City Opens Alioto's Plaza, Betting on Wharf Revival

Mayor Daniel Lurie and city leaders cut the ribbon on Alioto's Plaza, a new public gathering space at Fisherman's Wharf built on the site of the historic restaurant that closed during the pandemic. The ceremony doubled as a progress report on San Francisco's waterfront recovery — with nearly $10 billion in tourism spending on the horizon and the Port signaling further seismic and climate-resilience investments ahead.

• New public plaza replaces pandemic-shuttered Alioto's restaurant, anchoring the Port's Fisherman's Wharf Forward revitalization plan
• Tourism spending on track to hit nearly $10 billion, with 15+ new restaurants and businesses at the Wharf since 2025
• Port signals continued investment in seismic resilience and public space improvements along the waterfront
• Alioto family descendant delivers emotional tribute, calling the plaza a way to ensure immigrant legacy endures

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From Pandemic Closure to Public Plaza

The basics: Alioto's restaurant, founded in 1925 by Sicilian immigrant Nunzio Alioto, closed in March 2020 during the pandemic after nearly a century as one of Fisherman's Wharf's most recognizable institutions. The site sat empty until the Port of San Francisco, through its Fisherman's Wharf Forward community planning process, developed it into a public plaza with views of the inner lagoon and the Golden Gate Bridge.

Why it matters: The shuttered restaurant had become a visible symbol of pandemic-era decline at the city's most-visited neighborhood. Its transformation into activated public space — completed on time and on budget, according to Port officials — is designed to anchor broader economic recovery and attract new businesses to the waterfront.

Where things stand: Port Executive Director Michael Martin described the community engagement process that guided the project, saying the Wharf community demanded any redesign protect the neighborhood's fishing and maritime identity while creating new gathering space.

"We believe the plaza in front of you delivers on all of those goals and has already created new interest in businesses opening here at the Wharf," said Michael Martin, Port Executive Director. He announced that Wood's Tap Room would open on the plaza imminently.

Martin framed the plaza as an opening move, not a finish line: "The Port sees this plaza as step one and plans to continue to invest in seismic resilience and public space regeneration here at the Wharf."

Mayor Daniel Lurie connected the opening to a broader economic narrative, reporting that San Francisco tourism spending is on track to hit nearly $10 billion — a figure he announced the previous week at SF Travel. He cited more than 15 new restaurants and businesses opening at the Wharf since 2025, crime reductions of 30% last year and 20% this year, and Permit SF reforms streamlining business and housing permitting.

"When Fisherman's Wharf succeeds, workers earn a living, small businesses grow and visitors spending helps fund the services that we all rely on here in San Francisco — from clean and safe streets to public transit and our world class parks," said Mayor Lurie.

Taryn Hoppe of the Fisherman's Wharf Community Benefit District placed the plaza within a broader partnership between the CBD and the Port that has already produced the transformation of the Little Embarcadero into the Fisherman's Wharf Promenade, new art programming, and a fish market at the Wharf. She noted the plaza "opens an incredible view corridor to the Golden Gate Bridge" and the historical Monterey fishing boats, and — most importantly in her view — "preserves the Alioto name in the heart of the neighborhood that their family helped shape for generations."

What's next: The Port plans further investment in seismic resilience and public space improvements at the Wharf, though specific timelines and dollar figures were not announced. Wood's Tap Room is expected to open on the plaza shortly.

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Honoring the Immigrants Who Built the Wharf

The ceremony devoted significant time to the Italian American immigrant families whose fishing, restaurant, and civic contributions defined Fisherman's Wharf. Port Executive Director Michael Martin recounted how Nunzio Alioto founded a fish stall on the site in 1925, and how after his death in 1933, his wife Rose and their children carried on the family business, opening the full-service restaurant in 1938.

Assemblymember Catherine Stefani traced the broader Italian American civic legacy in San Francisco, naming Mayor Angelo Rossi, Mayor Joseph Alioto, and Mayor George Moscone, and noted her own professional connections to the family through former Supervisor Michaela Alioto-Pier. She announced that she created the Italian Caucus of California during her first term in Sacramento. Stefani also highlighted the Alioto da Lazio Fish Company as a fully woman-owned and operated fishing business continuing the waterfront legacy.

The most emotional moment came from Gina Von Esmark, great-granddaughter of Rose and Nunzio Alioto, who acknowledged the heartbreak of the restaurant's closure while embracing what the plaza represents.

"I can't pretend that my heart is not broken to know that the place where our family once had a restaurant is no longer here," she said. "But for our family, that restaurant represented generations of family that worked here, that brought people together, gathered, built memories."

Von Esmark named other founding Wharf families — the Cebellas, the Giraldis, the Tarantinos, and Joe DiMaggio — describing a legacy "made through fishing, food, family, and community."

She closed with a reflection that captured the ceremony's spirit: "A building can disappear. A legacy does not have to. And that is what Alioto's Plaza means to me."

Deputy Consul General David Corriero of the Italian Consulate was also acknowledged as present.