There are only 13 Michelin three-star restaurants in the United States—but for most of this year, there’ll really be only a dozen.
Quince, Michael and Lindsay Tusk’s celebrated San Francisco spot, is planning to close for six months this year, Eater SF reported on Monday. The restaurant is currently accepting reservations through January 21, and it expects to reopen sometime this summer.
At Quince, which the Tusks opened in 2003, Michael serves up Northern Italian fare with a Northern California twist, particularly focusing on local produce (Tusk has partnered with Fresh Run Farm to grow fruits, vegetables and flowers exclusively for the restaurant). After winning the James Beard Award for Best Chef: Pacific in 2011, Michael earned a coveted third Michelin star in 2017, which he’s retained since then.
The husband-and-wife duo said in a statement that the temporary shutdown will usher in an “exciting new chapter” for the 20-year-old restaurant, which first opened in the Lower Pacific Heights neighborhood before relocating to its current Jackson Square location. They plan to redesign the space, with the goal of making it lighter and brighter, a spokesperson told Eater. That entails replacing the current storefront with floor-to-ceiling glass doors and increasing the amount of space between tables, decreasing the total number of seats and making the dining experience a bit more intimate.
While the redesign itself is a big update for Quince, a couple of other major changes will be in place when the restaurant reopens in the summer. The Tusks are planning to add lunch service and an a la carte menu (right now there’s just the $360 tasting menu, with an optional $295 wine pairing).
Major fans of Michael’s cooking shouldn’t despair over the closure too much. His rustic Italian restaurant Cotogna remains open and available for catering, and the Tusks will continue to host private events both there and in the space where they used to operate their casual wine bar Verjus.
Currently, it doesn’t seem like there are any reservations to snag online before the restaurant closes. But while you wait for one to become available, you can hype yourself up for the debut of Quince 2.0.
