Louis' Restaurant

10/18/2024

Today, the youngest fifth generation of Louis visited the building for his first time. Too bad, Little Leo Louis won’t get to taste a Louis’ burger 🍔 or work there like his great great grandparents, his great grandfather, his grandmother & grandfather, his mom, uncles, aunts, and cousins! 😢

10/18/2024

Louis’ may be gone, but not forgotten. 😉 Recent news article!

It was, you might say, the last breakfast. On a summer Saturday in 2020, dozens of family members, employees, customers, and friends got together for one last m

09/09/2024

Louis’ is not alone, sadly!! Check out all the places that have closed.

Following this year's closure of gastronomic icons Noma and Le Gavroche we take a look at other incredible restaurants that no longer exist.

10/31/2023

Hi everyone,

I have been trying to find email addresses for the following government employees regarding the horrible condition of the Louis’ Restaurant building. It has been very challenging and in the end I could not find any email addresses online. I then searched my contacts and found the email address for the woman who we dealt with at the GGNRA, and although she doesn’t work there anymore I realized that if you type the first name, then an _ ,then the last name, then .gov, I think the emails would get to the respective people. For example - [email protected].

Here are the names of the people who would be responsible for the building where Louis’ Restaurant used to be -

David Smith
Superintendent
Gate National Recreation Area �Building 201, Fort Mason �San Francisco, CA 94123-0022

Billy Shott
Regional Director
Pacific West Regional Office
National Park Service
333 Bush St Ste 500
San Francisco, CA 94104

Charles F. "Chuck" Sams III
Director
National Park Service�1849 C Street NW�Washington, DC 20240

Deb Haaland
Secretary
Department of the Interior�1849 C Street, N.W.�Washington DC 20240

I would rather write emails then send a letter to have a so called paper trail. I will be writing my emails today.

Wish me luck.

10/27/2023

I haven’t been by the building that housed our restaurant, Louis’, for about a year. What I saw is a disgrace. The building is filthy, a lot of graffiti, and surrounded by garbage. I wanted to email the Superintendent of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area (GGNRA) but I am unable to find an email address for him. The same goes for the Regional Director of the Pacific West Regional Office, the director of the National Park Service, and the Secretary of the Interior. These are the people that are responsible for keeping the buildings of the NPS in good shape. As the former tenant of this space, I plan on writing each of these people, including some of the photos I am sharing here. If you feel as outraged as me, feel free to contact them as well. When we ran our restaurant whenever there were any issues with the exterior of the building, we were expected to fix the problem or remove the graffiti immediately. Thanks for listening. Tom Hontalas, co-owner and operator of Louis’ Restaurant

08/06/2022

As I was checking out our page I saw this wonderful video of our #1 waitress Rachel!!!

08/05/2022

A few weeks ago I passed our family’s restaurant for the first time in quite awhile. This is what I saw. Today I passed by again, no photos, but there is more tagging on the building.

When our family ran Louis’ we occasionally had to deal with graffiti. We were sometimes contacted by the Park Service to clean up the graffiti immediately.

I guess the rules don’t apply to them. I am disgusted by the way the Park Service has neglected the building. 30 years ago when the master plan for the area was released the National Park Service wanted to get rid of Louis’ and the building. Superintendent Brian O‘Neill said to our family “you have to admit that Louis’ Restaurant is in the way of the magnificent view.” At the time his line really pi**ed me off, he seems to care nothing of our family’s legacy, 55 years at the time. I now agree with O’Neill, tear the building down. I hate to see it this way.

08/14/2021

This is one of our favorite posts of all time.

Regarding our prior post - There have been many requests about upcoming gigs by the Great Apes, Bill's orangutan band of trumpeters. The Apes - Palmer, Nigel, Kirkland, Ulysses, Santiago and Pete are no longer allowed to perform in public. A while back Bill hosted the band at his house for a jam session for a few of his good friends. After a successful set there was a toast and a few of the primates toasted a little too much. Things got out of control, the police were called as well as animal control and after thousands of dollars of damage to Bill's house and injuries to dozens of guests, the orangutans were eventually sedated, rounded up and carted back to the zoo where they have remained ever since. The moral of the story is - Apes and gin do not mix!!!

02/15/2021

On what would have been our 84th anniversary we would like to wish our customers, family, and friends a Happy Valentine’s Day!!!