Annie Sciacca | San Francisco Business Times | 7/15/14 | via www.bizjournals.com

It’s the beginning of a new era at Yoshi’s San Francisco, the offshoot of 42-year-old Yoshi’s in Oakland, and despite the brand’s heritage as a jazz club and Japanese restaurant, there will be no Japanese food and it will no longer be branded as a jazz club.

In fact, it won’t even be called Yoshi’s anymore.

The Fillmore Street venue has a new ownership and management team headed by developer Michael E. Johnson, who developed the Fillmore Heritage C..., an 80-unit condo building and jazz history center that houses Yoshi’s. The sale was announced in early June, but details about the club's future are just emerging.

While Johnson and his management team are still working out a concept for the restaurant, he said it definitely won’t be Japanese, and they’re aiming for a menu with a lower price point to attract a wide audience. They’re working on hiring a chef, and if all goes according to plan, it will be “someone notable from the Bay Area,” Johnson said.

While Yoshi's hasn't been solely a jazz club for several years, instead offering a wide range of musical styles, it will continue to expand and market its now eclectic musical offerings, Johnson said.

Launched initially in late 2007, Yoshi’s San Francisco wasn’t profitable despite raking in an average of $10 million annually, Johnson said. Johnson owned a third of Yoshi’s San Francisco, and the former ownership team, an investment consortium headed by Yoshie Akiba and Kaz Kajimura, owned the other two thirds.

For the last 18 months, he’s been negotiating with the previous owners to come to an ownership and management agreement, which ended in June with an agreement that has transferred full ownership and management to Johnson’s newly formed company, Fillmore Live Entertainment Group.

Some changes have already been made, including reducing the size of the menu and hiring some key players, which includePeter Williams, the original artistic director of Yoshi’s San Francisco, who is returning as the entertainment booker, and Reza Esmaili, a notable San Francisco bar manager, who will be the director of operations.

As part of the agreement, the Yoshi’s name will remain on the San Francisco club for the next 90 to 120 days. Johnson said his team is also thinking of changing the entrance to the venue and adding another bar. The new menu and full roll-out of what Johnson calls “Yoshi’s 3.0” will come in the fall.

Johnson hopes the new entertainment complex will partner with community businesses and organizations as part of a push toward philanthropy.

Yoshi’s San Francisco has had an impact over the last six years, Johnson said, generating more than $60 million over the last six years, employing 120 people and presenting over 1,500 musical acts since its start.

“That’s largely why I reinvested and many of my partners reinvested; it felt like the business had a greater potential to reach farther,” Johnson said. “We’re taking its successes to another level — taking it forward.”