Shuggie’s, the maximalist SF Mission District restaurant known for its menu of upcycled food waste, is closing after four years. Owners Kayla Abe and David Murphy announced on Instagram on Thursday that the restaurant’s last day will be July 11.
Despite trying everything they could think of to “coax people out of their homes” over the past two years, Abe said, from brunch to happy hour deals to a Wednesday prix fixe menu, patronage declined while costs climbed. Late last year, they even rebranded from Shuggie’s Trash Pie + Natural Wine to simply Shuggie’s, dropping pizza from the menu.
“At a certain point, you do all of those things, you see the results for a couple of months, and then you’re back to square one,” Abe said. “The culture in SF has just shifted over the past few years from the pandemic to now. There’s been a massive change, just people not going out as much, eating less when they do, drinking less when they do, staying in their neighborhoods more.”
When Shuggie’s first opened, it received tons of national acclaim — in 2023, Bon Appetit even named it one of the best new restaurants in the country. But while being a media darling certainly was good for business, Abe said, the hype always eventually fizzled.
“At some points we have felt like we were living publication to publication, just waiting for the next one that we had queued up to publish so we can get a pop of business,” she said. “That’s not a healthy way to run a restaurant.”
The owners are proud of how they used their restaurant to educate people about climate change and food waste, serving less popular cuts of meat, invasive species, and bruised or blemished produce — in the past four years, they upcycled over 120,000 pounds of food waste, they said. However, Murphy believes their mission-focused cuisine may have not been the right fit for diners right now in an age of political and financial uncertainty.
“I think people are just looking for the old classic now, they’re looking for something that’s really comforting,” Murphy said. “… They want to make an easy choice, not something that’s necessarily going to challenge them.”
Abe and Murphy plan to celebrate their final day of service with a big blowout bash, and then shift to offering more intimate dinners out of their apartment. They’re also thinking about doing pop-ups in different countries, as well as venturing more into the event space.
Despite the fact that Shuggie’s is coming to a close as a brick-and-mortar restaurant, this isn’t necessarily the end of the concept.
“We both have crazy minds and can dream up really fun one-off events,” Abe said. “Maybe the format of Shuggie’s being a nightly spot to go to didn’t work out, but potentially something could live on.”