International Smoke, the downtown San Francisco barbecue restaurant from celebrity chef Michael Mina and entrepreneur Ayesha Curry, has closed after nine years.
“The Mina Group has made the decision to close International Smoke to finalize renovations for an exciting new chapter,” Mina’s hospitality group wrote in an emailed statement. A new Michael Mina restaurant, Neighborhood Test Kitchen, is slated to take International Smoke’s place on Mission Street at the foot of the Millennium Tower, which was first reported by Eater SF.
International Smoke, which was Curry’s first true restaurant, opened in 2017. It was known for its eclectic menu of grilled and smoked dishes from around the world, including smoked pork ribs dressed with gochujang or a classic Texas barbecue sauce and Argentinean steaks with chimichurri. Former Chronicle restaurant critic Michael Bauer included International Smoke in his 2018 list of the Bay Area’s Top 100 restaurants. The restaurant helped elevate Curry’s food career; she went on to open café and retailer Sweet July in Oakland (which closed last year) and Santa Monica and founded a Napa Valley wine brand, Domaine Curry.
“Even though I entered International Smoke a skeptic, I came out as a convert to its multicultural approach to barbecue, and smoked and grilled foods,” Bauer wrote in a 2018 review.
So the restaurant group decided to use the space to revive Mina’s Test Kitchen, which opened in 2015 in the Marina District and hosted a series of popups, including the first iteration of International Smoke. That residency was a hit, drawing in big-name diners such as rapper Drake, and lasted twice as long as originally planned. Mina’s Test Kitchen closed in 2019.
The new Neighborhood Test Kitchen will also host four-to-six-month residencies from chefs both within and outside the Mina Group — including Curry. Diners will be served family style and will be allowed to offer feedback at the end of the meal. Mina told Eater SF that he envisions meals costing between $55 and $65. Gerald Chin, the Mina Group’s head of culinary operations, will run what was described in Eater SF as an “American Brasserie” menu, with dishes such as steak frites, crudités platters and potato fondants filled with short rib.
International Smoke was the first restaurant collaboration between Ayesha Curry and Mina. Last year, Stephen Curry and Mina teamed up to open the Eighth Rule, a bourbon bar next to Mina’s Bourbon Steak inside the Westin St. Francis in Union Square. More projects are coming: The Mina Group announced Thursday it will open locations of Bourbon Steak, the Eighth Rule and Sweet July Café at the Ritz Carlton in Charlotte, North Carolina.
Mina runs a sprawling food empire and hospitality group with more than 30 restaurants across the globe, from Pabu Izakaya in San Francisco to spots in Las Vegas and Dubai.