Formerly: M. B. Moraghan's · Bay Point Oyster House · The Samuel Zenovich Restaurant
San Francisco, California · Founded 1867
Sam's Grill traces a San Francisco seafood lineage from Michael Bolan Moraghan's 1867 California Market oyster stall to Bush Street dining since 1946.
Sam's Grill & Seafood Restaurant traces its lineage to Irish oyster farmer Michael Bolan Moraghan, who began selling oysters at San Francisco's California Market in 1867. The business evolved through M. B. Moraghan's, the Bay Point Oyster House, and The Samuel Zenovich Restaurant before Frank Seput renamed it Sam's Grill & Seafood Restaurant in 1937. The restaurant moved to 374 Bush Street in 1946, where Peter Quartaroli now owns and manages the business.
Irish-born oyster farmer Michael Bolan Moraghan began selling fresh oysters from a stall in San Francisco's California Market, near the base of California Street.
Source: San Francisco Legacy Business Registry application for Sam's Grill & Seafood Restaurant; Sam's Grill history page; San Francisco Standard, 'SF Restaurant Has Served Kingmakers for Over 150 Years,' March 16, 2023.
By the 1890s, Moraghan had expanded the business into the Burlingame Oyster Company and a restaurant called Bay Point Oyster House.
Source: San Francisco Legacy Business Registry application for Sam's Grill & Seafood Restaurant.
The Legacy Business record places the restaurant at 416 Pine Street from 1867 to 1906 and at 561 California Street from 1906 to 1946. The reviewed material does not identify the precise cause or timing of the 1906 move.
Source: San Francisco Legacy Business Registry application for Sam's Grill & Seafood Restaurant.
Samuel Zenovich acquired Moraghan's restaurant and renamed it The Samuel Zenovich Restaurant; regulars commonly called it Sam's.
Source: San Francisco Legacy Business Registry application for Sam's Grill & Seafood Restaurant; Sam's Grill history page; San Francisco Standard, March 16, 2023.
Frank Seput bought the restaurant after Zenovich's death and formally adopted the name Sam's Grill & Seafood Restaurant.
Source: Sam's Grill history page; San Francisco Standard, March 16, 2023.
Sam's Grill moved to its present address at 374 Bush Street, where it has remained in operation.
Source: San Francisco Legacy Business Registry application for Sam's Grill & Seafood Restaurant; Sam's Grill history page.
Peter Quartaroli began working at Sam's Grill under the Seput family and later worked for owner Phil Lyons.
Source: Sam's Grill history page; Sam's Team page.
When Phil Lyons retired without a transition plan, he sold Sam's Grill to Peter Quartaroli and a group of loyal patrons and investors, preserving the restaurant's operation.
Source: San Francisco Standard, 'SF Restaurant Has Served Kingmakers for Over 150 Years,' March 16, 2023; Sam's Grill history page; Sam's Team page.
The San Francisco Examiner identified Peter Quartaroli as owner of Sam's Grill at 374 Bush Street.
Source: San Francisco Examiner, 'How 157-year-old Sam's Grill is SF's home for the holidays,' December 25, 2024.
Every claim gets rated. A business's own website can never earn "documented."
San Francisco's Legacy Business application identifies Michael Molan Moraghan's 1867 oyster stall at California Market as the beginning of the restaurant's lineage. It records subsequent operating periods at 416 Pine Street, 561 California Street, and 374 Bush Street, while the restaurant's history and local reporting provide matching name-and-owner transitions. This is a successor-business lineage, not a claim that the present restaurant has occupied one unchanged building or used one uninterrupted name since 1867.
The City of San Francisco Legacy Business Registry application lists Sam's operating at 416 Pine Street from 1867 to 1906, 561 California Street from 1906 to 1946, and 374 Bush Street from 1946 to the present. The application specifically says there has been no break in San Francisco operations exceeding two years. That city standard supports the claim as written, while leaving open whether every interval meets a stricter uninterrupted-service standard.
Sam's, Forbes, and San Francisco coverage repeat a fifth-oldest-in-the-country ranking, but the reviewed evidence does not provide a national comparison applying consistent rules for restaurant identity, predecessor stalls, relocations, temporary closures, and successor ownership. The register does not certify this national position.
The City Legacy Business application and the restaurant's historical account agree that Zenovich purchased the Moraghan business in 1922 and that Frank Seput bought it after Zenovich's death in 1937. The official history identifies Seput as the owner who formally established the Sam's Grill & Seafood Restaurant name.
San Francisco's Legacy Business application records the present Bush Street location from 1946 to the present, and the restaurant's own history gives the same move year. This confirms occupancy at the current address, not the construction date or original design of the building.
The curtained booths and formal waiter service are documented features of the current restaurant experience. However, the reviewed record contains no architectural plan, contemporary account, or credible historical study showing that the booths were created for 19th-century financiers, politicians, or discreet business meetings. The claim is especially doubtful as framed because Sam's has occupied its current Bush Street location only since 1946.
The San Francisco Examiner identified Quartaroli as owner in December 2024, while the official Sam's Team page identifies him as owner and says he became managing partner when a group of friends and investors saved the restaurant. The operating entity is Sam's Grill & Seafood Restaurant, LLC; property ownership is not established here.
Sam's has a strong city-recorded seafood lineage to 1867, but Tadich Grill and other historic San Francisco venues make earlier or comparable seafood claims. The register has not completed a shared, source-based comparison of founding dates, business identity, moves, closures, and continuity, so no oldest-seafood-restaurant title is awarded.
Sam's Grill was founded in 1867 by Michael Morgan as Sam's Open Air Stand.
The 1867 predecessor was Michael Bolan Moraghan's oyster stall at the California Market. The business later became M. B. Moraghan's and Bay Point Oyster House; Samuel Zenovich did not acquire it until 1922, and the Sam's Grill & Seafood Restaurant name dates to Frank Seput's 1937 ownership.
Source: San Francisco Legacy Business Registry application for Sam's Grill & Seafood Restaurant; Sam's Grill history page; San Francisco Standard, March 16, 2023.
Sam Zblitter bought the restaurant in 1910 and moved it to Bush Street in 1936.
Samuel Zenovich acquired the restaurant in 1922. Frank Seput bought it in 1937, and Sam's moved to its present 374 Bush Street location in 1946.
Source: San Francisco Legacy Business Registry application for Sam's Grill & Seafood Restaurant; Sam's Grill history page; San Francisco Standard, March 16, 2023.
Sam's Grill received a 1999 James Beard Foundation America's Classics Award.
The reviewed James Beard award list identifies Tadich Grill, not Sam's Grill, as a 1998 America's Classics honoree. No official James Beard record was found for a 1999 Sam's Grill award.
Source: James Beard America's Classics award list.
Sam's curtain booths were created for discreet 19th-century Financial District power brokers.
The booths are a documented feature of Sam's present historic dining room, but no reviewed source establishes their installation date or a specific purpose for 19th-century business leaders or politicians. Sam's has occupied the Bush Street location only since 1946.
Source: Sam's Grill history page; Forbes, May 7, 2024; San Francisco Legacy Business Registry application.
Sam's survived because each ownership era preserved the practical appeal of a downtown seafood house while allowing the business to change names, locations, and managers as San Francisco changed around it. Moraghan's oyster trade established the seafood foundation; the Zenovich and Seput periods strengthened the restaurant identity; and Peter Quartaroli, who began working there in 1994, joined a group of loyal patrons and investors to save it in 2014. The curtained booths, formal waiter service, and seafood-centered menu are part of the present-day experience, but the real continuity is the successor business's ability to remain a Financial District gathering place across multiple addresses.
Sam's Grill traces its history to Michael Bolan Moraghan's 1867 oyster stall at San Francisco's California Market. The successor business later became M. B. Moraghan's, Bay Point Oyster House, and The Samuel Zenovich Restaurant before Frank Seput adopted the Sam's Grill & Seafood Restaurant name in 1937. Sam's moved to 374 Bush Street in 1946, where Peter Quartaroli now owns and manages it.
Sam's Grill is one of San Francisco's oldest seafood-business lineages, with a city-recorded origin in Michael Bolan Moraghan's 1867 oyster stall. However, this register does not certify it as the city's oldest seafood restaurant because Tadich Grill and other historical contenders require a shared comparison of founding dates, predecessor businesses, relocations, closures, and continuity.
Sam's Grill moved to its current location at 374 Bush Street in 1946. Before that, the City of San Francisco Legacy Business record places the restaurant at 416 Pine Street from 1867 to 1906 and 561 California Street from 1906 to 1946.
Peter Quartaroli owns and manages Sam's Grill. He began working there in 1994 and became managing partner after a group of longtime Sam's patrons and investors bought the restaurant from Phil Lyons in 2014. The current operating entity is Sam's Grill & Seafood Restaurant, LLC; this record does not establish who owns the Bush Street building.
The reviewed James Beard award material does not establish that Sam's Grill received an America's Classics Award. Tadich Grill, another historic San Francisco seafood restaurant, is listed as a 1998 America's Classics recipient. Sam's should not be credited with a 1999 award unless a James Beard Foundation record is located.
374 Bush St, San Francisco, CA 94104
(415) 421-0594
Sam's is a Financial District seafood restaurant with formal service and curtained booths. The official site lists weekday lunch and dinner, Saturday dinner, and Sunday closure; confirm current hours and reservation policy before visiting.