Source: SFist – San Francisco News, Restaurants, Events, & Sports
The proliferation of casual Japanese izakayas in premium San Francisco real estate signals that alcohol-forward, high-margin small plates have become the default playbook for restaurateurs chasing both tourist dollars and local validation in competitive urban markets. This isn’t culinary innovation—it’s category saturation masquerading as trend, revealing how quickly San Francisco’s restaurant scene converts any successful format into formulaic repetition rather than genuine cultural exploration.