SFist has the scoop:
Cocktail enthusiasts (or cock and tail enthusiasts, we suppose) who have been watching the space might remember Kink’s owner Peter Acworth has been looking to open an Armory-adjacent bar for some time now and let the Ace Café lease run out in order to take over the bar himself. No word yet from the folks at Kink about the intended decor or drink menu, but the steel bars and the stone walls on the ground floor would probably make for a nice dungeon-themed establishment, if that’s what you’re in to.
[Artist's rendering by AndrewDalton/SFist]
 who have been watching the space might remember Kink’s owner Peter Acworth has been looking to open an Armory-adjacent bar for some time now and let the Ace Café lease run out in order to take over the bar himself. No word […]</p>
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this sucks. the Ace cafe rules.
I agree, but I wonder what the new place will be like.
“…let the Ace Café lease run out ” is certainly a polite term for forcing a place to shut down.
Rob had the option to extend the lease and the asshole had his lawyers look over it. They found a loophole and raised the rent so high that he couldn’t afford it.
Fuck them, Rob lost his bar and my friends lost their jobs because this prick wanted to open a bar in the Amory and The City wouldn’t let him.
Peter Acworth can fuck himself, we lost a good bar and some good people lost their jobs.
Why can’t they be rehired at the new space?
That sucks but quit whinging, you don’t know half the details. It’s just business. Kink is a business, Ace is (was) a business. English Rob’s place was too cigarette-smokey for me but a lot of my bikey friends loved it. Hope Rob and his crew land on a much better location and do well.
Recipe for a ‘Rope Burn Mary,’ (modified Bloody Mary):
Follow the directions on your favorite Bloody Mary mix but then ad either 1:4 or 1:3 parts granola or chocolate chip granola depending on how dirty and rough you like it! Then add chopped up gummy bears or gummy worms if you want to serve a Rope Burn Mary with Scar Tissue! Then say “Ewww Gross, you Pervert!” when you give one to your friend.
I’ll never give those assholes a red cent for my libations! And noeshmokey, Rob had the smoking stopped for awhile before he was kicked out of his spot by Kink.
Who the hell is Rob?
Chicken Rob?
This bar was in a weird location anyways. Every time I went in there there was maybe 3 people there including the bartender. The most people I ever saw there was a group of maybe 9. I don’t know how Ace was able to afford keeping their bar open in the first place.
That bar was a dump. Hopefully the new owners will create a nicer place. It was seriously gross in there and hard to breath through the grease in the air.
Well, those are both things that aren’t true.
According to The City it was very clean per the Health code inspections. And the kitchen had a very good hood system and they usually had the back door open for better ventilation.
Exactly.
‘had the back door open for ventilation’ – that sounds classy… and hilarious.
I live near the armory and I remember what it was like before Kink fixed it up. I don’t know Rob or anything, but I’ve been to Ace before and thought it was kinda skeezy. Kink seems like a step up from whoever was running it before.
Ace is another Mission dive bar lost to those who want to hang out in the Mission but also use their credit cards to buy designer cocktails. Change is inevitable, but also lamentable. I know people who lost their jobs, and that is the most lamentable of all.
I call BS. Ask the people that work next to the place and had to inhale it all day. It was spewing grease. They got fined because their kitchen hood wasn’t even venting. seriously – that’s even worse than the cigarette smoke.
You know, all of this is rumor and here say, but if it is true, and kink does get a bar, bravo! It’s about time that the BDSM community gets a public, loud and proud place of their own, especially in this city.
heh. That’s pretty funny.
I know the owner of Ace and I also know someone pretty high up at Kink and nothing I have posted is rumor or hearsay.
Yeah, it sucks that a few people at the cafe lost their jobs, but Kink is going to have to hire a bunch of people to replace them. And they’ve given a lot of really good jobs to a bunch of people now working at the Armory across the street. I know some people are going to miss the old bar, but this is definitely going to be a good change. Also, the Armory has never looked better or been busier after sitting vacant and unused for decades, but nobody ever seems to say anything good about that.
Definitely good that the Armory is being used again. Sad that Kink treats their employees like shit, though.
I know a lot of people who work there and they seem very proud and happy to work for kink. But then again I guess some of the models get paid to be treated like shit, so maybe that is what you are referring to. ha!
*shrug* Everyone I know that has worked for them has been extremely dis-satisfied with the experience, to put it diplomatically.
I think this is another positive evolution of the once run down mission neighborhood. ACE’s was never much of a draw. Never more than 3 or 5 people in there. Plus, its was full of cigarette smoke and last i checked it is illegal to smoke inside a bar in cali so they were breaking the law. Also, I have asthma so I could never stay in there long (thanx for killing me and breaking the law Aces). Maybe kink will take it over and it will become a popular spot and employee more local people.
At night and during Moto Gp races it was packed. The bar was owner operated so it was legal to smoke in there until the law changed.
I hope they serve bondage burgers.
Me too!! I like burgers the food there now sucks.
Wake up folks, Peter Acworth is not some “sex positive” messiah. He’s a businessman, who saw there was a market for fetish related porn, with normal looking “models”. He used that same big business mentality to shut down a good place. The smoking in the Ace was legal, it was an owner-operator business, and a few months before they closed they did go smoke free.
This was a blue collar bar for everybody (ok, “everybody” who smoked and liked motorcycles and didn’t need liquor). Peter could have opened up a bar anywhere, but he chose to fuck over a bunch of good people.
Who got fucked over? The past owner seems happy, and there’s no reason the bartenders can’t get rehired.
Lot’s of restaurants shut down or change hands in SF every year.