View the San Francisco for Wednesday, March 5, 2025
Chef Tyler Florence, left — seen with Miller & Lux Provisions Executive Chef Robin Song in November 2023 — shuttered his Union Square patisserie Feb. 11. While celebrity chef Tyler Florence’s decision earlier this month to walk away from his Union Square patisserie may have been a total surprise to the public, it wasn’t to city officials.
Officials had known for a good part of 2024 that Florence’s company was struggling to make money in the square, according to email correspondence obtained by The Examiner via a public-records request. And in early December, Florence’s company told The City’s Recreation and Park Department, which oversees Union Square, that he was planning to close the restaurant, though he later reconsidered for a while. Florence’s cafes — one of which had been nonoperational for months — had lost nearly $300,000 in one year after enduring “a painfully slow summer,” wrote Andy O’Day, corporate finance director for Florence’s company The Greater Organization, in a Dec. 6 email to Rec and Parks manager Neal Patel. Salesforce’s recent annual conference failed to boost business, and the City’s attempts to attract holiday visitors to the square with a skating rink and a Christmas tree weren’t enough to allow the restaurant to break even, he said. Meanwhile, the fallout from the shooting of a football star in the square, hotel strikes and homelessness had weighed on its sales, O’Day said.“We entered this relationship with all the hope and optimism in the world, so it breaks our hearts to have to make this decision,” O’Day said in the email. “The lack of foot traffic and special events in the square — combined with ongoing safety concerns — has created an environment where it’s simply not viable for us to continue,” he wrote. Company representatives did not respond to requests for comment. Officials at the parks agency were not available for comment. Florence’s departure was the apparent end of a partnership launched amid high hopes that his seeming Midas touch with restaurants and other ventures would help revive the troubled Union Square district. Once The City’s premier shopping area, the neighborhood has fallen on tough times in recent years — particularly since the COVID pandemic — with a drop in tourism, increasing numbers of shop closures and multiple high-profile crimes. The square itself contains two permanent kiosks on opposite corners that have been occupied by various businesses over the years but have been frequently vacant since 2019, when the previous tenant defaulted, according to a parks department memo. After a competitive process involving six contenders, city officials in 2023Known nationally for his 27 years on Food Network, Florence operates multiple restaurants, including Wayfare Tavern in the Financial District and Miller & Lux inside Chase Center. His mandate for the square was to open two Miller & Lux Provisions-branded “artisanal cafes” — one next to Stockton Street offering lunch and all-day brunch options, and the other adjacent to Powell Street offering pastries.to ensure they were operating in time for the winter holidays and the annual J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference at the Westin St. Francis Hotel the following January. To speed the restaurants’ opening, the mayor’s Office of Economic and Workforce Development in November 2023 gave him $440,000 to overhaul the kiosks, help pay for equipment and cover some of his initial operating and program expenses.Tyler Florence’s Miller & Lux Provisions cafes in Union Square are in line for a lucrative grant from the state on top of a payout they received from The City late last year. At first, Florence energetically embraced the opportunity to plant a stake in Union Square. He talked of eventually creating an exhibition kitchen at the patisserie so patrons could watch pastries being made. He also said he envisioned transforming the rotisserie cafe into something reminiscent of Paris’ Café de Flore, with seating, plate service and hosting. Both venues were well received when they opened. But Florence’s company soon found significant challenges in running the restaurants — including the fact that neither had a kitchen for cooking and preparing fresh food. In a budget bill Gov. Gavin Newsom signed in September 2023, the state awarded The City a $2 million grant to refurbish Union Square. City officials said the following spring theIn a newly released email to Florence dated Jan. 27, Phil Ginsburg, the general manager of the San Francisco Recreation and Park Department, credited the restaurateur’s lobbying for helping secure the grant. The day after Newsom signed the budget legislation, Darby Kernan of Mosaic Solutions & Advocacy — the Sacramento-based lobbying firm Florence hired to lobby for the grant, sent a note to San Francisco officials saying “we have half dozen folks lined up ready to start work and construction” as soon The City signed off on the effort.Meanwhile, Florence was seeking an additional $2 million from The City to refurbish the kiosks. In an Oct. 7, 2024, email from Donna Perreault, chief of staff at Tyler Florence Entertainment Inc., to Breed’s chief of staff, Perreault said Florence had called the mayor and discussed $2 million in funding that “we had been promised from the City, which for some reason got pulled from use at Miller & Lux Provisions in Union Square.” It was unclear from the email who in The City had “promised” the money to Florence. Prior to the call, Mayor Breed “was not aware” of any assurance of additional money, Perreault wrote. In the email, Perreault made clear the promised money was distinct and separate from the $2 million state grant. Florence’s effort to get additional funds from The City ended up going nowhere. In his Jan. 27 email to Florence, Ginsburg confirmed that Breed’s administration had not been able to allocate the money. By the time Florence departed this month, design work was ongoing for the rotisserie cafe, but construction had not begun.In February 2024, after about 3½ months of operating both Union Square cafes, Miller & Lux asked The City to allow it to temporarily pause operations at the rotisserie due to an issue with the dumbwaiter, according to Ginsburg’s Jan. 27 email to Florence. That restaurant, which had not been generating as much revenue as the patisserie, according to city data, closed the next month and never reopened. Miller & Lux asked The City to release it from its obligation to operate the rotisserie until the renovations funded by the state grant were complete, according to Ginsburg’s email from last month. The City agreed. But Florence’s financial concerns about the kiosks were mounting. On Sept. 30, Perreault wrote that business was disappointing, saying that the Square had seen few visitors and foot traffic was getting worse. “Police presence is down, skateboarders are back, and we are getting complaints about the cleanliness of the Park,” Perrault said in the email. The Dreamforce convention — Salesforce’s large annual event at Moscone Center — “was a huge disappointment, it was one of our slowest weeks on record,” she added,, Perrault said. Pearsall was shot Aug. 31 at the corner of Geary and Grant streets in what police said was an attempted robbery. Perreault also complained about the utility and trash bills for the kiosks, which she called “outrageously high.” Florence’s lease did not require a minimum rent payment. Instead, it called for monthly rent of 10% of gross receipts after a minimum of monthly sales was met. Miller & Lux was responsible for paying its own utilities. But in the September email, Perrault suggested the company wasn’t or wouldn’t be paying rent for the time being, that rent would have to “accrue.” Alternatively, Florence’s company and The City could discuss closing the patisserie until construction of the kitchens could be completed, she said. In an Oct. 15 email to Patel, Perreault said Florence called Mayor Breed and told her that he might need to close, to which the mayor reportedly replied, “Please don’t.” Perrault followed up in that email by asking The City to waive its rent for the kiosks from the prior July through the end of the year, arguing that factors such as the weather and the hotel strike had depressed sales and visits to the square.The City granted that request, according to Ginsburg in his Jan. 27 email. In that January missive, he offered to continue waiving Miller & Lux’s rent for the kiosks until April, to let Florence opt out of operating the rotisserie and to waive some utility and garbage fees. The day after Florence’s team said in December it would close shop in Union Square at the end of the month, Dana Ketcham, the parks department’s director of property management, wrote an email to colleagues saying she thought it was important that Florence’s patisserie continue operating until March, and particularly through the J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference, which ran Jan. 13-16. Ketcham produced an analysis that included possible responses to Florence’s threatened closure. One alternative she mentioned was to “Play hardball” and seek to hold Florence’s company to its three-year lease and potentially seek damages if Florence still closed. The downside of such a plan could be “bad publicity” for both the company and The City, she said. Alternately, The City could be “nicer” and try to convince them to stay, at least for another two months, Ketcham said. In the end, city officials essentially chose to go the “nice” route, agreeing “to allow Miller & Lux to break its lease obligations as soon as we found a replacement tenant,” Ginsburg wrote to Florence in his Jan. 27 email. The City had found new operators who were ready to take over the patisserie within two weeks of Florence’s departure, he said. Ginsburg didn’t identify the new tenants. Immediately after Florence closed the restaurant, city officials enlisted Belinda Leong, proprietor of the highly regarded b. Patisserie in Pacific Heights, to open a pop-up shop in Florence’s place. Leong had just two days to prepare to serve pastries over the three-day NBA All-Star weekend that started Feb. 14 and on the following Tuesday.Mayor Daniel Lurie, left, talks with Belinda Leong, an owner of b.patisserie, at the company’s short-term pop-up inside a kiosk in Union Square, on Feb. 18. Chef Tyler Florence’s Miller & Lux Provisions Cafe closed at that location Feb. 11. Leong this week said she was negotiating with parks officials for a possible one-year lease at the site. Even as late as January, Florence was apparently considering keeping the Miller & Lux patisserie open. In his Jan. 27 email, Ginsburg said the restaurateur had reached out about continuing to operate the venue and honor his lease “ subject to resolution of some old and new issues raised in your email.”“We are thrilled you would like to continue in Union Square,” he said in the email. “You have a great brand, you make great food, you offer fantastic hospitality, and we know how much you love this City.” “My sincere belief is that we have all weathered a tough launch of Miller & Lux Provisions during a tough time for Union Square,” Ginsburg wrote. “Blue skies are on the horizon, and we remain grateful and excited by your presence in the space.” Ginsburg requested that the chef decide by Feb. 14 whether he intended to continue operating in the square and asked that if the answer was no, that Florence keep operating until The City could finalize an agreement with a replacement operator.Mayor Daniel Lurie signs the Oath of Office document officiated by Jessie A. Peterson at his San Francisco City Hall desk on Wednesday, Jan. 8, 2025. San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie wants city employees back to the office four days per week, but it remains to be seen whether they will resist his call.to bring back nearly every employee currently working a hybrid schedule to be in the office at least four days per week. Though more than two-thirds of city employees work in person five days per week, about 10,600 of them work from home at least one day per week, according to a survey conducted by the Department of Human Resources obtained by The Examiner. About one-fourth of The City’s workforce is in person three days per week or less, meaning those workers could be affected by the mayor’s plan. Instead, Isen wrote that she would “like” employees currently working three or fewer days in person to convert to a four-day-per-week in-office schedule and the letter makes a “request” that it be done “as soon as possible.” It sets a target date of April 28 for implementation of the plan, and calls on the Department of Human Resources to “notice and discuss the pending change” with affected labor unions.Thus far, labor unions have remained quiet. Requests for comment made by The Examiner to representatives for the San Francisco Labor Council — an umbrella group representing more than 150 local unions — as well as IFPTE Local 21 and SEIU 1021 went unanswered by press time. The memo also outlines key exceptions to the four-day-a-week plan for employees who have work-from-home agreements under The City’s Family Friendly Workplace law or require reasonable accommodations under the Americans with Disabilities Act. These two categories account for about 5% of The City’s full-time employees, according to the Department of Human Resources survey. Former Mayor London Breed’s administration faced the same pressure to bring employees back to offices; it took a cautious approach and maintained that it could not force non-essential employees back into offices full-time without union negotiations.is baked into its contracts with labor unions. The IFPTE Local 21 labor agreement, for example, explicitly lays out how employees, with supervisors’ approval, can apply to work up to two days per week from home. If that request is denied, the employee can appeal the decision to the Department of Human Resources, which will make a binding ruling. Lurie administration officials say they are hopeful that having employees back in person will pay dividends as he tries to make good on campaign promises to improve city government. “Bringing our workers back to the office will make our services more effective and responsive to our residents,” Lurie’s office said in a statement. “That is what San Franciscans expect and what Mayor Lurie will deliver. We look forward to working with our partners across the departments and in labor over the coming weeks to implement the mayor’s plan.The percentage of the workforce working at least some portion of the week from home varies widely between city departments, according to a data analysis by The Examiner. More than 90% of the City Attorney’s Office works in the office three days per week or fewer, for example, while 92% of public-library employees are on-site five days per week. Having more city employees in and around Civic Center and downtown San Francisco could prove to be a boon to the The call to bring employees back full-time is a quick evolution from a directive Lurie’s administration announced last month, which prompted a Department of Human Resources survey of employees’ in-person work schedules and called for department heads toLurie is not alone in wanting employees back in the office; Oakland has warned unions that it plans to end its telecommuting program and wants employeesThe United States Supreme Court ruled Tuesday that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency overstepped its statutory authority when it attempted to make San Francisco responsible for water quality in the Pacific Ocean., which reversed an appellate decision by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, said the EPA is not authorized under the Clean Water Act to include what the Supreme Court termed “end-result provisions” in a permit it issued to The City allowing the discharge of pollutants. “We are very pleased the Court issued the narrow decision San Francisco sought,” said City Attorney David Chiu and Public Utilities Commission General Manager Dennis Herrera in a joint statement. “This decision upholds the Clean Water Act’s critical role in protecting water quality and simply requires the EPA to fulfill its obligations under the Clean Water Act, as intended by Congress.”issued for The City’s Oceanside water-treatment facility, which empties into the Pacific Ocean, when it was renewed in 2019.when it added the provisions, which “generally demand that the City not violate … rather than specify pollutant limits that San Francisco must meet.” “In practice, generic water quality prohibitions make it impossible for permittees to know what the law requires until an enforcement action’s late stages, putting them in a predicament that offends basic concepts of due process,” the City Attorney’s Office wrote in its petition. The Supreme Court rejected San Francisco’s argument that the EPA is limited in what type of limitations it may impose on discharges, but it agreed with the contention The City made in its July 2024 brief that “the Act does not authorize EPA to impose permit requirements that condition permitholders’ compliance on whether receiving waters meet applicable water quality standards.” “Determining what steps a permittee must take to ensure that water quality standards are met is the EPA’s responsibility, and Congress has given it the tools needed to make that determination,” wrote Justice Samuel Alito in the majority opinion. “This ruling makes clear that permitholders like San Francisco are responsible for what they discharge, and the EPA has the tools at its disposal to ensure water quality,” Chiu and Herrera said in their statement. “But it’s not lawful to punish permitholders for things outside of their control, such as the end-result water quality of a shared body of water, where many other factors affect water quality.” The Sierra Club, a longstanding environmental nonprofit founded in San Francisco and headquartered in Oakland, decried the decision in a press release. “SCOTUS’s decision ignores the basic reality of how water bodies and water pollution works, and could stymie the ability of the EPA to implement the Clean Water Act, a bedrock environmental law that has kept water safe for the last 50 years,” said Sanjay Narayan, chief appellate counsel of the organization’s Environmental Law Program. “Because the EPA is not allowed to include health-based standards when regulating water pollution, it’ll need to know everything about what might be discharged before a clean-water permit can be issued—making the permitting process delayed and incredibly expensive,” Narayan said in the release. “The result is likely to be a new system where the public is regularly subjected to unsafe water quality.” The California Attorney General’s Office, which filed a brief in support of the EPA, did not respond to a request for comment prior to publication. Alito was joined in the majority by Chief Justice John Roberts and fellow Justices Clarence Thomas, Brett Kavanaugh and Neil Gorsuch. Justice Amy Coney Barrett wrote in dissent, joined by Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson.Click and hold your mouse button on the page to select the area you wish to save or print. You can click and drag the clipping box to move it or click and drag in the bottom right corner to resize it. When you're happy with your selection, click the checkmark icon next to the clipping area to continue.This is the name that will be displayed next to your photo for comments, blog posts, and more. Choose wisely!Create a password that only you will remember. If you forget it, you'll be able to recover it using your email address.Forgot Password An email message containing instructions on how to reset your password has been sent to the email address listed on your account.
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