Shuggie’s, an immediate hit when it opened in the Mission District in 2022 and started serving pizzas out of ingredients that might have been tossed, announced today in an Instagram post, that it will close its doors on July 11.
Soon after Shuggie’s opened at 3349 23rd St. at Bartlett Street, the restaurant was named in Esquire magazine’s list of best new restaurants in America. The following year, Shuggie’s earned the same distinction in Bon Appétit magazine. The restaurant was also named in the New York Times twice, one in 2022 and again in 2025.
But those plaudits failed to turn into a sustained customer base.
“It has been a slow build over the past year — seeing costs climb and patronage decrease,” read the Instagram post.
“We felt like we could design our way out of these problems with new programming, changes in offerings & hours, buyouts, insane deals, even free food and a rebrand. We have tried every conceivable pivot over our last four years to make a long lasting version of Shuggie’s.”
David Murphy and Kayla Abe opened Shuggie’s in April 2022 at Velvet Cantina’s former home of 14 years. The pair transformed the velvet colored walls, dim lights and dive bar vibe of Velvet, and turned the space into a bright yellow and sparkly green restaurant with booths, natural wine and “trash pie” pizzas.
The concept behind the trash pie pizza: Shuggie’s owners used vegetables, meat and grains from local vendors that otherwise would have gone to waste.
Shuggie’s reputation went beyond its food. Patrons came for its natural wine selections, its live performances and the restaurant’s odd, but unique design. One room was filled with all banana-yellow furniture, decoration and the mural of a cheetah painted on one of its walls. The other, bright, sometimes sparkly green, with hand-shaped chairs and a disco ball. Its goddess salad was served emerging out of the neck of a bare-bossomed woman.
In the beginning of 2025, the restaurant started collaborating with the nonprofit Jazz in the Neighborhood to bring live music to Shuggie’s a couple of times a week.
“As a couple, we love going out to see live music … and we thought, maybe we can bring that music to us,” Abe told Mission local in February last year. “Working with Jazz In the Neighborhood, we’re supporting musicians, creating a more exciting scene and offering something to our guests.”
In the summer of 2025, Shuggie’s went on a bit of a make-over and changed its menu from pizza to California-style cuisine, but retained its focus on discarded food scraps. The restaurant closed momentarily during those renovations.
“But what this change resulted in is a restaurant today that is the closest version of what we hoped to open at the start,” read Shuggie’s Instagram post announcing the closure.
“We are so grateful for your love and care over the past four years … Thank you for being incredible advocates of small business, local culture, and environmentalism.”