Three years ago, Josh Harris and Nick Amano-Dolan stood on what was basically rubble at a desolate former parking lot on Third Street, just south of Lefty O’Doul Bridge. Rebar protruded from the bases of cement columns and bulldozers sat idly, waiting to be put to work. The Mission Rock redevelopment plan, spearheaded by the San Francisco Giants, had barely broken ground.
San Francisco, CA
SF’s most awarded bar is now opening its first restaurant
Harris, the owner of Trick Dog, one of San Francisco’s most awarded cocktail bars, overlooked McCovey Cove as the stadium lights glistened in the sunset. Hands in his pockets with one foot perched on a pile of bricks, he stared with pride at Oracle Park, the home of his beloved Giants.
“I saw him taking a moment to himself and realizing this was it, this was the perfect spot for Quik Dog,” Amano-Dolan recounted in an interview with SFGATE. “I told him, ‘This right here, this is your destiny. It’s destiny.’”
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(Left to right) Chef Gonzalo Guerrero, owner Josh Harris and general manager Nick Amano-Dolan at the new Quik Dog at Mission Rock in San Francisco on Nov. 6, 2025.
For more than a decade, Trick Dog has racked up countless prestigious awards, including being named one of the best bars in America by Forbes in 2015 and a top-10 bar in the country by Food & Wine just this year. Harris and Amano-Dolan, who are famous in the bar world, are now set to debut their first restaurant.
Who said you can’t teach an old dog new tricks?
Taking the Trick Dog spirit beyond the bar
Quik Dog, at 1023 Third St., Suite E, is slated to be a quick-service restaurant on one side and a full bar on the other. The plan is to feature Quik Dog classics such as the famous kale salad, which is a small mountain of the leaf cabbage dusted with parmesan cheese like a snowy peak; a rectangular hamburger akin to the ones made famous by Hot Dog Bills; and a deconstructed Mission hot dog, which, if you’ve ever been to a Giants game, you can’t miss as you leave the yard. These all were beloved by patrons of Trick Dog, who could regularly be seen munching away while sipping world-class cocktails.
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Customers walk along Third Street past the new Quik Dog at Mission Rock in San Francisco on Nov. 6, 2025.
Good Garlic Fries at the new Quik Dog at Mission Rock in San Francisco on Nov. 6, 2025.
But by bringing a new chef on board, one who has experience working with world-class Argentinian chef Francis Mallmann, Harris and his team were able to expand the menu from its roots. They added other quintessential diner foods like a grilled cheese and tomato soup, a finger-food version of a wedge salad, milkshakes using Mitchell’s Ice Cream, vegan frozen Irish coffee and garlic fries that put the ones inside the ballpark to shame.
The original plan was for Quik Dog to open in May, but as the Giants season started to dwindle — showing less and less hope for a postseason berth — Harris decided that they should take their time to get everything just right. The restaurant is scheduled to officially open on Tuesday, Nov. 11, just in time for baseball’s offseason.
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The logo on a window at the new Quik Dog at Mission Rock in San Francisco on Nov. 6, 2025.
The dining room has a clear view of Oracle Park at the new Quik Dog at Mission Rock in San Francisco, shown on Nov. 6, 2025.
“We actually like to joke that Quik Dog will have two opening days,” Amano-Dolan said. “These first few months will be a time to dial in and get ready, because we know when the Giants open next season, it’s going to be bats—t crazy around here.”
More than a pandemic hustle
Quik Dog first started as a pop-up operating out of the Trick Dog kitchen during the pandemic, while the bar was still closed. Although many thought it was a way to make ends meet, that was actually not the case for Harris.
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“It 100% was not just a way to get through the pandemic. It was actually completely the opposite. It cost us money to try and incubate that concept,” he said. “But it was worth it to explore what that concept could be.”
The QD Chicken Deluxe at the new Quik Dog at Mission Rock in San Francisco on Nov. 6, 2025.
Chef Gonzalo Guerrero (left) talks with an employee at the new Quik Dog at Mission Rock in San Francisco on Nov. 6, 2025.
Harris saw a bright future for Quik Dog back in 2020 — one with far more reach than his award-winning bar. He envisioned Quik Dog as a food truck, a window in the Financial District, a place in the Sunset like Hook Fish Co. or a pop-up in a brewery. He sent that vision to Larry Baer, president and CEO of the San Francisco Giants, and Baer rewarded him with a prime location at the Mission Rock development. While those other ideas are still possibilities for the future, for now, his team is focused on its first brick-and-mortar restaurant.
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“This is the mothership. This is the beginning of something new and we couldn’t be located in a better place,” Harris said.
For the born-and-bred San Franciscan, Harris’ first restaurant is a love letter to the diners and burger stands he grew up eating at. Think Bill’s Place, Hamburger Haven, Whiz Burgers, Beep’s and others. His memories of eating at those old-school joints with his parents — sitting in red booths or on pleather stools — have informed Quik Dog’s aesthetic.
Although Quik Dog is meant to evoke the nostalgia that left an impression on Harris, from the elementary school-style chairs made of hard plastic to the neon red accent lights that reminded me of Mel’s, or even In-N-Out, the goal of Quik Dog is to become a destination for generations to come. It’s meant to be a place where new families can make their own lasting memories, just like Harris did.
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Owner Josh Harris sits in one of the custom booths in the dining area at the new Quik Dog at Mission Rock in San Francisco on Nov. 6, 2025.
The QD Mission Dog at the new Quik Dog at Mission Rock in San Francisco on Nov. 6, 2025.
“This is rooted in my experience — enjoying Doggy Diner, Clown Alley, those types of places. But this is not a caricature of those places,” Harris said. “We don’t want people to walk in here and be like, ‘Oh, it’s a throwback or it’s like Disneyland.’ Quik Dog doesn’t feel old-timey, but it has that inspiration.”
Upping the ante
The setup inside is quite unique. On the right side of the 4,133-square-foot space is the diner section, with a walk-up counter for ordering and where bobbleheads from all eras of San Francisco sports teams will be displayed. To the left, behind obscured perforated plastic that looks like narrow reeded glass, is the bar section, where Amano-Dolan has concocted several new favorites such as the Real White Negroni, with gin, Luxardo Bitter Bianco, Martini & Rossi Bianco Vermouth, salt and a grapefruit slice, and the Mojito Royale — a striking bumblebee-yellow drink tart with passion fruit, mint, lime, sparkling wine and two types of rum.
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But I suspect the go-to drink for future patrons will be the bright pink Super Paloma, a smoky riff on the classic cocktail with mezcal instead of tequila. It goes down so smoothly. Paired with fun takes on classic cocktails like a spicy margarita, an old fashioned, a daiquiri and a Manhattan, many of the drinks will be premixed and poured on tap.
“We gotta live up to the name Quik Dog,” Amano-Dolan said, laughing.
(Left to right) A Super Paloma, a Real White Negroni and a Mojito Royale are some of the custom cocktail drinks available at the new Quik Dog at Mission Rock in San Francisco on Nov. 6, 2025.
A grilled cheese and tomato soup at the new Quik Dog at Mission Rock in San Francisco on Nov. 6, 2025.
The food should also be coming out quickly from the kitchen, thanks to the expertise of chef Gonzalo Guerrero. A Bay Area native who grew up in San Bruno and graduated from San Francisco City College’s Culinary Arts and Hospitality Studies program, Guerrero has learned from some of the best chefs in the world. At San Francisco’s Delfina he worked under Craig Stoll; he later moved to New York and learned from Ivan Orkin of Ivan Ramen, just after it became famous from Netflix’s hit show “Chef’s Table.” Guerrero then moved to Argentina and learned from Francis Mallmann, who has several acclaimed restaurants across the world, but became a fixture in the celebrity chef zeitgeist after his own appearance on “Chef’s Table.”
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While Quik Dog will be a full-circle moment for Guerrero, since his first cooking job was flipping burgers at the now defunct Custom Burger, formerly at Seventh and Mission streets, he will also get to expand his culinary wings when Trick Dog pivots to a more “chef-y” menu early in 2026.
“I never thought I would be working burgers again like this, but I was just like, ‘I know after a long bike ride or snowboarding or whatever, this is what I want to have,’” Guerrero said. “So I was like, ‘Let’s try it.’”
Baja Fish Tacos at the new Quik Dog at Mission Rock in San Francisco on Nov. 6, 2025.
The new Quik Dog at Mission Rock is just across the Third Street Bridge from Oracle Park in San Francisco on Nov. 6, 2025.
As the setting sun peered through the giant floor-to-ceiling windows, just four days before the grand opening of Quik Dog, unopened boxes of merch (designed by Ferris Plock) were stacked in every corner. The staff of 50 wrote down tasting notes for the food and drinks. Harris, a fitness buff, couldn’t stop picking at the garlic fries, which are intentionally called Good Garlic Fries on the menu.
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“We all know Gilroy garlic fries (in the stadium) are just not good anymore. They’re always soggy and limp and almost have too much garlic,” Harris said. “What we’re trying to do here is really great takes on food that everyone knows and loves. We just upped the ante a little bit in terms of quality.”
Between bites, he turned to his friend and business partner Amano-Dolan with a giddiness that can only be described as childlike, in the best way possible.
“Can you imagine what this place is going to be like for us as owners of this place when it’s baseball season?” he said to Amano-Dolan. “Can you imagine what it’s gonna be like the next time the Giants win their next World Series? There will be nothing more crazy than that. I can’t f—king wait.”
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Few things are more valuable in the Bay Area than real estate. In San Francisco, the median house price is now over $2 million. Last month, at least seven houses in the city sold for $1 million over the asking price, and buyers regularly offer to pay in cash or waive contingencies to stay competitive. Yet there is one thing that remains even more valuable than a house, and possibly more valuable than money itself: stock in Anthropic or OpenAI.
Last week, 160 Noe Street, an Edwardian home in San Francisco’s desirable Duboce Triangle neighborhood, was listed for sale at $2.9 million—or the equivalent amount in Anthropic or OpenAI shares, as based on those companies’ current valuations. Rachel Swann, the listing agent, says she was inspired to set these unusual terms after meeting several Anthropic employees at an open house for a different property. “These people have a lot of paper wealth, but they don’t always have the liquidity to do things they want,” Swann says. Some of these employees were expecting to come into as much as $50 million from their Anthropic shares, and wondered if they could use that as leverage to buy a house, according to Swann. “This kept coming up over and over again.”
Swann’s listing is unconventional, but not singular. In April, an investment banker named Storm Duncan offered to exchange his Mill Valley home and an adjacent parcel of land for Anthropic shares. And in May, Vijay Chattha, who owns an agency that does PR for tech companies, listed his Healdsburg home for $2.5 million, or $2 million in Anthropic stock. “I want to sell my house, and I want to invest in Anthropic,” Chattha says. “Why not combine the two?
Chattha’s house—a three bed, three bath with a pool and a bocce court in a part of Sonoma County that abuts some of the region’s most famous wineries—also comes with coveted short-term rental status, allowing the owner to list it on platforms like Airbnb. Only a handful of properties in Healdsburg come with that status, and only about a dozen come up for sale in a given year.
Chattha is offering a $500,000 discount to Anthropic employees because he believes the value of Anthropic shares will grow faster than any other investment, and his vacation home in wine country is the best bargaining chip he has to try to access them. “If you look at Anthropic’s growth last year, it’s insane,” he says, noting the $380 billion valuation the company claimed in February. “Now they’re raising at $965 billion. That’s three X in like three months.” He added that he was open to exchanging the house for shares in Anthropic, but not OpenAI, because he prefers using Anthropic’s products.
The real estate listings come at a time when investors are salivating at the record-high valuations of Anthropic and OpenAI, and even those considered wealthy by Bay Area standards are feeling FOMO about the affluence that could come from these companies’ debuts on the stock market. (On Monday, Anthropic submitted paperwork for its initial public offering; OpenAI is also reportedly preparing to file in the coming months.) Despite the unprecedented valuations of these companies, many people believe their stock prices will only go up, and that anyone who gets a piece now could win the jackpot.
People are clamoring to buy equity in OpenAI and Anthropic on the secondary market, leading to a frenzy of transactions that may or may not be legitimate. As a result, Anthropic updated its policy around “unauthorized Anthropic stock sales” this spring, which notes that “if someone purports to sell Anthropic shares without proper board approval, that transaction is invalid.” A spokesperson for Anthropic pointed back to this policy when asked about the possibility of exchanging company shares for real estate.
Welcome to our running tally of Election Night results. Or, as this is California, well beyond tonight, as results continue to trickle in.
The first batch of results should arrive at 8:45 p.m., with three more to follow tonight. The Department of Elections has the breakdown.
San Francisco is voting in three special elections, for District 2 and District 4 supervisors and for a Board of Education member. Both supervisor races are referendums on housing, especially District 2, while the main backdrop of the D4 race is all the hot feelings around the fate of the Sunset Dunes Park (nee Great Highway).
The winners of all three special races will have to compete again in November for their seats.
Keeping it local, SF is also voting on four ballot measures. Prop A is for a bond to pay for an emergency water-system. B is for term limits. C and D are dueling measures related to the “overpaid CEO” tax. (Links go to our reporting on each race or issue; or click here for our Election 2026 page.)
Vote local, think national: Which two candidates will advance to the November election to replace Nancy Pelosi?
Statewide races include the primaries for governor, education superintendent, lieutenant governor, and much more.
Polls close soon. If you haven’t voted yet, find your polling station here.
Tuesday, June 2, 5:40 p.m.
Two and a half hours until our polls close. Before we go down the local rabbit hole, a reminder that other states have primary action today: New Jersey, Iowa, New Mexico, South Dakota, and Montana.
Why does it take so long to get results in California? CalMatters has you covered on that story. We shouldn’t expect a call tonight on the governor’s race.
The last big election was November 5, 2024. (Remember?) Ten days later, there were still races to call in San Francisco.
So if you’re waiting for the pundits (and maybe even us) to tell you What It All Means, you might have to wait a while.
More from The Frisc…
San Francisco, CA
San Francisco voters to decide on dueling measures on Top Executive Pay Tax changes
San Francisco voters weighed in Tuesday on two competing measures that seek to change the Top Executive Pay Tax, with one of the measures also including a change to the Gross Receipts Tax.
Should both measures pass, the one with the most votes will take effect, according to the propositions’ legal text.
Currently, the measures state that most businesses with San Francisco gross receipts up to $5 million are exempt from the Gross Receipts Tax. And businesses that use more than half of their city payroll for in-house administrative and management services pay an Administrative Office Tax instead of a Gross Receipts Tax.
The Top Executive Pay Tax is a tax some large businesses pay if their highest-paid managerial employee earns more than 100 times the median pay of their San Francisco employees. Businesses that have city gross receipts up to $5 million and are not subject to the Administrative Office Tax are exempt.
Proposition C
Proposition C states it would increase the number of businesses that could be exempt from the Gross Receipts Tax and would stop any further increases to the “Top Executive Pay Tax” after a final rate bump.
The proposed measure says it would raise the Gross Receipts Tax exemption ceiling to $7.5 million. The $7.5 million ceiling would also apply to the Top Executive Pay Tax exemption.
As for changes to the Top Executive Pay Tax, Proposition C states it would implement the 2028 tax rate increase in 2027, but then stop any future increases.
Supporting Proposition C are Rodney Fong, CEO of the San Francisco Chamber of Commerce, and Chris Wright, senior vice president of Advance SF, an organization of companies, which includes Bank of America, OpenAI, Waymo, the SF Giants CEO and others.
Fong and Wright, in their argument for the measure, say giving businesses more tax breaks would help keep more employees on payroll and would give companies the ability to “contribute to city services in a predictable and balanced way.”
Critics of Proposition C, such as the San Francisco Tenants Union, slam the measure as “billionaire-backed” and argue it would kill the Top Executive Pay Tax and would hand out more tax breaks to businesses at a time when the city is in a budget deficit and faces cuts to essential services.
Proposition D
Proposition D also seeks to change the Top Executive Pay Tax, which is collected from some large businesses where the highest-paid managerial employee earns more than 100 times the median compensation paid to other employees.
If approved, the measure would change the calculation of the tax using the compensation of all employees, not just employees based in San Francisco. Top Executive Pay Tax rates would also be increased for San Francisco gross receipts and payroll.
Supporters have billed the measure as a way to counteract federal cuts to Medicaid. A report by the City Controller’s Office said the measure could result in $250 million to $300 million in additional revenue.
“Proposition D is the solution to our budget deficit. It asks large corporations — not small businesses, not working families — to contribute a little more,” supporters said in the city’s official voter guide.
The measure has the backing of most of the Board of Supervisors, along with labor unions and Rep. Nancy Pelosi.
Opponents, including Mayor Daniel Lurie and state Sen. Scott Wiener, have argued Proposition D would negatively impact the city’s recovery following the COVID-19 pandemic.
“San Francisco is already one of the most expensive cities in the country to live and do business. Adding extreme and unpredictable tax increases risks driving employers away just as we are trying to bring jobs, workers, and foot traffic back downtown,” said Supervisor Matt Dorsey in the city’s voter guide.
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