A car plowed into the Dovre Club in the Mission on Wednesday morning.
Two people suffered minor injuries when two vehicles collided at the corner of Valencia and 26th streets, fire officials said, then one hit the storied Irish bar.
The crash occurred at around 9:12 a.m., San Francisco Fire Department Capt. Jonathan Baxter told The Standard.
A Reddit post with a photo shows damage to the bar’s exterior.
Baxter said the building appeared to have significant structural damage. The Department of Building Inspection is assessing the damage.
The San Francisco Police Department said officers responded to a report of a hit-and-run vehicle collision. When the officers arrived, they spoke with one driver, whom paramedics assessed for injury at the scene, and learned that the other driver had fled on foot. Moments later, other officers found the suspect near Folsom and 26th streets. The suspect was taken to a hospital for evaluation.
Officials expected traffic delays in the area.
The Dovre Club is steeped in San Francisco Irish folklore. The walls are adorned with newspaper clippings about the bar and its former owner, Patrick “Paddy” Nolan. Hunter S. Thompson is said to have drunk there with journalist Warren Hinckle, a friend of Nolan.
“It was a very minor thing,” said Dovre bartender Brendon “Elvis” McElhatton. “Someone crashed into the front door. It sounded like she had crashed into a couple of other vehicles; I really don’t know. There were no major injuries. There’s some damage to the club.”
Firefighters removed the Dovre Club sign from the bar’s exterior; McElhatton said city approval will be needed to reinstall it after the building has been inspected.
“A couple days, hopefully,” he said. “But we still don’t really know.”
Manager Dee Deem said the bar would be closed Wednesday and Thursday for repairs by a structural engineer, plumber, and electrician.
“It’s a neighborhood institution, and we are going to do our best to reopen as soon as we can,” she said.
Deem added that she was glad the bar was closed and no one was walking in the street at the time of the crash.
“The driver who caused the accident has been in the neighborhood hitting other cars as well,” Deem said. “One of the officers told me … the driver was off her nut.”