Jan 14, 2021
In this podcast, Gillian picks
up where she left off in
Part 1, with some bartending jobs she had while she went to
college. After she graduated, she took up an offer to go to the
Dominican Republic. What started off as a trip turned into four
years on the island.
Next came her move to The City in
2005. Gillian shares some of her first impressions of San
Francisco, contrasting those with ideas she had formed mostly from
TV and movies growing up. Upon moving here, she immediately fell in
love with the "artists and dreamers" she was lucky enough to
meet.
Then Gillian shares the story of
opening Casements. She met her eventual business partner, Séan
O'Donovan, when they both worked at Nickie's in the Lower Haight.
The two often talked about opening their own place back in the day.
Gillian left Nickie's to help open Virgil's on Mission about 10
years ago, and she left Virgil's to go into business with a friend
making Bloody
Mary mix. She then helped Wes of Wesburger and also helped open
a few other bars around town, but she always held onto the idea of
opening her own Irish bar.
After getting support from Séan and
another bar owner, Gillian asked the owners of Gas Light if they
would sell. They did, and Séan and Gillian got the keys in early
November 2019. They had a soft opening and ran for a couple of
months, having their official opening on Jan. 19, 2020. Six weeks
or so later, COVID-19 hit and they had to shut down.
Now that we're on Lockdown 2.0,
Casements is
offering food and drink for pick-up every Friday, Saturday and
Sunday. Please support this rad indy bar and help it ride out this
storm so that it can open on the other side of the
madness.
We recorded this podcast at
Casements Bar in the Mission in December 2020.
Photography by Michelle Kilfeather