{"id":199223,"date":"2026-03-01T11:39:23","date_gmt":"2026-03-01T11:39:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/199223\/"},"modified":"2026-03-01T11:39:23","modified_gmt":"2026-03-01T11:39:23","slug":"sam-smiths-san-francisco-residency-charts-new-course-for-the-castro","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/199223\/","title":{"rendered":"Sam Smith\u2019s San Francisco Residency Charts New Course for the Castro"},"content":{"rendered":"

If you purchase an independently reviewed product or service through a link on our website, The Hollywood Reporter may receive an affiliate commission.<\/p>\n

Sam Smith has kicked off his residency at the Castro Theatre in San Francisco, with the singer\u2019s 20-date stint helping to officially usher in a new era for the historic landmark.<\/p>\n

More from The Hollywood Reporter<\/p>\n

First erected in 1922, the Castro closed in 2024 for a reported $41 million renovation project. But the century-old Spanish-style Baroque theatre is open for business \u2014 and music \u2014 once again, with its gilded ceiling and ornamental walls restored to its original design, while seating is now reconfigurable for different events, including 650 seats that can be removed to create more standing room space (like for Smith\u2019s concert). More importantly, city officials hope the re-opening of the Castro Theatre will also help revive the predominantly queer neighborhood it sits in, which shares a name with the venerable venue.<\/p>\n

\u201cDo you guys realize how special this street is?\u201d Smith asked the sold-out crowd, during night two of their residency last week. \u201cI grew up in a village in the middle of f-ckin\u2019 nowhere,\u201d they shared. \u201cI was the only gay in the village and yes I was very dramatic about it as well,\u201d they added with a laugh.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is nothing like this street and nothing like the Castro and the community here,\u201d Smith said. \u201cI\u2019ll never forget coming here when I was 20 years old, so reopening this theater now is such an honor.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Tickets to Smith\u2019s Castro residency quickly sold out when the shows were first announced but you can still find stubs on sites like StubHub<\/a>, Vivid Seats<\/a> and SeatGeek<\/a>. New users can use the promo code THR30 to save $30 on orders of $300 and up at VividSeats.com<\/a>. SeatGeek customers can use\u00a0promo code HOLLYWOOD10\u00a0to save $10\u00a0at SeatGeek.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Smith\u2019s San Francisco stint follows their \u201cTo Be Free: New York City,\u201d\u00a0residency which took place last fall at Brooklyn\u2019s historic Warsaw club. Other artists set to play at the Castro this spring include Father John Misty, Jos\u00e9 Gonz\u00e1lez,\u00a0Santigold and Lucy Dacus. The Castro will also help celebrate the\u00a050th anniversary of the LGBTQ-themed\u00a0Frameline\u00a0Film Festival\u00a0this June.<\/p>\n

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Smith\u2019s residency runs until March 14.<\/p>\n

According to tourism officials and local businesses, Smith\u2019s new Castro residency and the reopening of the theatre has already helped to bring in a number of new visitors to the area. Mat Schuster, the executive chef and owner of long-time neighborhood fixture, Canela, says business has been \u201cvery busy\u201d in the last few weeks, crediting Smith\u2019s show with bringing out new diners to the Spanish restaurant, which has been on Market Street since 2011. Other local hotspots like wine bar Bar49, the San Francisco outpost of Hi Tops, and the women\u2019s sports bar, Rikki\u2019s (named after Gay Games Federation founder Rikki Streicher), were all packed on a recent evening following Smith\u2019s Castro concert.<\/p>\n

According to San Francisco Tourism, the reopening of The Castro Theatre is poised to deliver \u201cmeaningful economic gains\u201d to the surrounding neighborhood, which some stats estimating that the venue will draw more than 200,000 visitors annually.<\/p>\n

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With the Castro Theatre now open again, local officials are looking ahead to other upcoming celebrations, including a planned reimagining of the Castro and Market Street intersection into The Memorial at Harvey Milk Plaza, honoring the first openly gay elected official in California (and the inspiration for the 2009 Sean Penn film<\/a>). Milk\u2019s legacy is already enshrined at the San Francisco airport of course, with terminal 1 at SFO renamed as the \u201cHarvey Milk Terminal;\u201d the new memorial is scheduled to be completed by 2028. The annual Castro Street Fair, meantime, a community street celebration founded by Harvey Milk in 1974, will take place on the first weekend of October.<\/p>\n

The reopening of the Castro comes amidst a busy few months for San Francisco, which recently saw a number of athletes and celebrities in town for the Super Bowl<\/a>. Steph Curry\u2019s new speakeasy, The Eighth Rule, was among the hotspots over the big game weekend and the basketball star\u2019s bourbon-forward bar continues to be a hot reservation in the city. Opened in the fall, the bar is tucked away in a nondescript hallway inside the Westin St. Francis hotel in Union Square, offering an intimate and exclusive setting for the Golden State Warriors point guard\u2019s Gentleman\u2019s Cut Bourbon<\/a>, which can be ordered on its own or as part of a six-course omakase-style cocktail tasting (we loved the clarified coconut milk punch and the truffle-vanilla whiskey sour). Of course, guests can also order cocktails a la carte, choosing from different bourbons and whiskeys, plus a full selection of other spirits.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Next door to The Eighth Rule is Bourbon Steak San Francisco, the latest outpost of Chef Michael Mina\u2019s award-winning steakhouse. The restaurant marks the celebrity chef\u2019s return to the Westin St. Francis, where he opened his first eponymous restaurant in 2004. In addition to its selection of steaks, seafood and caviar offerings (like Mina\u2019s famous \u201ccaviar twinkee\u201d), this Bourbon Steak outpost offers a family-style dining experience for six people, available through advance reservations. This is the only Bourbon Steak location to offer this communal table format.<\/p>\n

New this month is the highly-anticipated opening of JouJou, an elevated French brasserie concept from the owners of the two Michelin-starred Lazy Bear. Located in the city\u2019s Design District, JouJou is poised to be the next celebrity hangout, with its ornate dining room and marble-topped counters setting the scene for steak frites and star sightings alike. As chef David Barzelay told the San Francisco Chronicle<\/a> when asked about the inspiration for JouJou: \u201cIt always feels like you\u2019re just in a place where it\u2019s happening.\u201d<\/p>\n

Best of The Hollywood Reporter<\/p>\n

Sign up for THR’s Newsletter<\/a>. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook<\/a>, Twitter<\/a>, and Instagram<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"If you purchase an independently reviewed product or service through a link on our website, The Hollywood Reporter…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":199224,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[26369,7000,20393,26374,101,103,102,104,106,105,7572],"class_list":{"0":"post-199223","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-francisco","8":"tag-castro-theatre","9":"tag-golden-state-warriors","10":"tag-harvey-milk","11":"tag-sam-smith","12":"tag-san-francisco","13":"tag-san-francisco-headlines","14":"tag-san-francisco-news","15":"tag-sf","16":"tag-sf-headlines","17":"tag-sf-news","18":"tag-steph-curry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/199223","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=199223"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/199223\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/199224"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=199223"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=199223"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=199223"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}