SoMa striptease joint the Gold Club earned the title “Tech's Hottest Lunch Spot” with their $5 lunch-hour fried chicken buffet. The pandemic forced that deal onto hiatus, but last week, the $5 chicken buffet returned to strut its stuff.  

A 2015 article in Forbes dubbed SF strip club the Gold Club as “Tech's Hottest Lunch Spot,” because of the venue’s famed $5 fried chicken buffet Friday lunchtime deal. As former employees of the nearby Yelp headquarters divulged to Forbes in that article, Yelp executives would often refer to the Gold Club in code language as "Conference Room G" because they were so fond of doing workplace business there. (Yelp spokespeople emphatically deny this, though for whatever reason, they modified their training materials to specifically single out the Gold Club as a place the employees should not be during work hours.)

But the $5 fried chicken lunch buffet was disrobed from the Gold Club’s repertoire once the pandemic hit. While strip clubs are open again, the Gold Club has not been offering the lunch deal. But they are now, as the Chronicle reports the Gold Club resumed its $5 fried chicken lunch buffet last week.

Image: Christy V via Yelp

The rebirth of the $5 buffet coincided with last Thursday’s Giants home opener, and the greasy buffet with sexy delights is now a weekly Thursday thing (11:30 am - 2 pm), since remote work has basically destroyed Fridays for the downtown hospitality industry.  

Image: Ming C via Yelp

A sampling of what to expect with your "rice and beans" side dishes on this buffet can be seen above, plus add scantily clad dancers aggressively trying to con you into buying a lap dance. “Let’s be real—$5 doesn’t buy much in 2025 San Francisco. Coffee’s pushing $6, and a sandwich can hit $15,” the Gold Club says in their return of the fried chicken buffet announcement. “But here at Gold Club, we’re sticking to our guns: the buffet is $5, cover included, no gimmicks.”

Axios was on hand for the April 3 return of the $5 buffet, and reports that “Within the hour on Thursday, the club was already busy and near capacity.” And in great news for horndogs seeking a budget lunch, Axios also adds that “The Gold Club is planning on expanding lunch service to Fridays beginning in the next two to three weeks," and that "The goal is to eventually bring back the buffet five days a week.”

Related: Free Lunch Loving Techbros Reportedly Hooked On SoMa Strip Club Buffet [SFist]

Image: The Gold Club via Yelp