The oldest restaurant in San Francisco, Tadich Grill, which dates its establishment to 1849, is re-emerging from a pandemic closure next month, cioppino, steaks and all.

Even though downtown remains a bit of a ghost town, the reopening of Tadich Grill is a good sign, and hopefully a harbinger of some more life returning to the city after months of relative quiet.

The plan, according to the Chronicle, is to switch to a reservation-only system for the first time in the restaurant's 171 years, and to start seating guests again for lunch and dinner on November 9.

The Buich family, the longtime owners of the restaurant, offered takeout and delivery for the first couple months of the pandemic, but failed to attract much interest — this being a landmark space one goes to in part for the experience, and in part for its proximity to downtown offices. They then opted to shut down indefinitely in July, after the city announced that indoor dining — originally promised to begin again in mid-July — was delayed indefinitely.

Now that diners are allowed back inside at 25-percent capacity, with 50-percent capacity potentially happening by Election Day (if all goes well with COVID counts until then), the Buichs decided it was time to reopen Tadich.

Lunch will be available Monday to Friday between 11 a.m. and 2 p.m., and dinner will be served Monday to Saturday from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. Sundays will be reserved for private parties only.

The owners say that traffic through the restaurant will be limited to one direction in order to encourage distancing, and all the staff will be equipped with face shields.

Look for reservations now on Tock.

Also opening next month, as Hoodline reported yesterday, is Tommy's Joynt. There was a scare over the summer about the Van Ness Avenue hofbrau potentially being closed for good, but owner Chris Henry now says the place is aiming to reopen before the Halloween weekend, on October 29.

Tommy's Joynt is a beloved relic and one of the only proper California hofbraus left in the Bay Area. As SFist reported in 2017, the hofbrau grew out of the Barbary Coast tradition of serving "free lunch" with the purchase of drinks in San Francisco bars, and out of the popularity of cafeteria dining in the 1950s. The establishments morphed into hybrid bar-restaurants with buffets and meat-carving stations, with Union Square's Lefty O'Doul's being one of the most popular — and now closed after a relocation to Fisherman's Wharf, and after its owner got indicted by the feds this year.

Tommy's traditionally has had a popular Thanksgiving dinner, and per Hoodline, they hope to again this year with some indoor dining allowed, but for now they're talking about selling a to-go Thanksgiving feast. In the meantime, by late next week, you should be able to stop in for a beer and a pastrami sandwich once again.

Previously: A Brief History Of The California Hofbrau, A Bay Area Dining Tradition