The North Beach brasserie at 1652 Stockton St. announced its permanent closure on June 11, six weeks into its second failed revival. The room's 19-month comeback under leaseholder James Nicholas and chef Jonathan Waxman couldn't survive a devastating Chronicle review and the weight of its own history.

Park Tavern will serve its last meal on June 21. The restaurant at 1652 Stockton Street, facing Washington Square Park in North Beach, announced the closure on June 11 in an Instagram post that thanked guests and staff and invited the neighborhood in one final time to "raise a glass and share a meal."

The room had been open less than 19 months on its most recent attempt. James Nicholas — one of the original partners who opened the restaurant in fall 2011 as The Park SF LLC — had taken over the lease in 2024 after his former wife and business partner Anna Weinberg was evicted from the space by the landlord following a protracted dispute. Nicholas registered a new entity, Park Tavern Legacy LLC, with the City in April 2024, and brought in New York-based chef Jonathan Waxman to anchor the revival, which opened in November of that year.

It didn't hold. The Chronicle's then-new critic MacKenzie Chung Fegan gave the reopening a devastatingly bad review — calling one Waxman steak "the worst of my life" and characterizing the menu as "historical reenactments" of his better-known dishes rather than a coherent new direction. Waxman, who has maintained Barbuto and a second restaurant in New York, was functioning more as a consulting name than a daily presence in the kitchen. The energy that had made the original room a destination never returned.

The original Park Tavern was a different proposition. Weinberg — who also created Marlowe, The Cavalier, Leo's Oyster Bar, and Tosca Cafe — opened the brasserie with Nicholas in 2011 in the former Moose's space, itself a beloved North Beach institution. Executive chef Jennifer Puccio's menu, built around deviled eggs, a burger, and a poulet rouge, made the room an immediate hit; for much of the 2010s it was among the city's most consistent neighborhood anchors, a place that felt like it had always existed.

The pandemic ended that run, as it did for hundreds of SF rooms. A brief 2023 reopening attempt also failed. Nicholas's 2024 revival was the room's third attempt to restart in four years — and the one that couldn't close the gap between the room's reputation and what it was actually offering.

The space on Stockton, well-positioned across from a park in one of San Francisco's most trafficked tourist neighborhoods, is unlikely to stay dark for long. No successor tenant has been announced.

The closing post from the Park Tavern team put it simply: "It has been our privilege to serve this community and be a part of this special neighborhood."