By Su Yardimci

Maggie & Mac’s, the new spot on the Ninth Avenue and Irving Street corridor, feels less like an opening and more like a place that was always supposed to be in the neighborhood. That is by design.

“We just wanted to create a space that felt like it was already here,” said Scott Morton, who owns the Inner Sunset bar and restaurant with his wife, Caitlyn. “We wanted it to feel lived in but still have that new car smell.”

The two met working at MoMo’s, the high-energy, pre-game bar and grill near Oracle Park, back in 2014, and have been building a life and a business together ever since. They own MoMo’s now, and Maggie & Mac’s is their next act. It takes its name from their daughters, Margaret and Mackenzie, who are four and two.

“My wife and I had a series of names written down, and Maggie & Mac’s always just kept coming back up,” Scott said. He said that the girls did not get a vote, exactly, but he is hopeful. “I sure hope they appreciate it.”

If MoMo’s runs on ballpark crowds and out-of-town tourists, this is a different chapter. Scott calls himself passionate about hospitality “to my core,” and after having kids he wanted to plant himself somewhere the work felt personal. When the Giants are out of town or out of season, he points out, much of that part of the City empties out. He wanted a neighborhood where each day offered a real chance to connect with someone, and where the restaurant could become the kind of place the Inner Sunset was proud to call its own. The reference point he keeps coming back to is Park Chow, the Ninth Avenue institution he spent plenty of nights around long before kids were in the picture. Maggie & Mac’s is, in part, his version of bringing that back.

It helps that he and Caitlyn live close by, in Westwood Park, and are on the Ninth and Irving stretch constantly.

“Even the place I get tattooed is two blocks away,” he said, with a shoutout to Dave and the crew at One Shot. Living in the neighborhood, he admits, ups the ante.

“The mentality is, don’t blow it if you want to keep showing up around these parts.” He is being campy, he said, but he means it. He and Caitlyn are putting every ounce of effort in because they know how many people want it to do well.

The menu carries the family theme without leaning on it too hard. There is mom’s meatloaf, a macaroni salad built off a family recipe and Sally’s onion strings, named for a beloved aunt. The goldilocks caesar came out of the two of them negotiating, one wanting it anchovy-forward, the other lemon-zesty, until it landed just right, and the chicken wings got the same treatment with a hot-sauce-to-barbecue ratio they fussed over until it clicked. Chef Daniel Bermudez and bar manager Gil Gallegos are both old friends the couple grew up working alongside.

“We figured if we are going to do our first restaurant, we might as well bring our friends along for the ride,” Scott said.

The goal is not reinvention. He wants the service excellent, the food accessibly priced and tasty, and the drinks strong and cold, done that way 52 weeks out of the year. (He also gives credit to MoMo’s General Manager Cassie Alarcon for being a huge part of getting this off the ground.)

The room reads like a den with a plumbed bar, or maybe the kitchen at a good house party, all earthy golden browns chosen to pull at a little nostalgia. Upstairs, a Mezzanine and a Cable Car Room look down on the booths below and let you settle in with a quieter glass of wine while a kid works through a grilled cheese burger. The bathrooms feature art from the movies “Big Daddy” and “Ted,” because, as Scott puts it, “this industry is too insane to not have a sense of humor about it all.” He and Caitlyn take the work seriously. They take having fun seriously too.

That is the balance the place is chasing, a real cocktail program and a kids menu worth a trip, both true at once. As for what people are sleeping on, Scott does not hesitate. “Fish tacos, no doubt.” Don’t overlook the Caprese sandwich either.

What he hopes his daughters take from it someday is simpler. Family and community come first, he says. Bring your people along, and make as many friends as you can while you are at it. Though he would not mind a little help down the road. “I certainly hope they think of it fondly enough to help me count the inventory once a month.”

Maggie & Mac’s is located at 1326 Ninth Ave. and is open Tuesday-Thursday from noon-9 p.m., Friday from noon-9:30 p.m., Saturday from 11 a.m.-9:30 p.m. and Sunday from 11 a.m.-9 p.m. For more information, visit maggieandmacs.com.

Su Yardimci is a San Francisco enthusiast who has turned her childhood dream into reality. After moving to the Bay Area for college, she has been sharing her love for the City through film photography and neighborhood guides.