7 San Francisco Businesses Still Open After More Than a Century

San Francisco has lived through a Gold Rush boom and the 1906 fire.

Through all of it, a few businesses kept their doors open.

These are the San Francisco businesses still open after more than a century.

1. Boudin Bakery

Boudin Bakery has baked sourdough in San Francisco since 1849, and local reporting has called it the city’s oldest continually operating business after it marked 175 years in 2024.

The original bakery sat in North Beach before the 1906 fire pushed it out, and the business rebuilt again after that, moving through several San Francisco addresses over the decades.

Its flagship “Baker’s Hall” at Fisherman’s Wharf opened in 2005, complete with a working bakery you can watch through the window.

Not a relic.

You’ll find Boudin loaves at grocery stores and a couple dozen Boudin-run bakery cafes around California now, which is a long way from a single North Beach storefront.

2. Tadich Grill

Tadich Grill traces back to 1849, when three Croatian immigrants set up a tent on Long Wharf with a sign that read Coffee Stand.

John Tadich bought the place in 1887 and put his name on it.

By 1934, the Buich brothers were the sole owners of Tadich Grill.

The family still runs it, and the restaurant’s history page calls it the oldest continuously run restaurant in California.

That claim is hard to fact-check against every competitor, so take it as Tadich’s account rather than a settled ranking.

You’ll find it at 240 California Street, where cioppino has long been one of the favorite orders.

Still going.

3. Levi Strauss & Co.

Levi Strauss opened a dry goods company in San Francisco in 1853, at the height of the Gold Rush.

The company still runs its headquarters at 1155 Battery Street in Levi’s Plaza.

The company never left.

In November 2025, that headquarters reopened its museum, The Vault, in a space about triple the size of the old one.

The opening exhibit featured garments worn by music legends like Kurt Cobain.

Levi’s also reopened a remodeled retail store right next door on October 1, 2025, about a month before the museum.

You can still walk into that remodeled store and buy a pair of jeans.

That’s still true even though the company now ships denim to stores worldwide.

4. Molinari Delicatessen

Molinari Delicatessen opened in North Beach in 1896 as a salumi production facility, and its Columbus Avenue deli still sells Italian meats and cheeses.

Alfred Molinari, an immigrant from Italy’s Piedmont region, worked at the original salame-making operation before taking over the retail storefront himself.

Nicholas Mastrelli now runs it as the fourth generation of the same family.

Still going.

If you’re building a sandwich at home, you can still buy salame and cheese at the Columbus Avenue deli Alfred Molinari took over.

5. John’s Grill

John’s Grill opened near Union Square in 1908, just two years after the earthquake had leveled much of downtown San Francisco.

It became one of the first major restaurants to reopen in that part of the city.

Dashiell Hammett later wrote it into The Maltese Falcon, sending detective Sam Spade there for a meal, and the restaurant still leans into that literary fame today.

Not just a movie prop.

Co-owner John Konstin Jr. marked the 115th anniversary in 2023 with an event that pulled in more than 3,000 people.

You can still order Sam Spade’s Lamb Chops, a dish the restaurant named after the chops, baked potato, and sliced tomatoes Hammett wrote into the novel.

6. Swan Oyster Depot

Swan Oyster Depot has served seafood off the same marble counter on Polk Street since 1912.

There are only 18 stools at the counter, and out-the-door lines are a common sight.

The Sancimino family has owned and run Swan Oyster Depot since 1946, and the same family still works the counter today, generations deep.

The building itself sold for nearly $8 million in October 2025, and the Sancimino family, which stays on as the tenant, says it doesn’t foresee any problems.

You’ll wait standing up.

Worth it.

7. Buena Vista Cafe

Buena Vista Cafe has poured drinks on Fisherman’s Wharf since 1916, when the ground floor of a boardinghouse became a tavern for the fishermen working the docks.

That same bar is where America’s Irish coffee started.

Travel writer Stanton Delaplane brought the recipe back from an airport in Ireland.

The Buena Vista’s owner at the time worked with him to recreate it, first pouring it to customers on November 10, 1952.

The cafe says it’s served more than 40 million of them since 1952.

If you ask for one today, you’ll get cream that is aged and lightly whipped so it floats.

The cafe says it worked out that method with help from San Francisco’s mayor at the time.

Still pouring.

The Short-Timers

San Francisco's Cliff House ran for 162 years in one form or another, going back to a structure that local reporting says was built from salvaged shipwreck lumber in 1858.

Its owners closed it on December 31, 2020.

Longevity isn't automatic.

You can still drive out to the bluff above Ocean Beach where it sat, but its reopening under a new operator has been targeted for late 2026.

Gump's made the same point two years earlier, closing its store in December 2018 after 157 years as a San Francisco fixture for fine china, jewelry, and home goods.

It had opened in 1861 as a frame and mirror shop and filed for bankruptcy earlier in 2018 before closing its doors.

A bankruptcy filing, not age, is what led to the closing.

Gump's sold fine china, jewelry, and home goods for generations at its Union Square store on Post Street.