Listen up, burger fans: If you haven't plunked down the $24 for the Bourbon Steak burger, available only on the bar menu, you may want to get over there in the next two months. Because come late March, the restaurant is shutting its doors at the Westin St. Francis, as Eater reports.
The issue is the restaurant's lease, and likely some high demands, money-wise, from Westin Eater notes that newly hired chef Thomas Griese, who recently moved here from another Michael Mina property in Miami, likely was not privy to the lease negotiation drama.
Mina has announced that March 31 will be Bourbon Steak's last day in the space that once housed his eponymous restaurant barring some last-minute negotiating because, of course, publicizing all this could end up being a negotiating tactic! According to Inside Scoop, though, Mina says the decision was mutual between him and the hotel, and the parting is "amicable." The Bourbon Steak at Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara is unaffected.
Restaurant Michael Mina spent part of the last decade in the storied, columned space off the Westin's historic lobby, which was earlier home to Compass Rose, and before that the Patent Leather Bar, designed by famed architect Timothy Pflueger.
Mina says he still wants to have a Bourbon Steak location somewhere in San Francisco, so the burger may not be gone forever. Currently, it comes topped with tomato relish, roasted garlic aioli, house pickles, and quadrello di bufala cheese, but it's always been the house-ground meat mixture that makes this thing awesome, and worthy of a special treat with some red wine.
