SF Liquor Licenses Plunge in Price

San Francisco’s market for full liquor licenses has dropped to about $100,000 this month from roughly $250,000 in 2022, according to broker Cameron DeRuosi and local reports. The decline is showing up in the city’s secondary market for Type 47 restaurant licenses, which are capped under California’s quota system and usually trade privately rather than being newly issued. For years, those permits were one of the biggest upfront costs for opening a restaurant or bar in San Francisco. Now owners, brokers and operators say the licenses are selling for a fraction of their earlier value as closures add supply and fewer buyers step in. ### Why did these licenses ever get so expensive in San Francisco? California’s Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control limits the number of on-sale general licenses by county population, a system that traces back decades. In San Francisco, that cap created a scarce secondary market because most new restaurant operators could not simply apply for a new full liquor license through the state. SFist, citing the San Francisco Chronicle, reported on May 20 that Type 47 licenses in the city once traded for $250,000 or more and are now valued at around $100,000. The same report said San Francisco had 741 Type 47 licenses and between 202 and 210 active Type 48 bar licenses. ### What are owners and brokers saying is driving the drop? (abc.ca.gov) Cameron DeRuosi, a liquor license broker, told NBC Bay Area that San Francisco prices have fallen because some businesses are closing and selling licenses at a loss. He cited higher labor, liability and food costs as factors weighing on operators. (sfist.com) “We were at about $250,000 net to seller back in 2022, and today we’re around $100,000,” DeRuosi told NBC Bay Area. He said he had seen sales as low as $70,000 to $85,000. Thad Vogler, the former owner of Bar Agricole and Trou Normand, told the Chronicle in comments relayed by SFist that the price of a liquor license reflects what buyers believe about San Francisco and the restaurant industry. (nbcbayarea.com) SFist also reported that DeRuosi described a late-2025 low of $95,000 before some modest recovery. ### Does a cheaper license help anyone trying to open now? Colm O’Brien, owner of Bar 49, told NBC Bay Area that lower license prices could open the market to younger operators. He said cheaper permits could let “a younger generation” with more creativity get control of a license and open a space. San Francisco has also reduced some local operating costs. (sfist.com) The Board of Supervisors approved legislation in December 2024 to eliminate 49 annual license fees starting in 2026, a change city officials said would save 91% of restaurants and 87% of bars and nightclubs from annual city license bills. (nbcbayarea.com) ### Are these the same as the new low-cost downtown licenses? California lawmakers created a separate path in 2025. Senate Bill 395, signed into law on October 6, 2025, allows San Francisco to issue up to 20 additional new on-sale general licenses for restaurants in a designated downtown hospitality zone. (sf.gov) Mayor Daniel Lurie said on October 7, 2025, that the law would help downtown recovery by allowing more restaurants to open in the city center. Senator Scott Wiener, who authored the bill, said earlier that the measure was aimed at boosting nightlife and supporting small businesses in downtown San Francisco. (sf.gov) SFGATE reported in October 2025 that those new downtown licenses were expected to cost about $20,000, far below the six-figure prices that secondary-market buyers had been paying elsewhere in the city. ### What happens next for the market? San Francisco still needs to designate the hospitality zone tied to SB 395 before those additional downtown licenses can be issued, according to the law’s description and local reporting. (sf.gov) SFist reported that the state could issue up to 10 of the new licenses in the first year after the district is created and up to five in each following year. (sfgate.com) The broader secondary market will keep moving one sale at a time. For restaurant owners closing in 2026, a liquor license remains an asset they can sell. For buyers entering the market now, the next benchmark is whether prices stay near $100,000 — or whether San Francisco’s mix of closures, new openings and downtown licensing changes pushes them lower. (sfist.com) (legiscan.com)