By Lena Park Photos and videos by Camille Cohen
One week before the Giants home opener, the China Basin waterfront is calm. A solitary midday runner jogs past a skateboarder leisurely cruising down the pier.
But come Friday, when the team suits up against the Mariners for the first home game of the season, tens of thousands of fans will descend on the area, and Scott Morton will be hoping that at least a few thousand stop into MoMo’s, his bar and restaurant across King Street from Oracle Park.
Morton spent the past five weeks getting his team in shape for the big day. He’s heading into his sixth season as the owner of MoMo’s, a casual spot known for its King Street margaritas and wood-fired pizzas. In preparation for opening day, he more than doubled his 25-person “offseason” staff to 60. The roster of bartenders, bussers, servers, and line cooks spent weeks sharpening their cocktail-mixing skills, running through the expanded menu — which includes specials like jerk chicken and coconut prawns — and working out operational kinks. It’s the restaurant equivalent of throwing bullpens, taking hacks in the cage, and working on bunt defense. “It’s all about reps,” Morton says. “In that way, it’s just like spring training.”
While Mission Bay has bounced back from the pandemic faster than other parts of the city, neighborhood business owners say foot traffic still isn’t consistent enough to unshackle their bottom lines from the Giants’ success on the field. That means the possibility of drawing even a fraction of the 30,000 fans that attend each of the 81 home games is vital to keeping the doors open during the lean times when Oracle Park is dark.
Morton, who started working at the popular pregame destination as a food runner at 17, is a pro at meeting the acute demand for cold beers and a bite. After the restaurant’s doors open at 9:30 a.m. on Friday, MoMo’s will serve some 2,000 customers, dishing up at least 900 wings and 200 pizzas. By the end of the three-game series, all 50 kegs waiting in the walk-in will be tapped out. “Giants fans are crazy — and we love them for that,” Morton says.
John Park opened Japanese-Peruvian restaurant Kaiyo and sister bar Kaiyo Rooftop in 2022. As a season-ticket holder and four-decade fan of the franchise (his favorite Giants memory is seeing Kevin Mitchell make his legendary barehanded catch in 1989), Park believes the Giants have what it takes to have a winning season, maybe even a playoff bid. It’s good news for a fan, and even better news for a restaurant owner.
Park remembers when even offseason nights saw strong crowds. “When I leased the space in 2019 for Kaiyo, Thursdays and Fridays at 5 p.m., you would see an army of people walking down Townsend or King Street to go to CalTrain or local restaurants and bars,” he says. “Now, that doesn’t exist at all. You might see five people on the street on Friday evening.”
The inconsistency of foot traffic means restaurants have to adapt based on the time of the year. Case in point: Kaiyo’s offseason menu highlights, like scallop udon and ginger shoyu chicken, can be a hard sell for baseball fans looking for a quick bite before hustling over to the stadium. So in addition to staffing up with seasonal employees and hosting occasional game-day events at Kaiyo Rooftop, Park is rolling out a lineup of casual lunch items and to-go options, like chicken katsu sandwiches, wings, and wagyu burgers.
“I think baseball fans want approachability. They want an experience that is well-curated but not complicated,” Park says.
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This quick-service model is exactly what Thomas McNaughton hopes to provide at Flour + Water Pizza Shop’s upcoming location in Mission Rock. McNaughton optimized the 1,600-square-foot space with the grab-and-go crowd in mind. “We’ve built the infrastructure to be able to produce a high-quality product at a high volume in a pizza-party-fun atmosphere,” the chef and owner says.
Flour + Water Pizza Shop’s hub-and-spoke model makes it possible. When the Mission Rock restaurant opens later this month, staff will haul in enough four-day-fermented dough from the North Beach flagship to make up to 700 pizzas a day. Customers will be able to choose a service style that best suits their needs: They can snag one of the shop’s few seats and order pizza via QR code, or walk up to the counter to get a beer and a shot or a boozy slushie, or pick up a Big Slice at the takeout window.
The Giants have a vested interest in the success of both standbys, like MoMo’s and Kaiyo, and newcomers, like Flour + Water Pizza Shop and Arsicault Bakery, which opened its Mission Bay location in mid-March. After winning a bid in 2010 to develop areas near the ballpark to improve fan experience, the Giants entered into a partnership with developer Tishman Speyer to build Mission Rock, a 28-acre mixed-use project. The focus was on turning former parking lots into a place that felt like a real neighborhood. “During baseball season, of course we want to lean into being able to enhance the fan experience,” says Jen San Juan, the Giants’ manager of external affairs. “But we’re also committed to making it a year-round destination.”
Arsicault Bakery, which is already drawing long lines for fresh-baked chocolate almond croissants and sugar-dusted morning buns, will extend its hours on game days. Later this year, award-winning cocktail bar Trick Dog will open a burger and hot dog spot called Quik Dog.
Beyond pregame events at China Basin Park, the Giants are working to give people non-baseball-related reasons to head to Mission Bay, such as hosting NBA All-Star concerts at Pier 48. Down the road, expect fitness classes, markets, movie nights, concerts, and a Cirque du Soleil appearance.
While rivalries and competition remain constant between the white lines at Oracle Park, there’s more of a together-we-rise mentality outside the stadium, where business owners say the success of any restaurant is good for all restaurants. “All of these businesses are just creating more excitement for patrons to come into the area to enjoy the great food and beverage scene we have,” Park says.
