Savanna Jazz, the little jazz club on Mission, for sale for $1.74 million

I’ve been meaning to go to this place place for like a decade. Guess I better get in gear. Mission Local reports:

The small 15-person crowd moaned in disappointment at an open mic Sunday night when realtor Carol Luckenbach announced that owner Pascal Bokar put Savanna, the jazz bar and club located at 2937 Mission Street, up for sale for $1.74 million on Friday.

According to Luckenbach, Bokar didn’t feel like he was making enough money with the club and so he decided to sell.

In addition to working as a realtor, Luckenbach has been a regular performer at Savanna, which opened in 2005, for years.

“There aren’t that many [jazz clubs in San Francisco], so when any close, it’s sad,” said Benn Bacot, a jazz singer who was hosting Sunday’s open mic. He is known in the area as The Base of the Bay.

“Now we have six if we have that many. Most of them don’t cater to local talent. If it wasn’t for people like Pascal… local artists wouldn’t have a place to play. My audience isn’t going to pay $75 to hear me play,” Bacot said.

Bacot has been performing at Savanna on every third Friday of the month for the last five years.

Read on.

[Photo by Google Maps]

24 Responses to “Savanna Jazz, the little jazz club on Mission, for sale for $1.74 million”

  1. ted g says:

    building tenants: you’d better start looking for a new apartment. no one is going to buy a $1.7M++ building and allow you to stay there.

  2. Herr Doktor Professor Deth Vegetable says:

    I went to the sushi restaurant that was there before it was a jazz club, but never been to the jazz club. As I recall it had a really nice interior.

  3. I hate idiots says:

    Great location for a bowling alley that serves $65 burgers to bearded techies.

  4. ALWAYS HIGH says:

    I JUST WANT TO DRINK AND PLAY TIME CRISIS

  5. The Tens says:

    I once saw a guy break up with his girlfriend in front of her parents in that place.

  6. Ellis Island says:

    R.I.P. Vote.

  7. Phil says:

    Savanna is really great, it’ll be a shame for it to be gone. I’ve seen some fantastic jazz here, and they also serve good African food.

    From what I understand, it’s just the business that’s getting sold. In fact, it sounds like it sold instantly already.

    • Grizzled Mission says:

      No way that’s just for the business. The liquor license is worth a few hundred thousand. Savanna doesn’t have over a million in goodwill, or as a reasonable multiple of earnings.

  8. SlideSF says:

    Those windows came from the old Alejandro’s restaurant and Societe Gastronomique on Clement St.

  9. DomPara says:

    Crap, that is the place to be for swing dance lessons. I wonder whats going to happen to it…

  10. Mission Native says:

    This neighborhood is getting ridiculously expensive. My mother was able to buy our house back in the 80s on a hairstylist salary, while I would have no hope of buying the house now even on an RN salary $100,000+ here in the city. This sucks

    • Herr Doktor Professor Deth Vegetable says:

      Yup. And it can’t last forever. The standard I always use is that when a teacher married to a cop can’t afford to live somewhere, something has gotta give eventually.