Skip to content Flip the Switch · 8–11 October We light the sign for the first time as Lillie Coit’s
Lillie Coit's
{{ statusLine }} Directions

Lillie Coit's

Never early, sometimes later.

{{ statusLine }}

Four in the afternoon until two in the morning, seven nights a week. No reservations. Walk in any hour we are open. Larger parties, write ahead.

1707 Powell Street, at Union, on the west side of Washington Square Park.

The dining room at one in the morning

People keep asking if we’re French.

We’re not. Lillie Coit’s is San Franciscan — a little French, a lot of seafood, and a very big bar. Part restaurant, part tavern, part neighborhood saloon.

Named for a woman who chased fire engines at fifteen, smoked cigars, gambled in rooms that did not want her, and left this city its tower.

The kitchen, still cooking at one in the morning
{{ neslHero }}

consecutive nights the kitchen ran until 1 a.m.

What goes out at 12:57 a.m. looks exactly like what went out at 6 p.m. The 1 a.m. walk-in is greeted like the reservation we have been waiting for all night.

Kitchen until 1 a.m. · bar last call 1:30 a.m.

The oyster counter

Shucked to order, all night

The oyster counter is at the front of the house and works the same hours as the kitchen. The Oyster Jubilee runs from ten until one — buy six oysters and six more are free.

The bar

Oyster Jubilee

Buy six, get six more free.

Nightly, 10 p.m. to 1 a.m. The house select oyster, opened in front of you at the oyster counter.

More on the Jubilee

The name on the door

A woman, a bar called the Washbag, a set of keys handed over in 2017, and nine years of getting the door open.

Lillie and Knickerbocker No. 5

At fifteen she dropped her school books to help haul Knickerbocker Engine Co. No. 5’s hose cart up Telegraph Hill, and wore their badge for the rest of her life. She left the city a third of her estate, and the city built a tower with it.

The murals inside that tower are why this dining room looks the way it does. The whole story.

The night the sign went up

1707 Powell Street
San Francisco, CA 94133

The west side of Washington Square Park, at Union.

Daily, 4 p.m. – 2 a.m.
Kitchen until 1 a.m.

Bar last call 1:30 a.m.

No reservations.
Walk in any hour we are open.

Large parties and semi-private events, write ahead.

NESL {{ nesl }}Never Early, Sometimes Later. Consecutive nights the kitchen ran until 1 a.m. It goes up by one tomorrow.
Lillie Coit’s · 1707 Powell Street, San Francisco © 2026 Willi’s Coffee & Flowers LLC
Skip to content Flip the Switch · 8–11 October We light the sign for the first time as Lillie Coit’s
Lillie Coit's
{{ statusLine }} Directions

Food

The kitchen serves from 4 p.m. until 1 a.m., every night. What goes out at 12:57 a.m. looks exactly like what went out at 6 p.m.

DrinksMenu (PDF)
The pass at service
Lillie Coit’s{{ part.part }}

{{ sec.title }}

{{ sec.aside }} {{ sec.price }}

{{ sec.kicker }}

{{ sec.note }}

{{ sec.box.price }}

{{ sec.box.title }}, a Lillie Coit’s tradition

{{ sec.box.by }}

{{ sec.box.kicker }}

{{ sec.box.line }}

or

{{ c.name }}

{{ c.desc }}

{{ sec.box.desc }}

{{ a }}

{{ it.group }}

{{ it.vintage }}
{{ it.name }}, a Lillie Coit’s tradition {{ it.aside }} {{ it.price }}

{{ it.desc }}

{{ it.tag }}

{{ a }}

{{ a }}

{{ part.note }}

A Lillie Coit’s tradition

1707 Powell Street
San Francisco, CA 94133

The west side of Washington Square Park, at Union.

Daily, 4 p.m. – 2 a.m.
Kitchen until 1 a.m.

Bar last call 1:30 a.m.

No reservations.
Walk in any hour we are open.

Large parties and semi-private events, write ahead.

NESL {{ nesl }}Never Early, Sometimes Later. Consecutive nights the kitchen ran until 1 a.m. It goes up by one tomorrow.
Lillie Coit’s · 1707 Powell Street, San Francisco © 2026 Willi’s Coffee & Flowers LLC
Skip to content Flip the Switch · 8–11 October We light the sign for the first time as Lillie Coit’s
Lillie Coit's
{{ statusLine }} Directions

Drinks

The bar runs to last call at 1:30 a.m.

FoodMenu (PDF)
The back bar
Lillie Coit’s{{ part.part }}

{{ sec.title }}

{{ sec.aside }} {{ sec.price }}

{{ sec.kicker }}

{{ sec.note }}

{{ sec.box.price }}

{{ sec.box.title }}, a Lillie Coit’s tradition

{{ sec.box.by }}

{{ sec.box.kicker }}

{{ sec.box.line }}

or

{{ c.name }}

{{ c.desc }}

{{ sec.box.desc }}

{{ a }}

{{ it.group }}

{{ it.vintage }}
{{ it.name }}, a Lillie Coit’s tradition {{ it.aside }} {{ it.price }}

{{ it.desc }}

{{ it.tag }}

{{ a }}

{{ a }}

{{ part.note }}

A Lillie Coit’s tradition

Lillie Coit’s{{ bottles.part }}

{{ sec.title }}

{{ sec.aside }} {{ sec.price }}

{{ sec.kicker }}

{{ sec.note }}

{{ sec.box.price }}

{{ sec.box.title }}, a Lillie Coit’s tradition

{{ sec.box.by }}

{{ sec.box.kicker }}

{{ sec.box.line }}

or

{{ c.name }}

{{ c.desc }}

{{ sec.box.desc }}

{{ a }}

{{ it.group }}

{{ it.vintage }}
{{ it.name }}, a Lillie Coit’s tradition {{ it.aside }} {{ it.price }}

{{ it.desc }}

{{ it.tag }}

{{ a }}

{{ a }}

1707 Powell Street
San Francisco, CA 94133

The west side of Washington Square Park, at Union.

Daily, 4 p.m. – 2 a.m.
Kitchen until 1 a.m.

Bar last call 1:30 a.m.

No reservations.
Walk in any hour we are open.

Large parties and semi-private events, write ahead.

NESL {{ nesl }}Never Early, Sometimes Later. Consecutive nights the kitchen ran until 1 a.m. It goes up by one tomorrow.
Lillie Coit’s · 1707 Powell Street, San Francisco © 2026 Willi’s Coffee & Flowers LLC
Skip to content Flip the Switch · 8–11 October We light the sign for the first time as Lillie Coit’s
Lillie Coit's
{{ statusLine }} Directions

Who is Lillie Coit?

A woman who chased fire engines, a saloon that stood on this corner for a generation, a set of keys handed over in 2017, and nine years of getting the door open. It is one long story, and we kept the receipts.

Lillie and Knickerbocker No. 5

The woman

Born in West Point, New York, in 1843, and brought here as a child, in the years when the city burned regularly and volunteer companies fought it with hand-drawn carts.

Lillie Hitchcock Coit ran with Knickerbocker Engine Company No. 5 in a city that burned down regularly and did not expect a girl to do anything about it. They made her an honorary member. She signed her name with the number five after it for the rest of her life.

She smoked cigars in public when women did not. She wore trousers to get into places that would not take her otherwise. She gambled in men’s clubs and in North Beach saloons. She was difficult, generous, and uninterested in what anyone thought.

She married Howard Coit, the caller of the Stock Exchange, and left him in 1880. In 1903 a cousin walked into her rooms at the Palace Hotel with a gun and shot a friend dead in front of her. She spent much of what followed in Europe, and came home to die here in 1929.

When she died she left a third of her estate to the city, for the purpose of adding to its beauty. The city built a tower on Telegraph Hill in 1933 and filled it with paintings of Californians at work — longshoremen, cannery hands, clerks, farmers. The tower is a third of a mile uphill from this corner.

The Washbag

From 1973 to 2010 this was a saloon nobody called by its real name.

Rose Evangelisti sold her bar on this corner in 1973, and that autumn Ed Moose, Mary Etta Moose and Sam Deitsch opened the Washington Square Bar & Grill in it. Herb Caen called it the Washbag in his column and the name stuck, over Moose’s objection, for the rest of its life.

The bar stood at the back, in the far corner away from the windows. Tables ran along the walls and into the windows over the square, and the walls carried thirty years of other people’s photographs. It closed in August 2010, on the day Ed Moose died.

We kept the bones. The Mezzanine was not there — we built it.

The Petite Lil’s years

Everyone thought we would open in 2018.

It did not. Permits, a pandemic, and a refusal to open something half-finished. Nine years is a long time to hold a lease on a building you cannot use.

In February 2023 we opened Petite Lil’s, a precursor to Lillie Coit’s and a preview of it, serving oysters and tinned fish while paint swatches were still on the walls behind the guests. It ran for three years on word of mouth and a nightly oyster deal, and it is the reason the neighborhood already knew us before the sign went up.

Petite Lil’s is finished, not gone. What it taught us about staying open late is the standard now.

Who was here before us

Five names have been over this door, and the Washbag name went up three times under three different sets of owners. They fed this neighborhood long before we did.

Rose Evangelisti’s barto 1973North Beach knew her as Rose Pistola.
Washington Square Bar & Grill1973–2000Ed Moose, Mary Etta Moose and Sam Deitsch for seventeen years, then sold on. Herb Caen called it the Washbag in his column and the name stuck.
Cobalt Tavern2000–2001New owners bought it and painted it blue at the height of the dot-com boom.
Washington Square Bar & Grill2001–2008The blue period failed and the old name went back up. The doors closed on 1 January 2008.
Washington Square Bar & Grill2009–2010Liam and Susan Tiernan restored it and reopened in March 2009. It closed in August 2010, the same day Ed Moose died.
Bottle Caplate 2011–2014A bar under a new name.
the Square2014–2017Teague Moriarty and Matt McNamara took Moose’s own name for the place and used it one last time.

One corner, 168 years

1858
Lillie Coit hauls the hose cart up Telegraph HillShe is fifteen, and she drops her school books to do it. Knickerbocker Engine Co. No. 5 make her an honorary member, and she wears the badge the rest of her life.
1929
Lillie Coit leaves the city a third of her estateAbout $118,000, “for the purpose of adding to the beauty of the city which I have always loved.” Coit Tower goes up four years later.
1973
Ed Moose opens the Washington Square Bar & GrillWith his wife Mary Etta and his partner Sam Deitsch, in Rose Evangelisti’s old bar. Herb Caen christens it the Washbag in his column; Moose hates the name and calls it the Square until the day he dies.
The Washington Square Bar & Grill, 1970s
1987
The Washbag does more business per seat than any other restaurant in San FranciscoThree deep at the bar. A house softball team called Les Lapins Sauvages, written up by Caen as though they were a major-league club.
1990
The Mooses sell, and the Washbag changes hands until it closesMoose and Deitsch sell and open Moose’s across the square. The Washbag runs another decade under other hands.
2010
The Washbag closes, the day Ed Moose diesA third iteration lasts a year and a half. The closure notice goes up on 12 August 2010 — the same day Ed Moose died. The building starts changing hands: Bottle Cap, then the Square, then nothing.
The closure notice in the door, August 2010
2017
Nick Floulis takes the keys to 1707 PowellNick Floulis, a North Beach native, takes the keys in November and says the restaurant will open next year. From 24 November a Christmas pop-up called Deck the Halls runs in the empty dining room through New Year, with Ken Luciano and Shaher Misif.
The keys, 2017
2018
A four-alarm fire takes the building across the streetSt Patrick’s night. 659 Union burns across from the park, damaging ten businesses and displacing eight residents. It is the first of the delays. The lot is still empty.
The 2018 fire on Union Street
2021
A lease, a pandemic, and a build that will not endA suit with the landlord, a pandemic, and a construction schedule that keeps moving.
The room mid-build
2023
Petite Lil’s opens rather than wait for the grand opening10 February. Rather than keep waiting on a grand opening, the doors open under a smaller name with a smaller sign.
The first Petite Lil’s menu, February 2023
2025
Project Cioppino: the neighborhood helped finish the buildingRegulars chipped in $100 or more on a gift certificate, redeemable after the grand opening, and got a brass plaque with their name on it. The money went back into finishing the building.
A Project Cioppino brass plaque
2026
Flip the Switch: the sign is lit as Lillie Coit’s8–11 October. The sign is lit as Lillie Coit’s for the first time, nine years after the keys.
A printed menu from one of the last nights before Flip the Switch
The night the sign went up
8–11 October

Flip the Switch

We light the sign for the first time as Lillie Coit’s.

We lit the sign for the first time as Lillie Coit’s.

The eighth of October is the anniversary of the tower’s dedication. That is not why we picked it, but we are not going to pretend it is a coincidence either.

NESL {{ nesl }}Never Early, Sometimes Later. Consecutive nights the kitchen ran until 1 a.m. It goes up by one tomorrow.
Lillie Coit’s · 1707 Powell Street, San Francisco © 2026 Willi’s Coffee & Flowers LLC
Skip to content Flip the Switch · 8–11 October We light the sign for the first time as Lillie Coit’s
Lillie Coit's
{{ statusLine }} Directions

Oyster Jubilee

Buy six, get six more free. Nightly, 10 p.m. to 1 a.m.

The oyster counter
Oysters on the half shell

No need to ask for it

The Jubilee is the house select oyster, shucked to order. Mignonette and lemon as standard, a hot sauce from our friends up the street at Trattoria Contadina, and escargot butter and a broiler if you want them warm.

San Francisco invented the oyster cocktail

Oysters in a glass under ketchup, horseradish and something hot, eaten with a spoon. It came out of the saloons of this bay during the Gold Rush, when miners had money and oysters were the cheapest thing on the counter, and recipes for it were being written down on this coast by the 1860s.

In 1889 the New York Sun reported a San Franciscan at Delmonico’s teaching the table how to build one. Thirty years later the St. Francis printed the first standard recipe.

Then the beds were over-harvested, the oysters ran out, and shrimp took the glass. It has been the shrimp cocktail ever since. The oysters are still here, six at a time, from ten.

1707 Powell Street
San Francisco, CA 94133

The west side of Washington Square Park, at Union.

Daily, 4 p.m. – 2 a.m.
Kitchen until 1 a.m.

Bar last call 1:30 a.m.

No reservations.
Walk in any hour we are open.

Large parties and semi-private events, write ahead.

NESL {{ nesl }}Never Early, Sometimes Later. Consecutive nights the kitchen ran until 1 a.m. It goes up by one tomorrow.
Lillie Coit’s · 1707 Powell Street, San Francisco © 2026 Willi’s Coffee & Flowers LLC
Skip to content Flip the Switch · 8–11 October We light the sign for the first time as Lillie Coit’s
Lillie Coit's
{{ statusLine }} Directions

Come by

Open every night of the year but one.

Daily
4 p.m. – 2 a.m.

The kitchen cooks until 1 a.m. and the bar runs to last call at 1:30 a.m. Seven nights, no early close.

1707 Powell Street
North Beach

The west side of Washington Square Park, under the sign. The Powell–Mason cable car runs past the door.

Directions

No reservations

Walk in any hour we are open.

Large parties and semi-private events, write ahead.

hello@lilliecoits.com

Still the Washbag

This was the Washington Square Bar & Grill — the Washbag — on and off from 1973 to 2010. Same building, a great deal of new plaster. The whole story.

The bar

First come, no holding. The best seats in the house no matter who you are, and the engine of it.

Tables

What surrounds the room.

Booths

Each one has a name and a history worth learning. The Willie Brown, the Momo, and the confessionals by the Saints Peter and Paul doors.

Oyster counter

Where the shucking happens, and where the Oyster Leaderboard is kept. It resets every Oyster Day, so the board is open again. The Jubilee starts here at ten.

Mezzanine

Upstairs, with no bar of its own. It can be booked for private events.

Late dining

Order by 1 a.m. and you eat properly before we close at two. House record for a tomahawk after one: fifteen minutes.

One night off

Thanksgiving.

Dress

Whatever you were already wearing. Kitchen whites and black aprons are especially welcome.

Industry

If you work in a restaurant, say so at the bar — and let us know where.

The dining room, seen from the door
NESL {{ nesl }}Never Early, Sometimes Later. Consecutive nights the kitchen ran until 1 a.m. It goes up by one tomorrow.
Lillie Coit’s · 1707 Powell Street, San Francisco © 2026 Willi’s Coffee & Flowers LLC
Skip to content Flip the Switch · 8–11 October We light the sign for the first time as Lillie Coit’s
Lillie Coit's
{{ statusLine }} Directions

We never close early

Seven nights a week the kitchen runs until one in the morning. We are hiring the people who want to be there for it.

Check your industry norms at the door. We don’t much care what closing time meant where you came from.

The one a.m. walk-in gets greeted like the reservation we have been waiting for all night. The last plate is cooked the same way as the first. The last cocktail is as careful as the first. Every rack comes out clean, no matter the hour.

If you are coming from a house that runs five nights a week, four hours a night, this is not for you. If you have spent years being the one who stayed to finish, it might be.

You look up

Somebody comes through the door at 12:50 and you see them before they have to ask.

You finish

The thing you started gets done tonight, not left on a list for whoever opens.

You stay

The people who ran Petite Lil’s are still here.

Open roles

Keeper of the Room

Full time · Nights

Not a maître d’. You hold the front of the house from four until close — who is waiting, who has been forgotten, who just sat down at one in the morning and needs a menu and a glass of something cold.

Line cook

Full time · Late

Steak frites, duck confit, omelettes, bone marrow. Dinner, then the cooks and servers coming off their own shifts. They get the same plate, made the same way.

Bartender

Full time · Late

A focused list alongside the classics, all of it made properly and at speed at one in the morning. We pour a house amaro and you will be expected to have opinions about it.

Oyster shucker

Part time · From 6 p.m.

The oyster counter, and the Jubilee from ten. Speed helps. Not cutting yourself helps more.

Dishwasher

Full time · Late

The people who do the Lord’s work of never early, sometimes later.

Come in and ask

Any night after four. Sit at the bar, order something, and say you are here about a job.

Or write

hello@lilliecoits.com

Tell us which role you are after and where you have worked.

The dish station at one in the morning
NESL {{ nesl }}Never Early, Sometimes Later. Consecutive nights the kitchen ran until 1 a.m. It goes up by one tomorrow.
Lillie Coit’s · 1707 Powell Street, San Francisco © 2026 Willi’s Coffee & Flowers LLC
Skip to content Flip the Switch · 8–11 October We light the sign for the first time as Lillie Coit’s
Lillie Coit's
{{ statusLine }} Directions

Private events

Larger parties and semi-private events, seven nights a week.

No buyouts. The bar and the oyster counter stay open to the neighborhood every night.

The dining room at one in the morning

The options

The Mezzanine

Completely private · Guests — · Minimum —

The second floor. It has no bar of its own.

The first floor

Semi-private · Guests — · Minimum —

Around the bar.

After ten

Either floor · Minimum —

From ten until close, while the Oyster Jubilee runs at the oyster counter.

Layouts

The Mezzanine, seated
The Mezzanine, standing
The first floor

Food and drink

The house menus: Food and Drinks.

Oyster counter

The house select oyster, by the dozen.

Kitchen

The full menu until 1 a.m. The 32-ounce tomahawk goes to the middle of the table.

Bar

A tab, a set list, or both. We pour a house amaro.

Start an inquiry

The date, the number of guests, and the option you have in mind. We follow up with a call to go through food, drink and costs.

Inquire
The oyster counter
NESL {{ nesl }}Never Early, Sometimes Later. Consecutive nights the kitchen ran until 1 a.m. It goes up by one tomorrow.
Lillie Coit’s · 1707 Powell Street, San Francisco © 2026 Willi’s Coffee & Flowers LLC
Skip to content
Lillie Coit's

Accessibility

Lillie Coit’s is committed to making our website accessible to all guests. We aim to conform to the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1, Level AA.

What we do

  • Provide text alternatives for images
  • Ensure sufficient color contrast for readability
  • Support keyboard navigation throughout the site
  • Use semantic HTML and ARIA landmarks for screen readers
  • Respect motion preferences via prefers-reduced-motion

Known limitations

Some illustrated content uses detailed visual descriptions that may not fully convey the artistic intent. We are working to improve these descriptions over time.

Contact

If you encounter any accessibility barriers on this site, or need information in an alternative format, please contact us at hello@lilliecoits.com. We will do our best to provide the information you need.

This statement was last reviewed September 2026.

NESL {{ nesl }}Never Early, Sometimes Later. Consecutive nights the kitchen ran until 1 a.m. It goes up by one tomorrow.
Lillie Coit’s · 1707 Powell Street, San Francisco © 2026 Willi’s Coffee & Flowers LLC
Skip to content Flip the Switch · 8–11 October We light the sign for the first time as Lillie Coit’s
Lillie Coit's
{{ statusLine }} Directions

Press kit

The facts, the history, the menus, the marks.

For anything not on this page, write to hello@lilliecoits.com.

The night the sign went up

The facts

Name

Lillie Coit’s

What it is

A San Franciscan restaurant, tavern and neighborhood saloon. A little French, a lot of seafood, and a very big bar.

Address

1707 Powell Street, San Francisco, CA 94133. The west side of Washington Square Park, at Union.

Getting there

North Beach. The Powell–Mason cable car passes the door.

Hours

Daily, 4 p.m. – 2 a.m. · Kitchen until 1 a.m. · Bar last call 1:30 a.m.

Closed

Thanksgiving only.

Reservations

None. Walk in any hour we are open. Larger parties and semi-private events, write ahead.

Kitchen

Oysters and caviar, tinned fish, French omelettes, steak frites, a 32-ounce tomahawk.

Bar

Classics made properly, a focused list, a house amaro, and a zero-proof section.

Nightly

Oyster Jubilee, 10 p.m. to 1 a.m. Buy six of the house select oyster and six more are free.

Price range

$$

Opening

Flip the Switch, 8–11 October 2026. The 8th is the anniversary after that.

Entity

Willi’s Coffee & Flowers LLC

Contact

hello@lilliecoits.com · @lilliecoits · www.lilliecoits.com

Three lengths

Boilerplate

In a line

Lillie Coit’s is a San Franciscan restaurant, tavern and neighborhood saloon on the west side of Washington Square Park — a little French, a lot of seafood, and a very big bar.

In a paragraph

Lillie Coit’s is a San Franciscan restaurant, tavern and neighborhood saloon at 1707 Powell Street in North Beach — a little French, a lot of seafood, and a very big bar. It opens at four in the afternoon and runs until two in the morning, seven nights a week, and the kitchen takes orders until one. Oysters are shucked to order at the counter in front, and from ten until one you buy six of the house select and six more are free. There are no reservations.

In full

Lillie Coit’s is a San Franciscan restaurant, tavern and neighborhood saloon at 1707 Powell Street in North Beach — a little French, a lot of seafood, and a very big bar. It opens at four in the afternoon and runs until two in the morning, seven nights a week, and the kitchen takes orders until one.

The building was the Washington Square Bar & Grill — the Washbag — on and off from 1973 to 2010. Nick Floulis, a North Beach native, took the keys in November 2017. Permits, a four-alarm fire across the street and a pandemic followed. In February 2023 the house opened Petite Lil’s, a precursor to Lillie Coit’s and a preview of it, which ran three years on oysters and tinned fish.

The name is Lillie Hitchcock Coit, who at fifteen dropped her school books to haul Knickerbocker Engine Co. No. 5’s hose cart up Telegraph Hill, smoked cigars when women did not, and left the city a third of her estate. The city built Coit Tower with it in 1933, and the murals inside are why this dining room looks the way it does.

Name and style

Lillie Coit’s

With the apostrophe and the s. The woman: Lillie Hitchcock Coit, born 23 August 1843.

The house line

Never early, sometimes later.

NESL count

Never Early, Sometimes Later. The figure in every footer is consecutive nights the kitchen ran until 1 a.m.

Bar last call

1:30 a.m. is the bar. The kitchen stops at 1 a.m. Never a bare “last call”.

Oyster counter

The counter at the front of the house. Not an oyster bar.

The Mezzanine

Upstairs, and it has no bar of its own.

Petite Lil’s

The precursor to Lillie Coit’s, and a preview of it. Opened here on 10 February 2023 and ran three years.

The Washbag

Herb Caen’s name for the Washington Square Bar & Grill, over Ed Moose’s objection.

What we run

Oyster Jubilee

Nightly, 10 p.m. to 1 a.m. Buy six of the house select oyster and six more are free.

Oyster Leaderboard

At the oyster counter. Resets every Oyster Day, so there is no standing record.

Oyster Day

The 23rd of the month, Lillie Coit’s birthday. National Oyster Day is 5 August; ours is the 23rd.

NESL count

Consecutive nights the kitchen ran until 1 a.m. It goes up by one tomorrow.

Late dining

Order by 1 a.m. and you eat before the two o’clock close. Record for a tomahawk after one: fifteen minutes.

Booths

Each one has a name: the Willie Brown, the Momo, and the confessionals by the Saints Peter and Paul doors.

The anniversary

8 October, every year, from Flip the Switch, 8–11 October 2026.

Food and drink

The kitchen

Oysters and caviar at the counter in front. Tinned fish, a crudo of the day, a shrimp cocktail. A three-egg French omelette, plain or with Gruyère, caviar or steak. Frisée aux lardons, French onion soup, escargot, bone marrow. Bavette and New York steak frites, and a 32-ounce bone-in tomahawk called the Booth Steak, two a night. One dessert, ice cream.

Food menu
The bar

Classics and a short list of our own: a pisco punch, a white negroni built on pisco, a coffee and chocolate old fashioned, martinis dirty and dry. A house amaro we pour ourselves. Wine by the glass and the bottle, champagne by the magnum, and a zero-proof section on the same list.

Our San Francisco Martini Trail entry is the Dirty Junipero Martini. The dry one takes ten grams of caviar.

Bar menu
One corner, 168 years

History

1858

At fifteen she drops her school books to haul Knickerbocker Engine Co. No. 5’s hose cart up Telegraph Hill, and they make her an honorary member.

1929

She dies here and leaves the city a third of her estate, about $118,000, for the purpose of adding to its beauty.

1933

Coit Tower goes up a third of a mile uphill. The murals inside are painted the year after.

1973

Ed Moose, Mary Etta Moose and Sam Deitsch open the Washington Square Bar & Grill in Rose Evangelisti’s old bar. Herb Caen christens it the Washbag.

1987

The Washbag does more business per seat than any other restaurant in San Francisco. The house softball team is Les Lapins Sauvages.

2010

The Washbag closes in August, the day Ed Moose died. The name had gone up three times under three sets of owners.

2017

Nick Floulis, a North Beach native, takes the keys to 1707 Powell in November.

2018

A four-alarm fire at 659 Union on St Patrick’s night. The lot is still empty.

2023

Petite Lil’s opens on 10 February, a precursor to Lillie Coit’s and a preview of it. It runs three years.

2025

Project Cioppino: the neighborhood chipped in on gift certificates to help finish the building, and got a brass plaque for it. No longer offered.

2026

Flip the Switch, 8–11 October. The sign is lit as Lillie Coit’s, nine years after the keys.

The full record

The marks

The Lillie Coit's wordmark
Wordmark SVG · PNG, 1200px
The wordmark in cream, for dark grounds
Wordmark, knockout SVG · PNG, 1200px
The LC monogram
Monogram SVG · SVG, knockout
Four colors, and only four
Cream #F2E1CA
Red #5C2126
Gold #DFA45D
Green #333B2F

Imagery

Illustrated, not photographed, in the manner of the Coit Tower interiors. Archive photographs of the building run in the record.

The dining room at one in the morning The dining room at one in the morning Download
The bar The bar Download
The oyster counter The oyster counter Download
The night the sign went up The sign Download
The pass at service The pass at service Download
The Mezzanine The Mezzanine Download
The dining room, seen from the door The dining room from the door Download
The back bar The back bar Download

Write

hello@lilliecoits.com

Anything not on this page.

Come in

Any night after four. 1707 Powell Street, at Union. Nothing to arrange.

@lilliecoits

Last checked September 2026.

The Mezzanine
NESL {{ nesl }}Never Early, Sometimes Later. Consecutive nights the kitchen ran until 1 a.m. It goes up by one tomorrow.
Lillie Coit’s · 1707 Powell Street, San Francisco © 2026 Willi’s Coffee & Flowers LLC
Lillie Coit’s
{{ statusLine }} Menu (PDF) 1707 Powell Street · North Beach hello@lilliecoits.com Instagram