Bo’s Sausages: A Conversation With Owner Joe HargraveNew

A conversation with owner Joe Hargrave.

From the October 2026 print edition. The opening target below reflects the plans at the time of reporting.

The 300-square-foot space at 545 Haight Street that’s sat empty since Berliner Berliner’s short run has a new tenant: Bo’s Sausages, from Tacolicious and Popi’s Oysterette co-owners Joe Hargrave and Mike Barrow. Beaux’s Franks was just a placeholder that leaked to the press before approval. The real name, Bo’s, comes from a dog belonging to Bill Lewis. The original idea goes back to 2022, when the two flew to Green Bay to watch the 49ers, a heavy underdog, knock the Packers out of the playoffs on a cold January night. They spent the next day in Milwaukee and wandered into a sausage hall, full of steins of beer, sausage plates, fogged-up windows, cheese curds, and kraut. They talked about recreating that feeling for years before they had a place to put it.

Let’s talk about the birth of Bo’s Sausages. Can you tell us more about the origin of the name?

My business partner Mike and I were trying to figure out names, and of course you give two adolescent-minded guys the chance to name a sausage restaurant, and the subtext is let’s make a million [crude] jokes. We got close, we were going to call it Dick’s, after Mike’s uncle Richard. Then we bounced a couple names off Bill Lewis [the new owner of Toronado and owner of the space], and he said, why don’t you name it after your dog? My dog’s name is a High Five, which is a pretty good name. The problem is Mike also has a dog, and his dog has a cooler name than mine, Lou, short for Lucinda. We love Bill, we’re honored to be part of his project. He’s got this amazing dog named Bo, and Bo is going to be a fixture at the bar. So we named it after him. We’ll still hang up pictures of our own dogs too, they’re just subtext now.

Rosamunde was here for two decades before closing in 2019, and they now operate out of the Mission. How do you feel inheriting that space?

If we can be 75 percent as good as they are, we’d be thrilled. It’s funny, once this became real and we were signing the lease with Bill, we started actually studying what Rosamunde does. When it’s your business, you start scrutinizing everything: the chips, the salsa, the heat level. Rosamunde is the bar.

Tell me about Sean Canavan and how he became your partner on this.

Sean was our executive chef [at Tacolicious] for years - big hands, sweet as hell. He eventually left to raise pigs at Channa Ranch, out in the Capay Valley near Guinda, where everything is hand-cranked, one sausage at a time. I went to buy his sausages at the Napa farmers market at 7 a.m. expecting a whole team. It was just him. That man must leave the farm at 4 in the morning. We’ve now partnered with Sean directly, and he’s making Bo’s sausages for us using his own recipes, not just supplying us wholesale.

What does it mean to open in the Lower Haight specifically?

I moved to San Francisco in the mid-90s and used to hang out at Club DeLuxe after my shifts. I know Jay Bordeleau, who bought that space. We worked together at Frisson in 2004, and I think he’s going to make it the best version of itself. Bill’s the same way about Toronado. He’s not a restaurant or bar guy, he just loves that place and wants to fix what needs fixing without touching what makes it Toronado. We’ve been friends with Bill for twenty years. Mike and I met in 2009, and this is just the next thing we’re building, next door to a friend.

Bo’s Sausages is aiming to open the second week of October at 545 Haight Street.