Glen Park’s adorably quaint Tyger’s Coffee Shop has permanently closed

Glen Park’s adorably quaint Tyger’s Coffee Shop has permanently closedAndrew D. via Yelp
Joe Kukura
Published on April 14, 2021

There’s a real punch in the stomach at the bottom of this week’s Bay Area restaurant closures list by the Chronicle's Soleil Ho, whose headline declares the closure of Ann's Coffee Shop in Menlo Park. But the last closure listed in that piece hits closer to home, as Ho reports in the Chronicle that “Glen Park classic diner Tyger’s closed at the end of March, according to the Glen Park Association. It was a fixture of the neighborhood for more than 30 years.”

 

Indeed the Glen Park Association did break the story in the Glen Park News, in a post that has one of the more hilarious updates you’re like to see to a news story. “Note: In an earlier version of this story we called Tyger’s Glen Park’s ‘beloved greasy spoon,’” the update says. “That was meant as an endearment and is a phrase that, for the author, had only positive connotations. Clearly, this is not the case for everyone and we apologize for having caused offense. Having happily eaten at Tyger’s for more than 20 years, the author was a big fan and is heartbroken the restaurant has closed.”

The closure of Tyger’s also received a mention in Heather Knight’s Chronicle column Wednesday describing Mayor Breed’s Small Business 30-Day Challenge, wherein we are encouraged to go the whole month of May shopping only at local small businesses rather Amazon, Safeway, or big-box retailers.


“Tyger’s, an old-school diner in Glen Park, had shut permanently after decades in business,” Knight writes. “It was the go-to spot when my dad visited to see his grandsons, and I saw everybody from the Rev. Cecil Williams to former Giants coach Tim Flannery there. And now it’s gone with no goodbyes.”

According to the Twitter account SFHeritage, “Young Kim, a Korean immigrant, took over the small diner in 1997. He is the third owner of the breakfast and lunch spot, where the pancakes and BLTs and turkey-sausage omelets have always been neighborhood favorites on a menu that seems frozen in time.”

We will not call Tyger’s Coffee House a “gr**sy sp**n” lest we enrage more Glen Park News readers, though we will point out the charm in how the place looked like your grandmother was its interior decorator. There is a silver lining,though, as the Chron’s Soleil Ho adds that “The building has been acquired by a new owner who plans to reopen the space as an organic cafe this spring.”