After four years, Shuggie’s, the San Francisco restaurant lauded for its commitment to reducing food waste in one of the city’s most outrageous dining rooms, will shut down in July.
Shuggie’s owners Kayla Abe and David Murphy announced on Instagram that the restaurant, on 3349 23rd St. in the Mission District, would close on July 11. Previously known as Shuggie’s Trash Pie + Natural Wine, the restaurant has demonstrated notable flexibility over the years, dropping pizza from its menu and name, and recently bringing back happy hour specials, a relic of the pre-pandemic era, to lure weekday customers.
Unfortunately, Abe said, the pirouetting was not enough to keep the business afloat.
“We’ve tried everything,” Abe told the Chronicle. “At the end of the day there’s no way to continue operating in this form.”
For the past several months, Murphy had cut labor to just himself and one other line cook, and worked as the dishwasher throughout the week.
After reallocating its previously namesake trash pies to Tuesday and Sunday evening “jazz nights,” Shuggie’s refocused on its commitment to reducing food waste. Most of the menu leans on ingredients that would otherwise get tossed out, including less-used cuts of meat, irregular produce and invasive species, such as wild boar.
Abe said that the constantly changing offerings, necessitated by utilizing the varying wilted or undesirable vegetables their farmers offered, are challenging for the financial and cultural reckoning San Francisco residents are facing. “I don’t think that there is a space right now for San Francisco to hold this level of creativity and experimentation in dining,” Abe said, given that “people are worried about financial pressures, all of the wars going on, and whether or not they are going to be laid off from their job.”
Murphy added that in the current environment, middle-income customers aren’t eating out as much — and when they do, they’re leaning towards more familiar dining options, or “food that’s a little bit safer and more comforting.”
With Shuggie’s closure in July, Murphy and Abe plan to take a break to “gain inspiration again and recharge the batteries,” with plans for a few pop-up events.
Shuggie’s will close with a limited ticket event to celebrate the restaurant, as well as several other events leading up to the closing, such as a live auction of some of the restaurant’s eclectic decorations, with more details to come.
“The restaurant’s going to be closed, the physical space of the restaurant, but we’re gonna have this all continue on in a different form,” Abe said.