.m. to 2 a.m., no cover. The date is on the RSVP page.
- Thursday, November 19: Marcus Shelby Quartet at Keys Jazz Bistro, 7 or 9 p.m., $45. Arrive early.
- Whenever it is scheduled: The Reynerio Tamayo auction, the planned close of Long Weekend's Havana run.
Gasparini put the bigger picture simply when he spoke to the Standard in January: "I've had entities in North Beach for 30 years now, and I've never seen it more vibrant than it is now."
At Rossi Real Estate, we follow North Beach as closely as its regulars do, from the alley bars to the leases that decide which rooms stay open. If you would like to talk through what is changing on these blocks, we would be glad to schedule a private consultation.
