Inside Pinecrest Diner, a Uncommon 24-Hour Restaurant in Downtown San Francisco

It’s Friday evening, 11:30 p.m And from a seat at the long counter at Pinecrest Diner, guests can feel the heat from the burners and griddle radiating from the kitchen. A tiny mountain of hash browns sizzles in one corner of the plancha, ready to be divided up and scooped onto plates for hungry guests. Waiters spread generous amounts of whipped cream on slices of cake or waffles, scurry from counter to table and back, pouring hot coffee into to-go mugs for patrol officers who drop by from their rounds at TL. It’s an inviting space accented by the lingering scent of bacon in the air.

The corner of Geary Street and Mason Street isn’t the empty Nighthawks scene you’d expect. Staying at Pinecrest Diner fulfills the fantasy of pre-pandemic San Francisco. There are reminders of a more difficult time, such as the plexiglass around the checkout, but here too there is a lot of activity, where both day visitors and night owls are served. And at every moment, the Pinecrest staff is harnessing the energy of the busy scene.

Although Pinecrest currently only operates 24 hours a day, four days a week (Wednesday through Sunday), owner Peter Foundas remains committed to returning to 24 hour, all week operations. “My mother used to say in Greek, ‘You went to the dance and now you have to dance,'” he says. “It’s basically, ‘You’re here. You cannot resign.’ Once you put your foot on the ground, you have to stick with it.”

The dedication to serving steaks, eggs and stacks of pancakes 24/7 dates back to Foundas’ parents. Peter’s father, Bill Foundas, traveled from Greece to the United States via Canada, eventually ending up in New York City, where his brothers and sisters all ran restaurants or worked there at some point in their lives. When Bill and his wife Nikoletta saw the busy 24-hour restaurants there and opened their own restaurant on Powell and Sutter streets in San Francisco, they proudly made it a 24-hour eatery, says Peter. Peter was about three years old when the restaurant opened, and as he recalls, it helped start a late-night food scene when there weren’t many options. Pinecrest later moved to its current corner at Geary and Mason when the building at its first location was sold. It became the place where workers from nearby hotels could stop by, get food, and get out. It’s the oldest eatery in the area, and has existed long enough to gain unwanted fame.

Since Pinecrest’s return to late-night dining in October 2022, the restaurant has intermittently had a line out the door during the peak evening hours. The recovery seemed unlikely when Union Square seemed like a ghost town at the height of the shutdown, says Peter. “It was tough,” he says. “It wasn’t something we could ever have predicted, it’s a Black Swan event. You could shoot a cannon down Geary Street without anyone hearing.”

There is a predictable rhythm on the nighttime activities in Pinecrest, says waitress Anna Torres. Customers come in spurts, rushing at different times. She worked at Pinecrest for two years; When the restaurant began operating 24 hours a day for a few days, Torres stepped in to help fill the revived Graveyard shift.

Since we’re open 24 hours a day, we’re guaranteed to be the restaurant where the lights are always on. We are the beacon in the dark.

The crowds at the theater, a byproduct of the restaurant’s proximity to the American Conservatory and the curran, make up the majority of the first wave of evening patrons. Usually they’re all gone by 2am, and a second wave begins as the post-bar crowd and industry folks who have closed their shops for the night pour into the space. As you’d expect, there are rowdy customers from time to time – but after years of practice, the Pinecrest crew already knows how to handle the situation. Torres credits meditation and motherhood for her ability to mediate between noisier guests.

In its heyday, Pinecrest’s menu was extensive, ranging from Greek dishes like chicken souvlaki or a Mediterranean combo plate of marinated chicken breast and homemade tzatziki to breakfast and dinner classics like omelettes, corned beef hash, and pancakes. However, when the restaurant returned after the closure, the Foundases shrank the “Bible-sized” menu, as Peter’s wife Sylvia Foundas puts it, down to the essentials. The only other significant change in the restaurant’s offerings was the addition of soju cocktails like Bloody Maria and Screw as well as beer and wine in August 2021. “When things really, really, really get back to normal,” Peter says, “Then we’ll return.” back to the old menu – but for now it works.”

After years of owning the restaurant, Peter and Sylvia still order food for their family there, Torres shares, which is perhaps a testament to the quality. “That’s one thing I love about them,” says Torres. “They take care of it [it] so much.” As she’s seen, the consistency of the food keeps people coming back, especially given that many of the staff and chefs have been there for years.

Regular customer Jesse Garcia has been coming to Pinecrest Diner for years since he moved to town. He quickly developed a camaraderie with his regulars and longtime Pinecrest employees, some of whom he considers friends. His usual order is steak, eggs, and hash browns, and when he has time, he stays late for drinks with the crew. “I love the ambience and the people there are super nice,” he says. “I know some of the chefs — and it’s actually like family.”

Between 5 a.m. and 7 a.m., The last batch of overnight guests pour in, often construction workers, tourists whose internal clocks have not yet switched to another time zone, or pilots and flight attendants who want to eat something before heading to the airport. It’s a different kind of melting pot and Torres relishes the opportunity to meet new people and travelers from all over the world. “Sometimes the whole restaurant is full and I’m like, ‘Holy goodness,'” says Torres. “It’s cool, but it’s worth it because I make a cool batch in the last little hour.” The diner is a hit with European tourists in particular, with everyone calling it a slice of Americana.

Customers sometimes ask when Pinecrest will return to full 24-hour operations, but Peter says the rush and headcount isn’t quite there yet. He wasn’t sure how successful it would be when the restaurant reinstated 24-hour shifts for the first time. He just “put my hands over my eyes and hoped they would be visible,” he says. These days, Peter says, Friday nights are more popular than Saturdays — although in the years leading up to the pandemic, the opposite was true. Still, he knew that the demand for late-night food increased during last spring’s basketball season, when viewers of the game turned up at 11 p.m. just as the Pinecrest team was closing. “The kitchen was closed and there [would] Always be human,” he says. “Then we tried to increase the hours to 12, but we had overtime. Then I said, “Okay, you know what? Let’s just try it two nights a week.’”

Pinecrest eventually added two more days per week to get to the current four-day, 24-hour schedule. Wednesday and Thursday evenings aren’t all that busy yet, although Peter notes traffic is good and they’re not losing any money. Still, he’s adamant the restaurant will return at some point. “Since we’re open around the clock, we’re guaranteed to be the restaurant where the lights are always on,” says Peter. “We are the beacon in the dark.”

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