Type 47 · San Francisco
SF-1001
$350,000
View SF-1001
San Francisco County · Type 47
San Francisco Type 47 Liquor Licenses For Sale
San Francisco, CA
Type 47 · On-Sale General, Eating Place
Quota class
License only
18
licenses on the book
$135,000
lowest asking price
$350,000
highest asking price
18 licenses on the book, asking $135,000 to $350,000, median $232,500. That is the asking range across every Type 47 license on our San Francisco book, license only, no premises, no fixtures, no goodwill. Every one of them has a page of its own.
A Type 47 is the license a San Francisco restaurant needs to pour spirits as well as beer and wine. Formally it is an On-Sale General Eating Place license, and the “eating place” half is the part that catches people out: the kitchen has to stay open and serving whenever alcohol is served, and food has to be a real part of the business rather than a bowl of crisps at the bar. Get that wrong and the license is at risk, which is why a Type 47 and a Type 48 are not interchangeable even though both allow spirits.
It is also the deepest part of the San Francisco market. There are 18 Type 47 licenses on our San Francisco book, asking a median of $232,500 inside a $135,000 to $350,000 range, and the spread inside that band is mostly the condition of the file and the conditions on the license rather than anything about the class. Every one of them is listed below, each with its asking price, its days on the market and a page of its own. The license number, the licensee and the premises address are released to a qualified buyer under NDA, not published.
That obligation to keep feeding people is not a formality and it does not lapse quietly. If the food operation stops, or shrinks to a warming cabinet, the license itself is exposed. Buyers who intend to run a bar with token food should be looking at a Type 48 instead, and paying attention to what the under-21 rule costs them in daytime trade.
San Francisco is over the county ceiling for on-sale general licenses, so the Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control issues no new Type 47 originals here. Every one of these is somebody giving one up. That is the whole reason the class costs six figures in this city and four figures in a county with headroom, and it is why the sensible question is not “can I get the price down” but “is this the right license for the room I am building”.
Asking prices, availability and days on market are reviewed weekly and were last checked on 13 September 2026.
The book
Type 47 licenses available in San Francisco
All 18, priced, with the day each came to market. We publish the city and stop there, not the neighborhood, because in San Francisco a neighborhood plus a class narrows the premises to a handful of doors.
Every entry below is one license at its own address, so you can open it, link to it or send it on without sending the whole class. Each one is the license alone, no premises, no lease, no fixtures, no kitchen, no goodwill, no stock. Highest asking price first.
Type 47 · San Francisco
SF-1002
$330,000
View SF-1002Type 47 · San Francisco
SF-1003
$315,000
View SF-1003Type 47 · San Francisco
SF-1004
$300,000
View SF-1004Type 47 · San Francisco
SF-1005
$285,000
View SF-1005Type 47 · San Francisco
SF-1006
$270,000
View SF-1006Type 47 · San Francisco
SF-1007
$260,000
View SF-1007Type 47 · San Francisco
SF-1008
$250,000
View SF-1008Type 47 · San Francisco
SF-1009
$240,000
View SF-1009Type 47 · San Francisco
SF-1010
$225,000
View SF-1010Type 47 · San Francisco
SF-1011
$205,000
View SF-1011Type 47 · San Francisco
SF-1012
$200,000
View SF-1012Type 47 · San Francisco
SF-1013
$195,000
View SF-1013Type 47 · San Francisco
SF-1014
$185,000
View SF-1014Type 47 · San Francisco
SF-1015
$175,000
View SF-1015Type 47 · San Francisco
SF-1016
$160,000
View SF-1016Type 47 · San Francisco
SF-1017
$148,000
View SF-1017Type 47 · San Francisco
SF-1018
$135,000
View SF-101818 Type 47 licenses · asking $135,000 to $350,000 · median ask $232,500 · 16 available, 2 under offer (SF-1008 and SF-1012) · on the market 3 to 92 days.
Asking prices and availability are reviewed weekly and were last checked on 13 September 2026. Inquiring does not commit you to anything and there is no buyer-side fee.
Not sure which of the 18 fits the room? Inquire about a San Francisco Type 47
The privilege
What a Type 47 lets you do, and what it does not
| Class | Type 47, On-Sale General, Eating Place |
|---|---|
| In plain English | A full bar in a restaurant. Beer, wine and distilled spirits poured for drinking on the premises, in a room that serves real meals from a real kitchen. |
| Food obligation | Yes. California ties this license to a bona fide public eating place: meals prepared and served on the premises, with the kitchen and seating to support them. It is a continuing obligation, not a condition satisfied once at application. |
| Minors | Permitted on the premises. This is the practical difference from a Type 48, and for a family restaurant or an all-ages room it is the whole argument. |
| Hours | California permits sale from 6:00 a.m. to 2:00 a.m. Individual licenses in San Francisco often carry petition conditions cutting that back, and those conditions transfer with the license. |
| Quota status | Quota class. San Francisco is over the county ceiling for on-sale general licenses, so no new original issues. The only supply is an existing holder. |
| Moving it to another address | A premises-to-premises transfer inside San Francisco County is routine with ABC approval and a fresh 30-day posting. Moving a quota license out of the county is generally not available, buy in the county you intend to trade in. |
| Local approval | Separate from ABC. Many San Francisco Neighborhood Commercial Districts require Conditional Use Authorization from the Planning Commission for a new or changed alcohol use, and the Police Department’s alcohol liaison reviews on-sale applications. Check the district before you sign a lease. |
| Included in the price | The license. Nothing else, no premises, no lease, no fixtures, no kitchen, no goodwill, no stock. |
| Offer handling | Offers reviewed as received. No sealed-bid deadline, no closing date, no countdown. |
This table summarizes the class from the Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control’s own definitions and from how San Francisco files actually run. It is a summary, not a quotation, and it is not legal advice, conditions on an individual license override the general picture, and you will see those on qualification.
The room
What a Type 47 in San Francisco looks like
A license is an abstraction until you picture the room. A San Francisco Type 47 is almost always a dining room with a bar in it rather than a bar that happens to serve food, that is what the eating-place obligation produces.
Type 47
A dining room with a full bar
Spirits poured at a service bar inside a room whose business is food. The kitchen carries the license as much as the bar does.
Type 47
A small room, a short bar
The class does not require a large bar. It requires meals prepared and served on the premises whenever drinks are being served.
What is for sale is the license alone: no premises, no lease, no fixtures, no kitchen, no goodwill and no stock. The license number, the licensee and the premises address are in the confidential file, released to a qualified buyer under NDA, which is also why no address appears anywhere on this page.
The band
What a San Francisco Type 47 costs
Type 47 licenses on our San Francisco book run from $135,000 to $350,000, with the middle of the book at $232,500. Eighteen licenses is enough spread to see what actually moves a price here, and it is not what buyers expect.
The condition of the file moves it most. A clean register entry with no discipline history, a current tax clearance and an unencumbered position sells at the top of the band. A file with an open tax question or a lien behind it sells at the bottom, and the discount is usually larger than the cost of clearing the problem.
Petition conditions move it next. Hours cut back to midnight, no live entertainment, no outdoor service: these attach to the individual license in San Francisco and travel with it to you. A conditioned license at $175,000 can be a worse buy than a clean one at $240,000 if the conditions collide with the room you are building.
Read off our own current San Francisco book on 13 September 2026 and restated whenever the book changes.
Beyond the price
What completing actually costs
The asking price is not the cost of the deal. Here is the rest of it, itemized against the $232,500 median.
| Cost | Paid to | Amount |
|---|---|---|
| Escrow fee | Licensed escrow holder, as Bus. & Prof. Code §24074 requires | $1,450 |
| ABC person-to-person transfer fee | California Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control | $1,250 |
| Notice of intended transfer, published | Newspaper of general circulation in San Francisco | $385 |
| Live Scan and fingerprinting, two principals | California Department of Justice, via ABC | $160 |
| Buyer’s counsel, ABC transfer work | Your attorney | $4,800 |
| Total cost to close, excluding the price | $8,045 | |
$240,545
the $232,500 median ask plus the $8,045 above
- The whole price goes into escrow, not a deposit. This is the part that surprises buyers coming from other states. California requires the full consideration for a license transfer to be placed with a licensed escrow holder before the transfer is approved, and it is released to the seller only on issue. There is no 10% and no balance on completion.
- Conditional use, where San Francisco requires it. A change of license or a new alcohol use in many of the city’s Neighborhood Commercial Districts needs Conditional Use Authorization from the Planning Commission before ABC will act. Budget $3,000 to $8,000 and three to five months for that track, and treat it as separate from the figures above. It is the single largest source of San Francisco timetable slippage.
- After you hold it: the ABC annual renewal on a San Francisco on-sale general license runs about $1,400, and about $700 on an off-sale.
- Our commission: our fee, quoted in writing before we start, paid by the seller at closing. There is no buyer-side fee, no registration fee and no charge for the confidential file once you are qualified.
- Financing: a license is not mortgageable the way real property is, and most California lenders will not lend against one alone. We work with two lenders who underwrite license transfers as part of a wider fit-out facility and will make an introduction.
Fee amounts are our current working figures for a San Francisco file and were last checked on 13 September 2026. The escrow requirement, the conditional-use track and the renewal bands are described from practice rather than quoted from a fee schedule, confirm the current ABC fee schedule and your Planning district before you sign anything.
Process
Transferring a Type 47 in San Francisco
Thirty of them are a statutory posting period nobody can shorten.
A person-to-person transfer, where you take the license at its existing address, is the quickest route; a premises-to-premises transfer adds a fresh posting at the new address and, in many districts, a Planning conditional use on its own calendar.
-
Offer accepted, escrow opened
A purchase agreement, then escrow with a licensed escrow holder. California requires the full consideration to sit in escrow before the Department will approve the transfer, so this is the point your money moves, not completion day.
-
Buyer qualification and application
The person-to-person transfer application, Live Scan fingerprinting for every principal, and proof of funds. This is also when the mutual NDA is signed and the confidential file, license number, licensee of record, premises address, term, encumbrances, tax position, is released to you.
-
Public notice posted at the premises
ABC posts the application at the premises for 30 days, and the notice of intended transfer is published in a newspaper of general circulation. The 30 days are statutory and cannot be shortened, whatever anyone promises you.
-
Protest period and local agency review
Any protest filed during the posting is worked through here, and this is where San Francisco can add time: the Police Department’s alcohol liaison reviews on-sale applications, and a Planning conditional use, if your district needs one, runs on its own much longer calendar.
-
ABC investigation and approval
The investigator confirms the premises, the qualification of the buyer and the tax position of the seller. Clean files clear here without anyone hearing from anyone.
-
Escrow closes, license issued in your name
Approval issued, escrow released to the seller, license recorded against you. You can trade.
Stage day counts are the medians from our own closed California files and add to . The 30-day posting is a statutory period; the rest is how San Francisco files actually run.
Released when you qualify
The license number and the address are not on this page
Not masked, not blurred, not shown in part. They are simply not published, for any license, anywhere on this site. A seller is almost always still trading. In a city where a neighborhood and a license class narrow a business to a handful of doors, publishing either one tells their staff, their landlord and the operator across the street that they are selling. So the shop window carries everything you need to shortlist, and nothing that identifies the seller.
Published on every listing
- County and city
- License class and what it permits
- Whether the class is under the county quota
- Asking price and availability
- Date listed and days on market
- Cost to close and the transfer timetable
Released after qualification and NDA
- License number and licensee of record
- Premises address and trading name
- Register standing and license term
- Conditions, encumbrances and lien position
- Seller tax clearance position
- Local approval history and any protest record
How the release works. Qualification is two things: proof of funds, and the personal information every principal has to give ABC anyway. Sign a mutual non-disclosure agreement and the complete file is released to you within one business day. There is no fee for it. Four further San Francisco licenses are held entirely off-market at the seller’s request and are only ever shown this way, they are not among the 30 on the book.
Tell us what you need
Inquire about a San Francisco Type 47
Six fields. We reply inside one business day, from the person who will handle your file, with the next step and nothing else. No newsletter, no drip sequence, no call center.
Or call the desk on (800) 799-9081, or email mike@liquorlicenseagents.com.
The other side of the desk
Selling a San Francisco Type 47
What we need to list it. The license number, the licensee of record and the premises address, so we can read the register entry, the conditions and the term before we price anything. None of that is published. What goes on the page is the county, the class, the asking price, the date and the status, the fields you can see on every entry above, and nothing else.
What it costs you. our fee, quoted in writing before we start, paid at closing out of escrow. Nothing up front, nothing if it does not sell, no listing fee and no renewal. You pay your own counsel and the escrow holder.
How long it takes. Two clocks. Finding a qualified buyer is the one that varies, the 18 Type 47 licenses on our book have been listed between 3 and 92 days. Once an offer is accepted the 78-day transfer timetable applies to you exactly as it applies to the buyer, and 30 of those days are a statutory posting nobody can shorten.
What stays confidential until a buyer qualifies. Everything that identifies you. Your staff, your landlord, your suppliers and the operator across the street learn nothing from this page. A buyer sees the identifying file only after proof of funds and a signed mutual NDA, and you see who they are at the same moment they see who you are.
Questions
Type 47 questions we are actually asked
Can I run a Type 47 room as a bar after the kitchen closes?
No. The bona fide eating place obligation is continuing: meals have to be prepared and served on the premises whenever the license is being exercised, with a kitchen and seating that can support them. A Type 47 room that drifts into trading as a bar with a warming cabinet is a room with an exposed license. If the concept is drinks-led after nine, look at a Type 48 and price in what the under-21 rule costs you in daytime trade.
Can I move a San Francisco Type 47 to another address?
Inside San Francisco County, usually yes. A premises-to-premises transfer needs ABC approval and a fresh 30-day posting at the new address, and that address has to clear San Francisco Planning on its own account, in many Neighborhood Commercial Districts that means a Conditional Use Authorization. Moving a quota license out of the county is generally not available, because the quota is counted county by county.
What happens to the license if the restaurant closes first?
The license survives the room, but not indefinitely and not without care. It has to be kept current with ABC, renewed on time, and either transferred or placed in safekeeping within the period the Department allows. Most of the distressed Type 47s we see are not distressed because the restaurant failed; they are distressed because nobody looked after the license for the eighteen months afterwards.
Why is a Type 47 more expensive than a Type 41?
Spirits and scarcity, in that order. A Type 47 adds distilled spirits, and San Francisco is over the county ceiling for on-sale general licenses, so the only supply is somebody else giving one up, which is what puts these 18 in six figures. A Type 41 covers beer and wine in a bona fide eating place, and there is no Type 41 resale stock on our San Francisco book, so that route is an application to ABC rather than a purchase. We run both routes, so the answer is not “go and do it yourself”: tell us what you are opening and we will tell you which class fits the room and handle whichever route it turns out to be. The Type 41 page is here.
Does the price include the restaurant?
No. Every figure on this page is for the license alone: no premises, no lease, no fixtures, no kitchen, no goodwill, no stock. If you are buying a going concern, the license is one line of that deal and it is the line that sets the ABC timetable for all of it.
How many Type 47s are actually available right now?
Sixteen of the 18 on the book are available; two are under offer and shown as such rather than removed, because a deal that falls over puts them straight back. Four further San Francisco licenses across all classes are held off-market at the seller’s request and are shown only to qualified buyers under NDA.
Activity, honestly
Dates, yes. Counters, no.
Every Type 47 above carries the day it came to market and how long it has sat there, on this class, from 3 days to 92. That is a fact we can stand behind. What you will not find anywhere on this site:
- No view count. A view count is trivially inflated and proves nothing about demand.
- No watcher count and no “3 people are looking at this right now”.
- No bid ticker, no auction clock, no countdown. Offers are reviewed as they arrive.
- No manufactured scarcity. The county quota supplies all the scarcity this market needs.
We would rather publish the one activity signal that is checkable, the day a license came to our book, and how long it has sat there, and nothing we cannot stand behind.
Who you are dealing with
The desk handling this transfer
Broker
Liquor License Agents
Files closed
California transfers
Escrow held by
A licensed escrow holder
ABC counsel
San Francisco ABC counsel
The other classes
If this is not the right license
Six classes are in this directory. Four of them have resale stock; two we handle as applications. The wrong class is an expensive mistake to unwind, so here is what each one holds.
Type 48
On-Sale General, Public Premises
A bar or nightclub license: the same drinks as a Type 47 with no kitchen obligation, and nobody under 21 on the premises. Genuinely rare here.
- 1 on our San Francisco book
- Asking $260,000
Type 21
Off-Sale General
A liquor store license: beer, wine and spirits sold sealed, to be drunk somewhere else. Quota-limited, and the widest price spread of any San Francisco class.
- 10 on our San Francisco book
- Median ask $175,000
Type 20
Off-Sale Beer and Wine
Beer and wine sold sealed, to take away.
- 1 on our San Francisco book
- Asking $15,000
Applying rather than buying
The two classes we handle as applications
Two classes in this directory hold no resale stock on our San Francisco book right now: Type 41 and Type 40. That does not mean you cannot have one, it means the route is an application to the Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control rather than a purchase, and that is work we do alongside the brokerage. Tell us what you are opening and we will tell you whether to apply or to buy, and handle whichever it is.
Type 41
On-Sale Beer and Wine, Eating Place
Start a Type 41 application with usType 40
On-Sale Beer
Start a Type 40 application with usBrowse the directory