{"id":358434,"date":"2026-06-12T21:56:10","date_gmt":"2026-06-12T21:56:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/358434\/"},"modified":"2026-06-12T21:56:10","modified_gmt":"2026-06-12T21:56:10","slug":"sf-restaurant-that-bon-appetit-once-named-among-best-in-us-is-closing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/358434\/","title":{"rendered":"SF restaurant that Bon Appetit once named among best in US is closing"},"content":{"rendered":"

Shuggie\u2019s, the maximalist SF Mission District<\/a> restaurant\u00a0known for its menu of upcycled food waste<\/a>, is closing after four years. Owners Kayla Abe and David Murphy announced on Instagram<\/a> on Thursday that the restaurant\u2019s last day will be July 11.<\/p>\n

Despite trying everything they could think of to \u201ccoax people out of their homes\u201d over the past two years,\u00a0Abe said, from\u00a0brunch to happy hour deals to a Wednesday prix fixe menu, patronage declined while costs climbed. Late last year, they even rebranded<\/a> from\u00a0Shuggie\u2019s Trash Pie + Natural Wine to simply Shuggie\u2019s, dropping pizza from the menu.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt a certain point, you do all of those things, you see the results for a couple of months, and then you\u2019re back to square one,\u201d Abe said. \u201cThe culture in SF has just shifted over the past few years from the pandemic to now. There\u2019s 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

When Shuggie\u2019s first opened, it received tons of national acclaim\u00a0\u2014 in 2023, Bon Appetit<\/a> 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.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cAt 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,\u201d she said. \u201cThat\u2019s not a healthy way to run a restaurant.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\u00a0\u2014 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.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think people are just looking for the old classic now, they\u2019re looking for something that\u2019s really comforting,\u201d Murphy said. \u201c\u2026 They want to make an easy choice, not something that\u2019s necessarily going to challenge them.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\u2019re also thinking about doing pop-ups in different countries, as well as venturing more into the event space.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Despite the fact that Shuggie\u2019s is coming to a close as a brick-and-mortar restaurant, this isn\u2019t necessarily the end of the concept.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe both have crazy minds and can dream up really fun one-off events,\u201d Abe said. \u201cMaybe the format of Shuggie\u2019s being a nightly spot to go to didn\u2019t work out, but potentially something could live on.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n