Flour + Water Pizzeria, which lived for a couple of years at 18th and Valencia before that location was rebranded in an ownership shuffle as Yellow Moto Pizzeria, is getting set to open a new location in North Beach as Hoodline first reported last June. But as construction is ongoing inside the former Rose Pistola restaurant space at 532 Columbus Avenue, Flour + Water's Mission District restaurant (2401 Harrison Street) has the tell-tale signs of a union protest, including a big grim reaper outside its front door.
Mission Local reports that this protest, ongoing for a couple of weeks now, is by the Northern California Carpenters Union, which objects to the fact that the construction contractor at the Columbus Avenue pizzeria is paying far below union rates for its carpenters — reportedly $28 per hour, versus the union wage of $57 per hour.
Flour + Water is utilizing a firm called Cookline, which has worked on the buildouts of Pizzeria Delfina's Pacific Heights' location, and Tartine Bakery's Inner Sunset location to name a couple. And a rep for Cookline tells Mission Local, "None of our employees, nor any of our subcontractors’ employees have raised any issue with the way they have been treated or how much they have been paid.”
A PR rep for the Flour + Water Hospitality Group tells Mission Local that they trust Cookline’s experience “when selecting subcontractors for projects where we collaborate.”
There is an ongoing dispute now between Flour + Water and the carpenters' union, with the former reportedly sending a cease and desist letter to the union after this picket situation, and after the union reportedly passed out pamphlets that featured chef-partner Thomas McNaughton's home phone number.
There's currently no announced opening date for Flour + Water Pizzeria — the original estimate had been "Winter 2023" and that season only goes on for another day or so.
Flour + Water also has plans to open several to-go and delivery-only locations of the pizzeria throughout the city, after the North Beach location opens.
The Rose Pistola space, once a lively hub in the neighborhood, has been mostly dark since 2017.
