Legendary downtown Sacramento watering hole Simon’s is closing. Here’s when and why

A Capitol-adjacent bar and Chinese restaurant beloved by downtown Sacramento’s old political world will close at the end of November.

Simon’s Bar & Cafe, at 1415 16th St., will close on or around Nov. 30, owner Simon Chan Jr. said.

There are myriad business reasons for Simon’s closure. Chan named California’s rising minimum wage, inflation, expensive rent, more state employees working from home and issues with downtown Sacramento’s homeless population as contributing factors.

But the more personal reason is that Chan began working at Simon’s more than 20 years ago to be with his dad. When Simon Chan Sr. died of COVID-19 in March 2021 at 69 years old, it took the wind out of his son’s sails.

“My dream back then was to continue managing the bar and restaurant along with my father so that I (could) relieve his stress,” Chan Jr. said. “But since he passed away, my dreams and hopes are kind of demolished.”

The elder Chan was an immigrant from Hong Kong and former Frank Fat’s bartender who opened Simon’s in 1984. While the early years were lean, stiff drinks, late hours and occasional wild game dinners attracted politicos beginning in the late 1980s.

Simon’s walls are covered with pictures of politicians from both major parties who drank and dined there, and the bar used to stay open until the wee hours of the morning for legislators and their staffs’ celebratory toasts following the end of sessions.

The menu mostly consists of approachable Chinese dishes: beef in oyster sauce, Shanghai-style chow mein, moo shu pork with pancakes. There’s a separate menu for happy hour and late-night bites, and people rave about the brandy-fried chicken.

Chan Jr. doesn’t plan to open a Simon’s successor, he said. His mom stresses over his well-being every time late-night downtown violence makes the news. And he doesn’t think the business landscape will return to where it was pre-COVID for another decade.

“It is what it is,” he said. “It sucks that Simon’s has to go, but the economy has changed.”

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