Goat Hill Pizza Turns 50, the Pizza Remains Fresh

On November 16, 2025, Goat Hill Pizza turns a half-century old. 

When five friends – Joel and Loris Lipski, Karen Clark (Monely), Ruthann Dickinson, and Philip (Phil) DeAndrade – first opened Goat Hill Pizza it was among a handful of restaurants catering to Potrero Hill. It gained citywide popularity after San Francisco Chronicle columnist Herb Caen wrote about its mascots, Hilda de Anchovy and her two kids, Loretta and Bucky, who roamed the once empty lot behind the restaurant from 1975 to 1985.

Missouri Street residents, Kurt and Debbie Huysentruyt, became 10 percent shareholders roughly 25 years ago, when Goat Hill expanded. The other women owners – Lipski, (Clark) Monely, and Dickenson – have passed away. Mike Monley, who was DeAndrade’s classmate at St. Patrick’s Seminary and University, inherited his wife’s stake. Kurt Huysentruyt also attended the seminary, in a different class.

“A person from each of the friend groups is still alive and they are all madly in love with each other and have dinner or brunch with each other every day,” said Sarah Davis, Goat Hill’s general manager, who grew up on Mission Creek Harbor houseboats, where DeAndrade was her neighbor and friend.

“He [Phil] created a whole family in San Francisco – in the neighborhood – in San Francisco politics – in the restaurant,” said Davis. “When the original Goat Hill was designed, Joel hand built the original bar. There are all kinds of touches from all of them… We have a wonderful team here. Nobody moves anything by themselves.”

In 2022, the Historical Preservation Commission successfully nominated Goat Hill to the Legacy Business Registry, highlighting the restaurant as a civically engaged, independent business, that’s been a vital part of the Hill community for decades. 

“It is shocking how many people come here when they are in town. If you were a part of this community and you moved away, it is important for you to come back here,” said Davis. “If you come to Monday night now, it is this menagerie of everything that’s good in San Francisco. You’ve got the old hippies who’ve been coming here for 50 years, you got the young kids who are bringing their kids, you got the old heads who went to school at Daniel Webster and still live in the community, you’ve got UCSF doctors and nurses, and it’s like, everybody having a good time.”

Goat Hill is a sponsor of Potrero Hill and Dogpatch History Night, held at Pier 70, which this year features DeAndrade. The pizzeria is a founding member of the Potrero Hill Dogpatch Merchants Association. It gives hiring preference to foster kids transitioning into adulthood, and John O’Connell High School graduates. 

“My daughter works at Goat Hill, and I’ve watched what that first job can do for young people. It’s one of the things that excites me most about being a small business owner for sure,” said Davis. 

“The success of Goat Hill Pizza has been its participation in the community,” said DeAndrade. “That is what made Goat Hill Pizza. I mean pizza is pizza, and yes, we have sourdough, and yes, we use fresh ingredients, and yes, we make our own sauces and all that, but give me a break, it’s pizza! What makes it work is participation.”

“I think my goal is that we become more of what people need, and I think that’s what this community deserves,” said Davis. “I’ve hired two of the bartenders from Esta Noche. There’s this place for somebody who doesn’t necessarily fit into every job market right now… So, how can we become more of what the community needs is my goal.”

Davis’ father, Jack, who passed away in 2007, ran SOMArts, and was on the board of the Pickle Family Circus and San Francisco Mime Troupe. Her mother, Judy Watson Davis, who died earlier this year, worked for Rainbow Grocery Cooperative for 40 years, and was married to music promoter Chet Helmes.

Davis worked on multiple continents as an event producer before she retired from traveling so as not to miss her daughter’s teenage years. She produced the 75th anniversary of the Golden Gate Bridge and just celebrated the 25th anniversary of Hardly Strictly Bluegrass, where she’s served as creative director since its inception. 

Around 1920, some of Potrero Hill’s last goats escaped their pasture while sidewalk cement was being poured on Carolina Street. While loose the animals walked through the wet cement, preserving their hoofprints for history. Years later, Connecticut Street resident Rose Marie Ostler, who has lived on the Hill since 1946, saw that the street was being repaired and asked the workmen to save the hoofprints. She kept them on her deck until giving them to Goat Hill Pizza in 2011, where they can be found embedded in the sidewalk in front of the restaurant. A plaque above the hoofprints offers a dedication to the memory of Hilda de Anchovy.

^{Image, top: Goat Hill Pizza. Photo: Tamala Motta}