International Smoke, the celebrity-owned restaurant inside downtown San Francisco’s Millennium Tower, has quietly shuttered after nearly 10 years.
Owners Michael Mina and Ayesha Curry made the announcement in an Instagram post on May 28. “After nearly a decade in San Francisco, International Smoke has officially closed as we prepare the space for its next evolution,” the post read.
In a statement emailed to SFGATE, a spokesperson for the Mina Group shared that the restaurant has been closed since May 20. After a remodel, the space will reopen as a test kitchen restaurant, the statement said.
“This space was always meant to evolve, so listening to guests, Chef Mina and The Mina Group are creating Neighborhood Test Kitchen, a restaurant that will test different concepts every four to six months – including one from Ayesha – while serving as a community gathering space in San Francisco’s financial district,” it read.
It’s an abrupt end to what was a historic partnership between the veteran San Francisco restaurateur and Curry, who has no other restaurants left in the Bay Area.
The cavernous eatery was a hot spot during last year’s NBA All-Star Weekend, and counted Barack Obama among its fans. It was known for wood-fired dishes, from steak and Jamaican-spiced chicken to smoked duck wings, a favorite of Warriors superstar Steph Curry.
Gerald Chin, head of culinary for the Mina Group, will lead what is expected to be an American brasserie concept inside the Financial District space, with bread service and dishes like steak frites and wood-roasted salmon, Mina told Eater SF. He also told the outlet that International Smoke closed in part due to post-pandemic struggles and construction at Millennium Tower, which impacted the restaurant’s foot traffic.
Slated for the fall, the new Neighborhood Test Kitchen will be larger than the group’s previous test kitchen in the Marina, which is where International Smoke was first developed.