When it comes to choosing where to operate a business, location is often the most important criterion. But if you ask chef Peter Hemsley of upscale seafood restaurant Aphotic, it is beyond that in San Francisco. Just 19 months ago, the chef opened Aphotic in a cavernous, inky black space near the intersection of Folsom and Third streets in SoMa. By the end of the year, it will be closed.
Hemsley is adamant that it wasn’t the food or even the $215 price tag on the 11-course tasting menu that caused the restaurant to fold. He blames the city.
“If I could have found a better location, I would have,” Hemsley told The Standard. “But it’s expensive and hard, and, for those who can’t, the lesson is: Don’t invest in San Francisco, because you won’t make it.”
Aphotic, which opened in March 2023, is one of the most ambitious fine-dining restaurants to debut in post-pandemic San Francisco. But on Friday morning via an Instagram post, Hemsley announced that the final day of service at 816 Folsom Street will be Dec. 21. The news shocked fans, who flooded the post with mournful comments and called it a loss for the city.
“Such a heavy heart hearing this,” wrote one diner. “Hoping this is not a goodbye,” posted another.
It was an abrupt end to the restaurant’s brief but seemingly successful run. Just eight weeks prior, Hemsley and the Aphotic team celebrated the fact that the restaurant had retained its coveted Michelin star and earned a separate award for its one-of-a-kind bar program, which includes producing a proprietary gin in a mad-scientist-like lab hidden behind the dining room.
Less than a year ago, a San Francisco Chronicle critic claimed that Aphotic’s seafood-centric menu “might change your life.” Just the week before the closure announcement, the Aphotic team rolled out a 16-course tasting menu — at $295, its most expensive offering yet.
In the Instagram post, Hemsley expressed in candid terms exactly why he decided to throw in the towel. On top of industry-wide issues, including the rising price of ingredients and labor, Hemsley called Aphotic’s location on the southwest side of the Moscone Center the “ugly butt end of a desolate convention center suck hole” — a juicy quote that understandably showed up in headlines.
Hemsley told The Standard he saw the writing on the wall in recent weeks. It’d been a slow spring and summer, but as the usually busy fall season set in, reservations weren’t picking up. “I knew that forecasting into the spring and summer of yet another year, it probably wasn’t going to work and that this was the time to call it,” he said.
It’d be easy to write off Hemsley as bitter. But there is evidence to back up his experience. Tourism industry experts confirmed last month that 2024 has been a big letdown for San Francisco. This year, the Moscone Center will host just 25 events, down from 34 in 2023. Matters are on track to improve only marginally in 2025.
High-spending international tourists, the kind who might have splurged on a fancy dinner at Aphotic, haven’t returned to the city. Hemsley points out that he’s not the first to note the impossibility of keeping a restaurant alive in SoMa these days — even at a more approachable price point.
In 2022, the pizzeria Zero Zero ended its 12-year run next door; owner Bruce Hill also cited location as the key issue. “I truly feel if Zero Zero was in a neighborhood location, we’d be fine,” Hill told me back then.
I asked Hemsley what he thinks the city could be doing to support small-business owners. “No city official ever reached out to us to see how we were doing or to congratulate us or to let us know what their plans were or any multitude of things that they could do to help out small businesses,” Hemsley said. “So I think that lets you know about the mindset of the city.”
But even if Hemsley is ready to decamp from SoMa, he’s not ready to give up on San Francisco. From Michael Mina to Quince, he has cooked in Bay Area kitchens for 15 years. His kids go to school here.
He’s not ruling out moving Aphotic to what he sees as a more stable neighborhood. One thing he won’t do is water down the high-minded concept, which focuses on developing direct relationships with fishermen and using unconventional types and cuts of fish to pioneer a new standard for sustainable seafood. In September, Hemsley defended the price of Aphotic’s menu, explaining that the quality of service and food the restaurant offer more than justify the expense.
For now, he’ll stay open for a few more months in part so that the new menu has a chance to shine. “We put a lot of work into it, and it’s the best version of what we’re doing,” he said.
Diners are taking advantage. In the four days since the announcement of Aphotic’s closure, the restaurant has received more than 900 bookings.
“Talk about a regret economy,” Hemsley said. “People see a good thing going away.”