Sous Beurre Kitchen, the upscale French restaurant that began as a periodic pop-up housed inside of the nearby Sugarlump Cafe, closed its doors permanently on May 14 after operating in its brick-and-mortar location at 2704 24th St. for just over a year.
Chef and owner Michael Mauschbaugh announced in a letter addressed to his team and to the community which he served that the restaurant’s “complications were many but there is no point in blaming.”
Inarguably on the pricier side of 24th Street’s dining options, Sous Beurre offered a rustic and intimate dining experience that came with a tasting menu at the cost of $85 per person.
At its permanent space, Mauschbaugh served an array of authentic French-inspired, locally sourced dishes ranging from steak tartare to a Dungeness crab stew and confit of pheasant legs. Mauschbaugh also experimented with a no-tip policy when he opened in February 2015, believing that this model was more fair for his wait staff.
But Mauschbaugh reverted back to traditional tipping in October of last year, when the costs of running the 74-seat restaurant became too high, citing “unfair labor laws and small business taxation” for making this model unsustainable in the long term.
Sugarlump Cafe, located at 2862 24th St., where Mauschbaugh could be seen cooking up a storm of French dinners next to the cafe’s barista station for some two years before transitioning into his own space, also saw a change in ownership in mid-April.
Mauschbaugh has yet to reveal what will happen with the space or whether he plans on opening a similar French-themed restaurant elsewhere, but Mission Local will include updates to this story as they come in.
The owner, too dense to admit he paid too much rent for food too few customers were willing to pay for. But, yeah, lets blame the “unfair labor laws”. Nice way to crap on your employees.
Ayn Rand was right!…. Government will strangle anyone who wants to produce with it’s insane rules and regulations. But the moochers and takers are free to camp and dedicate on the streets !
HAH AHAAAAAAHHAAAA. Good .
And why are you so gleeful that a small business has closed? Pettiness is so ugly.
Too bad Mr. Mauschbaugh didn’t acknowledge his cooks, waitstaff, dishwashers and cleaners in his farewell note. Or did wear those hats himself?
They spent what seemed like forever building out the empty storefronts- it must cost a fortune to convert a building to restaurant use. Covering the investment must have been crushing. I’ve wondered what the failure rate of restaurants in new spaces is vs. taking over existing spaces.
It’s “beurre”