No Sushi Dinners at Bay Area's Famed Flintstone House, Code Officers Say

The Bay Area’s notorious Flintstone House, no stranger to controversy in the wealthy enclave of Hillsborough, has put plans for a ritzy sushi pop-up on pause after the town raised concerns.

Stoneage Omakase announced last week that it planned to welcome guests to the cartoonish dome-shaped house — a local landmark between the South Bay and San Francisco that’s visible from northbound Interstate 280 — for private omakase dinners. The operators planned a series of intimate meals and began taking reservations starting July 12, according to a letter from the Hillsborough code enforcement department. Tickets reportedly went for $230 a piece and sold out in minutes.

On Monday, though, the catering company announced via Instagram that plans to welcome dinner guests to the private residence were on hold due to concerns raised by the city.

Because the residence is in a single-family residential zone, it would be illegal to use it as a “restaurant,” the code enforcement department said in its letter to the homeowner, Florence Fang.

“Restaurants and other commercial uses are not permitted in a residential zone, even on a temporary basis,” the letter from Linda Stevens, Hillsborough Police’s code enforcement officer, says. It goes on to request that Fang inform the operators that they cannot open for business.

Stoneage Omakase’s cofounders Sean Fang and Tim Cheung said via email that they chose to pause operations to “work collaboratively with Hillsborough.” They also said they feel that their company — which specializes in in-home “homakase” meals cooked by “Michelin-starred chefs” — has been misrepresented.

“We have been incorrectly classified as a restaurant, which has led to this misunderstanding. We look forward to working with the city to resolve this issue and resume offering our unique culinary experiences to our clients,” the cofounders said.

A now-deleted blurb on Stoneage Omakase’s site said that Sean Fang, the grandson of the Flintstone House’s owner, Florence Fang, was “committed to continuing the Flintstone House legacy,” the San Francisco Chronicle reported.

This isn’t the first time the brightly colored, strangely shaped home has come under scrutiny from Hillsborough, where the average home costs more than $5 million. In 2019, the city sued Florence Fang, the previous publisher of the San Francisco Examiner, declaring the Flintstone House a “public nuisance.” The lawsuit came after Fang renovated the property, which included adding 15-foot-tall statues of three dinosaurs, along with a giraffe and a mammoth, to the backyard.

The case was dismissed in April 2021, and Florence Fang was awarded a $125,000 settlement from Hillsborough in June 2021.

Stoneage Omakase’s site now makes no mention of the house, though photos still on the website and social media show chefs serving sushi in a domed, cave-like room.

The company’s Instagram announcement said that all reservations would be refunded.