What time do you open?

We open at 12 noon every day except Saturday we open at 1 pm.

Why do you open late sometimes, past noon or 1 pm on Saturday?

Sometimes the meat takes longer to cook than we hope. We cook full turkeys every morning and sometimes they are not ready on time. Our cook basically prepares roasted meats for 200 people ready at 12 noon all at once, sometimes it's ready at 12:05.

How does it work?

First, everyone is welcome. When you enter get into the line, if you are lucky and there is no line just step up to the counter. The menu is on the wall over the counter. Order from the carver, he will be your guide.

What do you serve?

Basically, we do two things, dinner plates or sandwiches. The sandwiches are meat and bread, just like the Earl of Sandwich intended. You can add condiments, but everything else is extra. The dinner plates come with meat and two sides of your choice, plus bread. Then we have a few house specials that generally come with a main item over one side, plus bread, like chicken over white rice.

OK so how do I order?

It’s best to know what you want before you step up to the counter, especially when you have a line of hungry people behind you staring at all those meats. So, first choose the method in which you want your meat, on a plate or between a couple of slices of bread. Choose your meat, BBQ brisket dinner is the most popular, pastrami is the most popular sandwich, but the turkey is king here, and then we have the classic roast beef for French dips, corned beef for those who love it salty, and ham. I like the ham.

OK I know what meat I want and how I want it served, then what?

Tell the carver “type of meat” dinner plate/sandwich. He will guide you the rest of the way, pay attention and answer the questions. If you turn around, talk to your friend, or delay, you will anger the carver, and I do not recommend that; he holds a very large knife. Tommy’s carvers have worked here for over 30 years, they are performing for you a service they love to do.

Do you have vegetarian options?

Sorry, we do not have a vegetarian main item. We have salads to choose from, they are great and many vegetarian friends of meat eaters have made good meals of them. I recommend a cheese sandwich with added sauerkraut and coleslaw, sort of a meatless Reuben.

Do you have gluten-free items?

We are not a gluten-free kitchen. But almost everything is gluten-free. The only items that are not are the slices of bread, the stuffing, the meatballs, and the spaghetti. We use rice flour.

Did Metallica eat here?

Yes, they used to hang out here before they got famous. Check out this video from MTV, Kurt Loder goes around the city with Lars and Kirk and they make a stop at Tommy's and Lars tells the story of the day they hired Jason in 1986 to be their bassist. They made the decision while in the bathroom. start at 4:33 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I1nHc-FT3m4

I heard Janis Joplin ate here too.

Yes, and no. She lived in the building behind Tommy's. The story is the cook once found her stealing from the garbage cans, turkey in hand.

Are you cash only?

No, you can pay with anything now, there is a 5% fee on electronic payments to cover the costs.

Do I need reservations?

No Tommy's never does reservations. We are a first come first served counter service restaurant. No worries though, you will get a table. 100 people, no problem, we have a seat for you. Large groups want to sit together, that shouldn't be a problem, we have lots of room. Want to pay on one tab, we got you, just come in and we will take care of everything.

I was there and lost something?

If we find it we will hold it here, we cannot confirm your items over the phone, sorry. Come back and ask anyone. We eventually donate the Lost & Found.

What time do you close?

We close at midnight Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, and at 8 pm the rest of the week.

can I bring my own wine or cake?

Yes you can, there is a cake fee and a wine fee. The wine fee is $10 per bottle and the cake fee is $2 per person.

can my vegan friend breing his own food to dine with us?

Yes you can. The fee for eating any outside food is $15. The fee for outside drinks is $2.

Why has Tommy's changed?

If something changed it is probably for a good reason. Please be kind and understand we are trying our best not to change Tommy's at all. But sometimes things change, over 75 years it has changed in many ways and at many times.

Why did the operating times change?

Mostly due to a lack of business in the neighborhood. We used to get lots of business from bars and events nearby, so staying open to 2 am made sense. That has changed, many bars nearby are no longer open during the week, the movie theater is closed, the neighborhood changed. We wish we could be open, but there is nobody here at midnight most nights. If more people want it, we will open later.

8 pm is early though!

Yes, it is. I wish we could stay open later. Our staff works a full 8 hr shift open to close. To add more hours I need to staff 5 more full-time employees. We are a union and we pay $900/month for benefits per employee. The math just doesn't add up.

The staff is all different and new.

No, no it's not. They are working different days and hours though. So if you never came at night you didn't meet the night staff, who now work days. 10 of our 14 staff have been here more than 20 years. Two of the other four staff are related to one of those ten, they have been here 9 years and 8 years, and then Phil has been here four years, and please welcome Amber our new bartender.

Where is the daily special board?

The sign was confusing, people coming for the first time would spend five minutes reading the sign when there is only one item available on that sign. We made a new one and it is now in the front window.

Someone said you had paper plates?

Yes, that is due to staff cuts and union positions, our staff is asked to do a lot more than their normal roles. We hired a busser and dishwasher so we are back to real plates.

Why are there no mustards and horseradish on the tables?

The busser maintained the condiments, but as trends are, people are not wanting condiments touched by anyone anymore. I once saw someone take the spoon out lick it and put the spoon back into the mustard container. Condiments probably won’t come back on the tables. But I will get a condiment station, out in the open where we can keep it clean and sanitary.

Other places can do it, whatever you think we should do?

Yes, they charge a price to have those things. Quickly LME; Tommy's is the last hofbrau in San Francisco, why is that, why are there not more of them all over like pizza places? Well, the demand is low and the cost of business is high. FYI the most expensive thing a restaurant sells is meat. The cheapest thing is pizza dough, pasta, noodles, rice, salads...etc. So we do our best to keep the doors open and the lights on. We could charge more like other hofbraus around the bay, we are cheaper than Harry’s and Sam’s, even though we pay more for just about everything than they do. Tommy’s has always been large portions at small prices, and to do that we save pennies everywhere we can.

But everything IS different!

Many have not been back in years and it's like going back to your old high school and you think the place looks smaller. Today someone said the pickle barrel is smaller, it's the same one forever. Nothing was removed from the walls, if it's not there it is probably because it fell off or it was decayed to pieces. The water station was damaged beyond repair. The ceiling was repainted because it was literally falling on people’s heads.

Stop changing things.

Well TBH, Tommy's core is the same for 75 years. Same menu, same recipes, same decor, nearly nothing has changed. But over time things were adjusted. Tommy's didn’t even start here, it opened 3 blocks down before moving to this location. This location used to not be painted brightly, and it had a hotel on top. The back area was a hair salon, there used to be carpet, and there was only 1 beer on draft. The staff wore many different uniforms, and the prices were all under $1. Somehow those prices got to where they were when you first came here, and every so often since they keep going up, not just recently. I could go on forever about all the changes that happened over 75 years. The point is we try to make adjustments, not actually change anything. We like Tommy's, more than you know because we are here every day making pennies for a salary, here because we love it.

I HAVE MORE QUESTIONS.

Email your questions to info@tommysjoynt.com or text them to 415-949-0399

Thank you!