A scion of a storied San Francisco restaurant dynasty known for its literary and political ties died suddenly in Greece at only 41 years old.
The devastated family of Sydna Konstin, co-owner of the famed downtown haunt John’s Grill, confirmed her death in an obituary published Thursday.
Konstin, daughter of John’s Grill co-owner John Konstin, had been living in Athens after growing up in the San Francisco Bay Area.
The cause was heart failure, her family said.
She was a third-generation proprietor of John’s Grill, a 118-year-old Union Square restaurant known for its steaks, cocktails and massive Election Day block parties that draw thousands of politicos, journalists and other locals with free wine and buffet food.
The wood-paneled joint was established in 1908 and purchased in the 1960s by Sydna’s grandfather, Greek immigrant Gus Konstin, who revitalized the space as a noir hotspot loved by power brokers, movie stars, and authors.
The restaurant played a role in the detective novel “Maltese Falcon” by Dashiell Hammett, who was a regular at John’s Grill.
Those close to the heartbroken Konstin family described Sydna as an joyful and warm hostess who drew large crowds to John’s Grill, where she would sometimes work behind the bar.
“She brought people together and made everyone feel better just by being there,” her brother, John Jr., said in her obituary.
She was the “bubbles in the champagne,” a family spokesperson shared, noting their pride in her shared inheritance of the family business.
“From the day I first held her, she filled our lives with love, laughter, compassion, and a light that could never be measured,” her father, John Konstin, shared in a Facebook post in July.
“She had a smile that could quiet your worries, a heart that always found room for someone else, and a way of making every person she met feel like they mattered.”
She was working in real estate at the time of her death on June 26, according to her family.
